Design Workshop – Printing Technique: Foil Stamped Business Cards

One way to create premium, great looking business cards is to use foil printing. It adds depth, and a shine to the cards. Below we have great examples of foil stamped business card designs, and we also go over the different ways you can use foil printing.

Foil printing, also known as foil stamping, is when you take foil/metallic paper and use heat to transfer an image from the foil onto a card. This is done by first creating a design, which is then turned into a die cut. You then take the die cut and place the foil paper between it and card. The die cut is heated and pressed down onto the foil, which makes the foil stick to the card – printing the image of the die onto the card.

The is foil pressed between the metal die cut and the card

Excess stamped foil being fed through

Other terms for this process include, foil blocked printing, hot foil stamping, dry stamping/printing (as it doesn’t’ use any ink), or leaf stamping. This printing process is also used to create book covers, posters, or even leather iPad case – check out the video below:

Using Foil Printing – Styles and Colors:

The foil sheets come in a range of different accent colors: gold, silver, black, red, green, copper – any color really. There are also holographic foils (the colors shift when you look at it from different angles):

Holographic foil printing

Combining Printing Techniques:

The area which had the foil printed onto can be embossed with another die just like the Liverpool English Pub cards below (designed by Reynolds and Reyner). When going with foil printing you’ll want to use thick card/stock, especially if you plan on doing embossing along with it.