ImagesMagUK_October_2020

TIPS & TECHNIQUES www.images-magazine.com 66 images OCTOBER 2020 Foiled again Polish up your foil printing skills with some expert advice from Tony Palmer T imes change quickly in our industry and trying to keep ahead of the curve is a delicate and frustrating task. When printing for fashion customers, the brief can be as vague as “Make it summery” or even “Can you just add some zing?”. Those in the garment decoration industry are constantly looking for that little bit of extra that will add value to the product, but not too much cost to production. Embellishments have always been popular in our industry and there really is no limit to what can be done. I really love a good foil print; the process of printing background colours followed by a good foil adhesive and then watching the whole design come alive as a shiny piece of multi- coloured foil is magically melded into the design still captures my attention. Foil printing seems to move in and out of fashion, and cycles from being highly popular to undesirable faster than a reality TV star on ice skates. Currently, however, foil is popular again, and so this is a technique worth mastering. Foil basics Foil is a simple process that can add an extra dimension to a print, allowing you to highlight specific areas with a metallic look. You simply print a special Foil prints created using Hydra Transfoil Adhesive E from Virus