Producing Series
Design for Print
2014
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Finishing
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Varnishes
ishes
Varn_
There is one varnish you can get at LCA and that is the spot varnish, which you can purchase in the print resource. This spot varnish gives slight gloss effect to your print. If you wanted to apply a spot varnish you would have to prepare a silk-screen exposed with your design and printed with the silk-screen. You can use either paper or a textile screen, although paper will give sharper print. You would normally leave this process until the very end of the production stage because of alignment issues.
Materials & Tools Certain essential equipment is needed to Spot Varnish
- Spot Varnish * You will need to buy.
Follow step by step instructions in Producing: Printing, apart from, at step 4 do not use mix binder and acrylic paint together. Instead mix spot varnish with a table spoon of water and use this as this as your medium to print with.
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Varnishes
- For the rest of the materials refer to Silk-screen printing step by step instructions in Producing: Printing.
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Outside LCA, laminating usually uses film lamination, which is glued to the stock as it goes through a heated roller under high pressure.
Lamination
Lam_ inatio n If you are Laminating a print at LCA, James (Digital Print) uses a sheet of laminate which he cuts down to size and sticks onto the your pages for you. He then puts it through a cold press to secure the laminate to your print.
Materials & Tools Certain essential equipment is needed to laminate.
-Your printed matter. - Sheet laminate - Cold press laminator.
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Cut the laminate to a ruler width thicker than you printed matter. Peel off the cover and stick it onto the correct side of your printed article and then put it through the cold laminate press.
Lamination
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Die-cutting
DieCu t Laser Cutting is really the only type of Diecut we can do in LCA but you can produce incredibly intricate patterns and designs. You can cut through most substrates except from anything with metallic or shiny surface.
Materials & Tools Certain essential equipment is needed to lasercut
- Your chosen substrate on which to apply the die-cut. * Cant be anything metallic or shiny. - A lasercutter
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Die-cutting
- A 12mm spacer
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Preparing your file An illustrator or a JPEG file can be used to create an image on your substrate with the lasercutter. However, you must remember that your image must be black and white as the lasercutter will only cut out the black part of the image. You can only assign any section of your design to be ‘cut-through’, ‘rastered’, ‘kiss cut’ or ‘engraved’.
Firstly, make sure the machine is switched on. Then press online.
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Setting up the lasercutter
Die-cutting
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Then press the Materials button and insert your substrate into the lasercutter. You must adjust the nozzle of the lasercutter to ensure that there is a 12mm gap between the nozzle and your substrate.
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Cutter will now display ‘Set Origin’. This is to determine the bottom left hand corner of your material. Use the arrows on the control panel (above) to move to this corner.
Die-cutting
Once the substrate is inside the machine, press enter.
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Press enter.
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The press enter and your media is set.
Die-cutting
Then you have to determine where the top right hand corner of your material is. Use the arrows on the control panel (below) to move to this corner.
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Now that your file is set up all you have to do is click ‘Send to Cutter’ and verify the type of the substrate you have placed into the cutter, for example, 5mm MDF and then click ‘Ok. Now all you have to do is wait for the lasercutting process to be complete and take your finished product out.
Laser Beam
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Nozzle
Die-cutting
Lens
Substrate Base of the lasercutter
Embossing / Debossing
The second method involves etching you design onto a copper plate using photosensitive film and this becomes your embossing plate. The same hydraulic press is used for this method.
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Embo ss/ Debos s The first method of embossing involves using the laser cutter to either cut or engrave the design you want to emboss / deboss onto a piece of wood or acrylic. You then put this with your chosen substrate, which can printed on, in to the hydraulic press in Rossington Street Print Resource.
Materials & Tools Certain essential equipment is needed to emboss.
- Substrate you are going to emboss. - Hydraullic press.
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Embossing / Debossing
- Embossing plate
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Foil Blocking
Foil Bl o_ cking The process of hot foil stamping can be done in the Blenheim Walk print resource. Similarly to varnishes, you have to expose an image onto a textile silkscreen. You then need to screen print with a special adhesive which you can be bought from the print resource. This is when you put the foil on top of your print and put it through the heat press for 12 seconds
Materials & Tools Certain essential equipment is needed to Foil Blocking.
- Foil blocking * You will need to buy.
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Foil Blocking
- For the rest of the materials refer to Silk-screen printing step by step instructions in Producing: Printing.
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Follow the step by step instructions found in Producing: Printing, apart from at step 4 do not use mix binder and acrylic paint together. Instead mix the special foiling glue with a table spoon of water and use this as this as your medium to print with.
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Foil Blocking
* Please note that you can use many other materials with this process, another material that works well using this process is flock, which you can also buy from lCA. It’s a felt like material which can be stuck onto your screen printed design using the heat press also.
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Once your design has been printed with the special foiling glue you all you do place the foil or flock on top of the your design. * Shiny side up if using foil, Felt side down if using flock. Turn the heat press (also in the print resource) on and wait for it to get up to about 165 degrees centigrade. Once it’s reached this temperature place the design with the foil or flock on top and leave in for 12 seconds.
Backing Plate
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Substrate with foil laid on top
Foil Blocking
Heated Die
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End Papers
End_ Paper To apply endpapers, the sections of a book block are first collated. Sheets of, typically cartridge paper, are then glued on along their folds and one is pressed against the facing edge of the spine and one to the spine on the other side of the book block. Finally, the hard cover is then glued and attached to the endpapers to produce the finished casebound book. This process can be done at the Rossington street print resource for a small materials fee.
Materials & Tools Certain essential equipment is needed to screen print:
- A book
- Decorative paper - Bone folder - PVA glue
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Apply PVA glue to the back of the decorative paper. Open the book cover and place the decorative paper on to the inside of the cover and place onto with the bonefolder. Place the book into a cold clamp or press for 5 minutes. Take it out and you have should decorative end paper for your book.
End Papers
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Perforation
Perf_ oratio Perforation or Perf cutting is a process that creates a cut out area in a substrate, which weakens it for detaching. It would be typically used for a particular pages of a publication in which you, as the designer, want the viewer to rip out and stick on their wall. A poster would be ideal for this.
Materials & Tools Certain essential equipment is needed to screen print: - Substrate to perforate. - Lasercutter
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Perforation
Apply the ‘Cut through’ setting on the lasercutter and test out different length and thicknesses of dotted lines to your substrate.