MGI and Professional Printing Center Explore 'The Nature of Color' with JETvarnish 3D Technology

To gain a competitive market edge for their clients and provide extra creative impact to their offset and digital color printing work, the Professional Printing Center (PPC) of Chesapeake, Va., has debuted their new “TouchFoil 3D” digital print embellishment service. The new design portfolio of 2D/3D & variable embossed foil special effects utilizes MGI JETvarnish 3D technology from Konica Minolta (PRINTING United Booth 9536).

Brian Ward, President and COO of PPC, notes, “TouchFoil 3D will be a game-changer for our clients by engaging the senses of sight and touch in a way that just can’t be achieved with traditional print.”

Foil Color Creativity

Since 1977, the Professional Printing Center (PPC) has been delivering offset and digital services to the Virginia, mid-Atlantic and Carolinas region. In addition to a full spectrum of commercial printing and bindery finishing services, PPC also specializes in USPS mailing campaigns driven by targeted data management analytics. They also offer kitting, fulfillment and custom packaging solutions as well.

However, the arrival of the MGI JETvarnish 3D embellishment press led to a new wave of inspiration and imagination for this experienced graphic communications firm. Their team embarked upon a dedicated exploration of digital special effects. As a result, a key distinguishing characteristic of PPC’s TouchFoil 3D value to customers is their method of visually and dimensionally “lifting” their color ink images off substrates with artistic use of holographic and colored foils.

The PPC motto and company tagline is “The Nature of Color” and features a corporate logo of a tree leaf printed with an unusual spectrum of tints and hues. The TouchFoil 3D “makeover” of that image with a raised, embossed rainbow holographic foil cleverly transforms each color into a radiant, shining element that adds “texture and touch” to create a truly memorable printing impression.

They have also developed a creative embossed metallic foil color palette to generate dramatic, eye-catching effects and give print buyers and brands new options and ideas for maximizing communication campaigns. Their expertise in color matching foils with inks helps guide customers toward new visual image and texture models to increase visibility and generate new sales revenue.

For example, if a customer has a blue theme in their corporate images, PPC might suggest a gloss silver foil theme for some lighter tones of blue, a matte gold foil for darker shades of blue or even a foil with a different, brighter color blue to replace the original ink impression if the goal is to optically stand out.

In this way, they serve as creative marketing consultants and image designers to their clients, as well as being their print service provider of choice. The JETvarnish Image Editor allows their press operator to take in a CMYK print file and immediately develop new (and profitable) decorative patterns, designs and foil color schemes for clients to consider and choose.

Embellish On-Demand

Due to the fact that TouchFoil 3D concepts and production projects are based on a fully digital embellishment workflow, PPC has integrated the capabilities into their “Print-on-Demand” service program. The JETvarnish print enrichment press uses no plates, screens or dies to generate the kaleidoscope of TouchFoil effects available. The job setup for a “run of one” or a 10,000 piece is exactly the same: ust “scan and go” using the intelligent AIS SmartScanner registration system.

Likewise, the helpful Job Cost Calculator onboard the operator workstation allows PPC to help clients evaluate project options and alternatives by forecasting time and materials expenses before any production starts. This helps PPC build strong advisory relationships with reliable pricing estimates and optimized job completion turnaround times.

Pat Wilcox, PPC Vice President, summarized their JETvarnish 3D experience by stating, “Our future growth strategy is to use the TouchFoil model to expand into new markets like packaging and retail display work while increasing the marketing campaign assets available to the customers, brands and buyers of our core commercial printing services.”