How to design merch your customers will keep
June 26, 2025
Brand By Name’s business cards include 3 different printing processes. Let’s take a look at what goes on behind the scenes.
Letterpress printing (dark grey on the front, yellow on the back). Letterpress is an old style of printing from the 1400s. It results in a beautiful impression in soft, thick paper. On the back, the printer mixed an ink colour on press that was slightly darker than the yellow stock.
Unfortunately, the inner parts of the logo were flattening on the press. The printer introduced an emboss to offset the problem. A rigid die was created that sandwiched the paper between two matching pieces to simultaneously create the emboss/deboss effect. Solution found!
Duplex the two pieces of printed card (glue them together). The 600gm white stock is glued to the 270gm yellow stock.
You can also ‘triplex’ cards – three layers of colour. You might have seen the Luxe Business Card range from Moo. Their middle layer is actually made from two very thin sheets – that’s why they sometimes fall apart (plus, I find the inner layer a little too thin).
When you consider all of the above, $4 per card is a very reasonable price for a little piece of exceptional printing.
It’s that time of year when we start looking forward to the end of the working year, changes in the seasons, and celebrations over the New year…
Sometimes it can be hard to think of Christmas Cards (especially when the holiday season is months away). So we present a few ideas to get your creative minds sparking…
For the 2024 President’s Dinner event at State Library Victoria, we created two visual concepts.
This is the concept that didn’t make the cut, and we share some of the additional printing and finishing details.
We have 3 rules when designing merch / swag / promotional gifts: 1. Sustainable
2. Usable
3. Quality
Whatever the brief is, it’s exactly the same. Every project. Every time. Every design. It‘s just one word.
You never know where inspiration comes from : behind-the-scenes at a design project combining the vintage aesthetic of pre-1800 Japanese rare books, with a modern twist.
Email hello@brandbyname.com.au
or call +61 3 8658 7744
105 Wellington St,
St Kilda VIC 3182
© 2025 Brand by Name™
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