Foil

As I sit here and ponder about creativity in general, I can’t help but notice the books on design right in front of me. Here we have a series of brand books that are constructed like any other - pages with a cover and a spine. It is the series of spines staring back at me that created a “light bulb moment”.

One book stands out in particular - unlike the others, there is no printing involved. Not strictly. The title was bronze foil debossed onto the spine. That wasn’t just what struck me about this particular book - the whole cover was absolutely minimal - no additional printing involved, just a series of deboss marks, with the book title and manufacturer also bronze foil debossed. Even the cover is made from plain card.

The other books will have had to go through a much bigger design process - what colours should we choose? Have you made sure it’s worked up in CMYK for the printers? Does the colour come out as expected? Was there any unnecessary ‘bleeding’? Did the inks run into each other? Can you see the individual dots that make up the design?

It provides such an elegant finish - it conjures thoughts of luxury, professionalism and thoroughness without even trying.

Sometimes less is more.