I designed a small tri-fold for The Heart Center Medical Group a few weeks ago. The brochure included a photo of their building, which has a lot of iconic metal trim on the fascia. I wanted the metal to really stand out in the photo, so I decided to see what I could accomplish with a silver ink touch plate in the printing process.

I'm pleased with the results, though the photo doesn't show the metallic ink very well. The sign, siding, and window trim of the building have a nice gloss that catch the light and jump out at you. The process for this in Photoshop is pretty easy, too. Just create a spot channel in the channels palette, and fill it with the image elements you want to be hit with that spot color. In this case I used a dark silver ink, but it could be any pantone color. The tough part is  telling exactly what the final image will look like. I guess you just have to get the feel for it; practice makes perfect.

I can't wait to experiment with this technique on future projects. Special thanks to New Haven Printing for their expertise.