5 Eye-catching Printing Inspirations from the World of Fashion & Beauty

by Lisa Shao, Director of Marketing, U&I Worldwide

Hey happy Monday everyone.

Like many marketers, I try to kickstart my week with a wealth of insights and inspirations from across many different industries as a way of fueling ideas for the products and campaigns I’m working on. To give you a little inspiration and encourage you to keep stretching creatively, here are some printing inspirations from the world of fashion and beauty. Printing isn’t just about the application of ink to paper, and this list should serve as a reminder that your printing endeavors, which are a tactile touchpoint for your customers, can go well beyond the standard brochure.

1. Dye Sublimation

Like many vibrant beauty bags, these limited edition cosmetic bags by famed makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury use dye sublimation to transfer amazing rich color to plastic, making a durable and easy to clean final product. Even if you’re well outside of the beauty and fashion industry, this printing process is a great one to consider for pouches or sets, like, for instance, medical supplies or even a lasting new product launch kit.

2. Laser-cutting

One look at these beautiful laser cut creations is a great reminder that laser cutting offers intricate detailing across materials. Miranda Kerr, on the left, dons a laser cut vinyl train while the image on the right is a neatly constructed paper-printed Marchesa dress. Scale this concept up or down in your mind and new shapes and dimensions (like pop-up effects) become possible for typical branded collateral like brochures, business cards, or packaging.

3. Wrapping & “Skins”

For a seamless effect, vinyl wrapping or applying skins is key. We see this application in everything from lipstick tubes, to candy wrapper shells, to whole cars covered in awesome 4 color skins. Be it a custom branded skin for your sales rep’s laptops, tablets, or phones, or something totally out of the box (like a guerilla marketing campaign where you skin every park bench or post box in a designated area) where are some areas that you can consider this technique to step outside of the norm?

4. Printing on Non-woven Reusable Bags

Thankfully, the eco-trend is becoming more than just a trend and big and small brands are thinking more about sustainability. This re-useable non-woven MAC shopping bag is an example of a high quality solution to consider in place of disposable plastic options. For consumable goods, a reusable bag is an excellent option for brand visibility over time, long after your customer leaves the store. To offset the cost between producing a reusable versus a disposable bag, consider using both but incentivizing customers with a “free bag with purchase over (insert dollar value)” offer.

5. Printed Boxes with Dye-cut Inserts

Seasonal gifts are upon us and are a valuable opportunity to create limited edition sets of products, accessories, or tool kits for sale or giveaway to your customers. This Ole Henriksen skin care set is a colorful example of using a simple standard corrugated box, printing it, inserting a label for product information, and finishing with custom dye-cuts to hold products in place. It’s an orderly and delightful presentation of hand selected items from a larger product line.

I hope these examples have gotten your wheels turning. It’s not about knowing the technicalities of the solution, like dye-sublimation. Instead, it’s more about opening you up to or reminding you that different applications exist and the right partner can help you leverage the best of traditional and up-and-coming printing technologies to create better experiences for your end user. U&I can handle all of the processes described above and, more importantly, we’ll guide you in finding the right solution for the look you’re trying to accomplish, keeping budget and timelines in mind. Give us a call at 212.924.2500 or drop us a line at info@uiworldwide.com to discuss the possibilities for your projects.