Printed Reflective Gold Leaf

[SellersSign&Design]

I have been fiddling with this off and on for a year or more, but I am finally happy with the results. I posted a thread on here and got some good input very early on in this project, but I just wanted to post an update now that I have something decent to show. As far as the background story... I have quite a few customers who ask for real hand laid gold leaf but then decide against it once they see the cost. I use a lot of the "Real Gold" brand vinyl, and even though it is a great product and they are a great company to work with, it doesn't look like hand laid gold. I set out to come up with something that could be printed on reflective and imitate hand laid gold as closely as possible. I know some of you will want to rip me apart for trying to imitate hand laid gold, but this has a place in my fire truck lettering options just like any other technique or material. If it was up to me I would spend all day in the shop laying and turning gold, but it just isn't the right option for everyone. I picked up the final sample today from the shop that does my large format printing. This is printed on 3M 680CR and will be laminated with 8518 laminate. I am looking for input, what do you think? Is there anything I need to change? Is it "convincing" enough?

 

[J Hill Designs]

looks pretty nice in my opinion

 

[Gino]

I like it, as well. If I was to make a suggestion, it would be simple. I don't know if you can control this or not, but what really makes the vinyl gold leaf not look realistic is that when one engine turns, regardless of the size stroke, you usually don't do areas off the actual strokes themselves, when doing it by hand. When cutting vinyl, it can't be helped, unless you're Okay with wasting alot of expensive material. If you could get your velvet tool effect to stay closer to the inside of the stroke, it would look more realistic..... at least on the thicker stokes. Sometimes, very thin strokes can't be helped.

Only a suggestion. It still looks better than the die-cut vinyl method.

 

[jfiscus]

Looks good to me, can you make it edge-printable instead of solvent?

 

[SellersSign&Design]

I like it, as well. If I was to make a suggestion, it would be simple. I don't know if you can control this or not, but what really makes the vinyl gold leaf not look realistic is that when one engine turns, regardless of the size stroke, you usually don't do areas off the actual strokes themselves, when doing it by hand. When cutting vinyl, it can't be helped, unless you're Okay with wasting alot of expensive material. If you could get your velvet tool effect to stay closer to the inside of the stroke, it would look more realistic..... at least on the thicker stokes. Sometimes, very thin strokes can't be helped.

Only a suggestion. It still looks better than the die-cut vinyl method.

Suggestions are what I'm looking for! I want to make this as good as it can possibly be. What area(s) of the image are you referring to? Maybe its just a case of the Mondays, but I am not following what you are saying. The "turns" do line up with the strokes of the letters, which is why it took me so long to make this process work. The little arrow design in the center does have some turns that aren't in line, but that was because I was matching existing gold leaf graphics done by Pierce at the factory.

 

[SellersSign&Design]

Looks good to me, can you make it edge-printable instead of solvent?

I am trying to wrap my brain around that as we speak. As far as the actual gold leaf effect, it has to be solvent printed to get a high enough resolution to make it look right. The Edge just can't do it without making it look to grainy. Ideally it would be nice to print the gold on a solvent printer on 15" punched vinyl, then load it in the Edge and print the shadows/outlines. But I am thinking there probably isn't a way to register it between two separate printers.

Edited to add: Unless you are asking if I could print a roll of 15" reflective with this gold pattern from edge to edge so that it could be used similar to Real Gold, Sign Gold and Leo's Gold? If so the answer would be yes, that would be no problem. The only thing is the "turns" will not line up with the strokes of the lettering just like any of those other materials.

 

[Gino]

I'm talking more like where I have the holes drawn in. I don't have that effect, so I just made a similar size to what i'd do if doing it by hand.

Again, this is a suggestion. Not everyone goes for this, but I think more often than not, one does. Just try and see. When doing it by hand, or even a drill, you don't hit areas with a velvet ball larger than your strokes or outside the gilded area. Go on line and look at some of the really nice gilded work and you'll see more often than not, it's this way.

For me, this is a dead giveaway if it's hand turned or vinyl. Burnishing the gold is like comparing hand lettering to computer-aided cut vinyl. There's just a looser feel with the hand performed method, that the gold doesn't allow.

 

[SellersSign&Design]

I'm talking more like where I have the holes drawn in. I don't have that effect, so I just made a similar size to what i'd do if doing it by hand.

Again, this is a suggestion. Not everyone goes for this, but I think more often than not, one does. Just try and see. When doing it by hand, or even a drill, you don't hit areas with a velvet ball larger than your strokes or outside the gilded area. Go on line and look at some of the really nice gilded work and you'll see more often than not, it's this way.

For me, this is a dead giveaway if it's hand turned or vinyl. Burnishing the gold is like comparing hand lettering to computer-aided cut vinyl. There's just a looser feel with the hand performed method, that the gold doesn't allow.

​

I see what you are saying now. With this particular job I was matching some real 23 kt. gold lettering that was done at the Pierce factory, so the turns match what they did as close as possible. But even when I am working with real gold I tend to use a spinning tool that is a little bigger than the strokes of the lettering I am working on to eliminate those little void spots you get with the smaller spins. But I do agree that slightly smaller spins would look better. More like this, or maybe even a little smaller:

 

[Gino]

Yes, for me, I don't care if there is a little overlap, just not quite as much as you originally had. But we all march to different drummers, huh ??

 

[SellersSign&Design]

Different strokes for different folks! ...Or in this case different spins haha

 

[SellersSign&Design]

I used the printed reflective gold leaf on a job for the first time the other day. I am happy with it, but I still have some fine tuning to do. It will be easier to dial it in more when I finally have a printer in house.

 

[letterman7]

Looks great!

 

[Gino]

 

[athennes]

I have been fiddling with this off and on for a year or more, but I am finally happy with the results. I posted a thread on here and got some good input very early on in this project, but I just wanted to post an update now that I have something decent to show. As far as the background story... I have quite a few customers who ask for real hand laid gold leaf but then decide against it once they see the cost. I use a lot of the "Real Gold" brand vinyl, and even though it is a great product and they are a great company to work with, it doesn't look like hand laid gold. I set out to come up with something that could be printed on reflective and imitate hand laid gold as closely as possible. I know some of you will want to rip me apart for trying to imitate hand laid gold, but this has a place in my fire truck lettering options just like any other technique or material. If it was up to me I would spend all day in the shop laying and turning gold, but it just isn't the right option for everyone. I picked up the final sample today from the shop that does my large format printing. This is printed on 3M 680CR and will be laminated with 8518 laminate. I am looking for input, what do you think? Is there anything I need to change? Is it "convincing" enough?

 

[athennes]

Here is my version of the Reflective Engine Turn Gold. I print on Orafol 5600 series and laminate it with a 3M product. It had been received and installed on a lot of my customers as they like the idea of it looking like Engine Turn Gold and being Reflective.

I attached a sample for your review.

Also, more information can be found here:
www.oncallgraphic.com

Thanks,

Allen

 

[1st-in Grafix]

Here is my version of the Reflective Engine Turn Gold. I print on Orafol 5600 series and laminate it with a 3M product. It had been received and installed on a lot of my customers as they like the idea of it looking like Engine Turn Gold and being Reflective.

I attached a sample for your review.

Also, more information can be found here:
www.oncallgraphic.com

Thanks,

Allen

That looks nice…what gold leaf image do you use for the fill or did you create from scratch?