Hand painted crests and lettering.

Still celebrating our 50th year in packaging print, finishing and mockups, we thought we’d describe the technique we used to produce raised gold crests for tobacco packaging in the early 70s.

After enlarging or reducing the original image, it was traced onto the substrate and coated with a fine layer of pounce powder. The base was then painted with a mix of yellow ochre and emulsion and the image raised by building it up with 3 or 4 layers of barbola paste before a final layer of Treasure Gold gilding wax paste was painted on the top. Every layer was applied by hand with a fine brush and every coat needed to dry before the next stage was started. The whole process for a standard crest would take about 4 hours although this demonstration sample took 2-3 days. Look closely and you may be able to see the brush marks.

Fortunately our studios now are equipped with the latest technology alongside traditional machinery making the process far less labour intensive. We can produce similar effects by embossing, hot and cold foiling and even digital printing but our craftsmanship and attention to detail remain the same.    

Dagwood specialise in the printing and creation of low volume, production standard mockup packaging. We’d love to discuss your next project so please get in touch here: https://lnkd.in/epKDHu2

Remember Letraset?

Dagwood are celebrating our 50th year producing packaging print and mockups and are continuing our look back at some of the essential pre digital tools when each letter had to be literally positioned and transferred by hand!

Letraset was the brand name for the original dry-transfer lettering product and was used extensively in our studio during the 70s and early 80s. It consisted of an alphabet of letters screen printed onto a translucent, adhesive film. By carefully rubbing on the front of the sheet with something blunt you could ‘transfer’ the letter onto your chosen surface. Sheets of letters in different typefaces or fonts, sizes and even colours were carefully stored in a special cabinet in the corner of our studio.

Positioning and centring letters and words is now just a couple of clicks of the mouse but in the days of Letraset it involved stressful calculations, working copy out from the centre, accounting how much wider an ‘a’ was than an ‘i’ and hoping you didn’t run out of letters before the end of the project!

Dagwood specialise in the printing and creation of low volume, production standard mockup packaging. We’re ready for your next project so please get in touch here: https://lnkd.in/epKDHu2

Does anyone remember Cow Gum?

For designers and artworkers of a certain age, the name, branding and distinctive smell of Cow gum will bring back some vivid memories.

Dagwood are celebrating our 50th year producing packaging artwork, print and mock-ups and thought we’d look back and describe some of the tools of the trade when artwork had to be literally cut up, positioned and pasted onto board by hand.

Cow gum was the glue of choice, it came in a distinctive red and white tin and had the consistency of very thick wallpaper paste. Artwork was cut with a scalpel and after an application of the gum with a spreader or a piece of card, pasted into place. Cow gum was ideal for paste-up work because it didn’t damage surfaces and could be peeled or rubbed off reasonably easily if anything needed to be moved. Of course, 50% of Cow gum went where you didn’t want it but that could be removed by rubbing the area with a ball of dried up cow gum that each time built up like a snowball. Once stuck down, however, the only way to get it off would be lighter fuel.

Some of you may have some interesting cow gum stories and some of you may not have heard of it but next time you are sitting at your MAC and ‘cut & paste’ just remember that it wasn’t always that easy!

Dagwood specialise in the printing and creation of low volume, production standard mockup packaging. We’d love to discuss your next project so please get in touch here: https://lnkd.in/epKDHu2

Does anyone remember the grant enlarger?

Dagwood are celebrating our 50th year producing packaging artwork, print and mock-ups and thought we’d look back at one of the pieces of studio equipment we used in the 70s. 

Grant machines could reduce or enlarge artwork images by projecting them onto a glass plate from which a tracing could be made. Users would stand on a step so they could reach across the entire plate and could then control the enlarging, reducing and focus by turning the handles on the front. 

It was an essential piece of kit in every design studio. We replaced ours in the 80s with a PMT machine (that needed a darkroom) and then in the 90s we moved everything onto Macs.

It is hard to imagine that what was once such a laborious process can now be achieved with just a few clicks of a mouse!  

Dagwood specialise in the printing and creation of low volume, production standard mockup packaging. We’d love to discuss your next project so please get in touch here: https://lnkd.in/epKDHu2