Specialty Ink That Stays True to Brand Colors

By Dean Schwartz (SWAG Master): Brand colors carry the identity of your business. Think of Tiffany blue, UPS brown, or even the multi-color Google logo. You can probably visualize each of those brands and their colors just by naming them.

But you don’t have to take our word for it, let’s look at what the data tells us about the importance of brand colors. According to the Institute for Color Research (CCICOLOR), the average person makes a subconscious judgment about a product within 90 seconds. And more than 2/3 of that judgment is based on color! I think you get the picture we are trying to paint (excuse the cheesy metaphor- you know we’re good for at least one per blog, though).

Bottom line is that you should never compromise your brand colors. Sometimes printing on specialty surfaces creates issues with keeping colors pure, but we never let a challenge stop us here at SOBO. In fact, we are proud to announce that, alongside our factory partners, SOBO has successfully developed a new way to print on reusable bags that will stay true to brand colors.

Specialty Ink That Stays True to Brand Colors

Printing on reusable bags sounds easy enough, but what about printing on reusable bags with a reflective surface? Maintaining color integrity in both reflective and non-reflective states can be a challenge. The standard reflective print relies on a special 3M plastisol ink. This ink has microscopic glass beads that are coated in metal (see picture below). While still awesome, you’ll see that when not in a reflective state, the ink reads as grey-ish silver color.

So what do you do when you have a white logo that needs to remain pure white, not silver, in both a non-reflective and reflective state? After experimenting with different printing setups on various raw materials, and the help of a specialty ink, we were able to figure it out. While still a reflective ink, this specialty ink lacks the metallic coating on the glass beads which ensures more of a true white print. The ink is similar to the one used on roadways and street signs to assist drivers at night.

Check out the spec sample below we made for Dirk supermarket chain. With Dirk’s logo being pure white, we had to be sure we kept the print as white in its non-reflective state as it was in its reflective state. The end product is a reusable bag perfect for their customers whether day or night. We are continuing to explore how to put this specialty ink on other mediums, so you can expect plenty of SOBO innovation in the future. But for now, we are happy to announce we have this printing method on reusable bags down to a tee.

We love a challenge and we love making our clients happy. So if you have a SWAG problem or need, give SOBO a call at 888-752-0432 and we will work with you to find a solution. And remember: always SWAG with style!