How To: Enamel Pin Badge Limitations And Offset Printed Pins As An Alternative!

Offset printed pin badges are a great alternative to enamel pins, die struck pins and die cast pins, and are an entirely different product altogether with surprising results. With offset printed badges you do not have to be as limited with your design details, in fact there are no limitations at all! But there are still requirements we hope you can adhere to for the highest quality pin badges!

Limitations of Soft and Hard Enamel Pin Badges

It would be wrong to say there are limitations with soft or hard enamel pin badges, constraints might be a better word. Our clients upload varying qualities of final artwork, and we are happy to work from just about any level. The process from taking a ‘bitty’ jpg as seen below, to a polished vector and then onto enamel pin badge form is a precarious one at best. And as you can see from the flow from start to end, certain details have to be left behind, in order to achieve the results we require.

This is because the absolute smallest line we can create with soft enamel pins is about 0.2mm with current machinery! This is still very small! Human head hair can reach up to 0.1mm, so this gives you an idea of how small 0.2mm is! Check out our dedicated design resource page for more info.

Different Sized Badges Mean Less Or More Sacrifices

It all depends on the size of the badge too. A 20mm badge will have more constraints than a 50mm badge, and therefore the 20mm badge will need to be simpler in design and details.  The example above and below is 45mm. And as you can see still, some details were shed.

After we have liaise back and forth with the client until they are happy the the final design, we then sign off the artwork and move the design into the production stages. Our standard 28 days delivery is considered fast for the industry. Below you can see the outcome of the design.

The above soft enamel pin badge is very characteristic of the enamel pin badge look. You can’t really get too ‘photographic’ with enamel pins, unless the pin was 100mm in height, only then you could get busy with fine detail lines. Even then you are restricted to block colours, i.e no shading or blending. Let’s now look at offset printed pin badge alternatives.

Offset Printed Pin Badge Alternatives

Offset printed badges are offset CMYK printed designs that are placed into a die cut stainless steel badge with a smooth to the touch epoxy coating to seal the design in and give your badges a luxury feel. The benefits of offset printed pin badges over soft and hard enamel pin badges can be huge! Sometimes they are a much better fit for your project. Here are some key benefits of opting for offset printed badges.

Time

Our custom soft enamel pin badges are offered on a 28 day delivery standard, this is still fast considering the amount of work that goes into making them, but if you are on a time deadline we can offer 16 days delivery on our offset printed badges and as express 12 days. Which is super fast!

Detail

As you have seen with the examples above, with offset printed pin badges we are able to retain important details, as there is no mold or die cut limitations. This means we can in theory print your design exactly as we see it. Pretty cool! Check the design below. It is an illustration of footballer Cristiano Ronaldo with a gold trophy.

As there are no limitations on your design with offset printed pin badges, we were able to create an almost replica of this design in pin badge form (we also do offset printed keyrings, as well as jewellery).

The Conclusion On Offset Printed Pin Badges Vs Soft Or Hard Enamel Pin Badges

Offset printed pin badges are a great way to get your design across in a fun and engaging way, we believe they are as equally important as soft and hard enamel pins, die struck and 3D die cast pins and any of the other badges we offer.

With soft and hard enamel pins there are ‘constraints’, with offset printed pins there are very little if any at all.

If you are unsure what type of pin badge to go for, please get in touch with us today and ask as many questions as you like. We love to talk design and help people in this ever confusing muddle of pin badge design!

Get in touch here.