Creating Artwork for Fossler Custom Seals

Steps in Creating Art

1. Supply positive or negative art - 100% (200% if fine line detail) in black and white. You must specify which is ink and which is foil. When making seals, typically the background will be ink with the lettering or art embossed from the foil.

2. You can use up to three colors on your seal (the foil is like an extra bonus color!) but inks cannot touch and must be separated by foil (1 / 32" or 2 points) in your submitted art.

3. For the best legibility lean toward bold type. Ultra fine lines and fonts can get lost in the embossing process. 7 points is a good minimum for fonts.

4. Your artwork must fit inside the border lines of the seal shape you have chosen. The outside line indicates the border of the embossed foil around your seal art.

5. If your art includes screens, they're best at 55 lines per inch. Screens are not recommended for seals.

6. Seals can be debossed (typical printing with ink on font pressing into the foil) and/or embossed (ink in background - raised foil lettering) on the same seal. Seals look best with art embossed out of the background color which “pops” the art giving it a 3 dimensional effect.

7. Because foil is a reflective material (one of the coolest things about it!) the same ink color will look different on different colored foil. Select ink colors and foil and foil finish that will work best with your design

The Art & Design Group

The staff of the art department is charged with producing art for The World's Finest Seals based on customer design information. For Anniversary Seals and other seals using standard artwork with personalization, this is a fairly straight forward process. For custom seals, the equation gets more challenging.

When ordering custom seals, a customer may provide a company logo, or art that already carries their company identity, or a design created by a company art department or professional designer. This art can be easily processed into an electronic file which will be used to etch the fine detail of the embossing dies. On the other hand, a customer may submit only a sketch of what they want. From that, the Fossler Art Group creates a design which will produce an excellent seal. The Art & Design Department is fully computerized on Mac Professional computer design systems and can accept eps format files via disc or e-mail. Regardless of the source of the design, the graphic artist who prepares the art for the seal analyzes the completed design with the knowledge of what works the best in the seal making process. If he or she believes that the design could be improved to make a better looking seal, a second design is often created and both are presented to the customer.

The head of the Fossler Art and Design Group, puts it this way, “We know what the finished product will look like from experience and we use that knowledge to make the customer happy.” To that end, his staff works very closely with the customer service group to guide the customer to a seal design that best meets their needs.