There’s something about a shiny thing, isn’t there?
A glint of gold on a piece of packaging, metallic lettering on a label or a glossy detail that appears when you tilt something towards the light can completely change a design. It’s one of the reasons finishes like gold foil, silver foil and Spot UV can be so much fun to use on stickers and labels.
These embellishments give you another way to make parts of your artwork stand out without adding more colours, bigger text or another graphic into an already busy design. You can highlight your logo with foil, add glossy details with
Spot UV or turn a tiny part of an illustration into something people really notice when it catches the light.
The difficult bit isn’t deciding whether you like shiny things. We’re guessing you probably do. It’s deciding how to use them without going full disco ball.
Contents
Why Use Foil on Stickers and Labels?
Gold Foil: Made to Be Noticed
Silver Foil: A Cooler Kind of Shine
Spot UV: Shine Without the Metallic Finish
What Parts of a Sticker Should You Embellish?
Use Contrast to Make Foil and Spot UV Stand Out
Embellished Stickers Don't Have to Look 'Luxury'
Think About Where Your Sticker Will Be Used
Gold Foil, Silver Foil or Spot UV: Which Should You Choose?
Give Your Stickers Something Extra
Why Use Foil on Stickers and Labels?
Gold and silver foil give selected areas of a sticker or label a metallic finish. Unlike a standard printed colour, foil interacts with the light around it, which can give your artwork a completely different appearance as the sticker moves.
That makes foil particularly useful when you want to create a clear focal point within your design.
Your logo is an obvious choice, but it’s definitely not the only one. Product names, borders, patterns, lettering and illustrations can all be picked out with foil. Even a tiny metallic detail can add something interesting to an otherwise simple design.
The trick is choosing the part that actually deserves the attention.
Gold Foil: Made to Be Noticed
Gold has never exactly been known for keeping a low profile.
We see it everywhere from medals and trophies to jewellery, gift wrapping and celebrations, so it’s an easy finish to reach for when you want a design to feel that little bit more special.
On a sticker or label, gold foil can be used to highlight specific parts of your artwork, whether that’s your logo, some lettering or a detail within an illustration.
It doesn’t have to mean serious, traditional or super luxurious either. Gold foil can be just as effective on bright, playful artwork. Imagine tiny gold sprinkles on a bakery sticker, stars across a Christmas label or a flash of foil running through an event design.
The foil is only one ingredient. The rest of the artwork decides what personality you give it.
Silver Foil: A Cooler Kind of Shine
If gold isn't quite right for your design, silver foil gives you the metallic effect with a completely different look.
Silver can work particularly well alongside darker colours and clean, simple artwork, where the metallic detail has plenty of room around it. A silver logo against black or navy, for example, can create strong contrast without introducing another bright colour.
You can have more fun with it too. Silver stars on a space-themed sticker, metallic details on a robot illustration or a shiny border around an event label all use exactly the same finish in completely different ways.
As with gold foil, you don't need to use loads of it. A small area can be enough to give your design another point of interest.
Spot UV: Shine Without the Metallic Finish
Then there's Spot UV, which does things a little differently.
Instead of adding gold or silver, Spot UV adds a glossy, tactile finish to selected parts of your design. This creates contrast between the embellished areas and the surrounding artwork, giving you the opportunity to highlight details without introducing another colour.
That makes Spot UV particularly good for designs where you want the embellishment to be a little more subtle, while still creating a sensory sensation.
You could use it across your logo or product name, but you could also add glossy patterns, illustrations or hidden details that become more noticeable as the sticker moves.
Imagine glossy cobwebs sitting in the background of a Halloween sticker, raindrops picked out across an illustration or a subtle pattern running behind the logo on a product label. You can keep the main design relatively simple while still giving people something extra to discover.
What Parts of a Sticker Should You Embellish?
Once you've got gold foil, silver foil and Spot UV to play with, it's very easy to look at your artwork and decide that absolutely everything deserves to be shiny.
This is where a little restraint helps.
Start by deciding what you want someone to notice. If brand recognition is the priority, embellishing your logo makes sense. If you've got a product name or message that needs more prominence, that might be the better choice.
You can also move beyond the obvious options. Borders, patterns, icons and small parts of illustrations can all look brilliant with the right finish.
A food brand could pick out part of an illustrated ingredient in gold foil. An events business could use silver foil for stars or confetti. A beauty brand could add a subtle Spot UV pattern behind its logo.
Think of the embellishment as a highlighter. You're choosing where you want someone's attention to go rather than trying to highlight the entire page.
Use Contrast to Make Foil and Spot UV Stand Out
The shiny part is only half of the design. What you put around it matters too.
A silver foil detail can look particularly striking against a darker background, while gold foil can work beautifully alongside rich colours. With Spot UV, you're working with the contrast between the glossy embellished area and the finish surrounding it.
Giving embellished areas some breathing room can help too. If your foil logo is surrounded by lots of competing text, patterns and imagery, it has to work much harder to stand out.
You don't necessarily need to make the embellishment bigger. Sometimes simplifying what's around it does a much better job.
Embellished Stickers Don't Have to Look 'Luxury'
Foil and Spot UV often get associated with words like premium, elegant and luxurious. They can absolutely create that kind of look, but that's far from the only option.
A sticker with gold foil can be bright, silly and colourful. Silver foil can become part of an illustration. Spot UV can bring out a playful detail that you can’t resist touching.
You could give a cartoon alien a silver spacesuit, add a ridiculously shiny gold crown to a food sticker or add glossy ghosts across a Halloween label.
The finish doesn't decide what your sticker looks like. Your design does.
That's worth remembering if you've dismissed embellished stickers because they don't immediately feel like your brand. You don't have to completely change your visual identity to use them. Find a finish and an idea that fits the personality you've already got.
Think About Where Your Sticker Will Be Used
Before finalising an embellished sticker or label, think about where it's actually going to end up.
A design that looks great sitting on a white screen might look completely different once it's attached to a colourful box, bottle, bag or piece of packaging. The surrounding colours and materials become part of the finished design too.
It also helps to think about how people will interact with it. A product label might be seen on a shelf, while a promotional sticker handed out at an event could end up on a laptop or bottle five minutes later.
Designing with the final use in mind can help you decide which parts need the most attention and which embellishment makes sense.
If you're looking for inspiration, we've put together seven creative ways businesses can use stickers, covering everything from packaging and promotions to events and giveaways.
Gold Foil, Silver Foil or Spot UV: Which Should You Choose?
There's no single finish that's going to work for every design.
Gold foil is a great choice when you want a warmer metallic detail that can be bold, celebratory or eye catching. Silver foil gives you a cooler metallic effect that can work particularly well with darker colours and contemporary designs. Spot UV is ideal when you want to introduce glossy details without adding a metallic colour.
Your choice should ultimately come down to the artwork and what you're trying to highlight.
If you're torn between them, go back to the most important part of your design. Think about what you want someone to notice and which finish works most naturally with the colours, style and personality already there.
Give Your Stickers Something Extra
Gold foil, silver foil and Spot UV give you more to play with when designing custom stickers and labels, but you don't need to reinvent your artwork to use them.
A foiled logo, metallic illustration or tactile pattern can be enough to transform a relatively simple sticker into something with another layer of detail.
So pick the bit of your design that deserves its moment and give it some shine. Just remember that when it comes to embellishments, you don't have to use every trick in the book at once.
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