How do you handle the frost is not the opacity?

Frosted PVC on its own is translucent. It diffuses light rather than blocking it, so a frosted card held up to a window is still a window. Frost alone gets you a milky card, not an opaque one. An opaque white flood printed across the full face, knocked out only where the flame sits. The frost gives the surface its tooth and its ivory cast; the white ink is what actually stops the light. Two jobs, two layers, and most people assume it is one.

How do you handle print the mark on the back?

Print the flame on the front face and it reads as ink on plastic, with a hard printed edge. That is the opposite of translucent. The flame and the heart print on the reverse face and are seen through the thickness of the frosted sheet. The frost diffuses them very slightly, so the edges soften and the colour appears to come from inside the card. The wordmark and the two lines of type print on the front, where they need to stay crisp.

How do you handle nothing gets die cut?

The obvious route to a see-through logo is a die-cut aperture, but a cut flame with that many interior points is fragile, the heart counter would fall out, and the card stops being a single continuous object. Selective opacity instead of subtraction. The card is one uninterrupted sheet with no cut, no join and no aperture, which is why it still feels solid in the hand while reading as transparent in one place.

How do you handle two colour builds, one card?

Colour printed straight onto PVC goes translucent and shifts against whatever is behind it. On a card designed to be held up to the light, that shift is unavoidable. Accepted it and designed for it. The type sits over the opaque white flood so it holds its colour; the flame sits over bare frost so it changes with the light behind it. The card looks different against a desk than against a window, on purpose.

Case study · Business cards · Fandom

An opaque plastic card with a translucent logo

Stephanie Fried, Fandom's Chief Marketing Officer, came to us wanting a plastic card where most of the surface was solid and opaque and only the logo was translucent. Not a clear card with printing on it, and not a frosted card with a window cut out of it. One sheet of plastic, two different degrees of transparency.

TechniquesDirect Print, Rounded Corner, White Underprint StocksFrosted plastic

The idea

Stephanie Reed brought us Stephanie Fried's card with a clear idea and no obvious way to make it: a plastic business card where the majority of the surface area would be solid and opaque, and only the logo would be translucent and partially see-through.

Four rules

01The frost is not the opacity. An opaque white flood printed across the full face, knocked out only where the flame sits. The frost gives the surface its tooth and its iv…
02Print the mark on the back. The flame and the heart print on the reverse face and are seen through the thickness of the frosted sheet. The frost diffuses them very sli…
03Nothing gets die cut. Selective opacity instead of subtraction. The card is one uninterrupted sheet with no cut, no join and no aperture, which is why it still f…
04Two colour builds, one card. Accepted it and designed for it. The type sits over the opaque white flood so it holds its colour; the flame sits over bare frost so it cha…

The brief

Most requests like this end up as one of two compromises. Either the card is clear and the logo is printed opaque on top of it, which is the reverse of what was asked. Or the logo becomes a die-cut hole, which is a hole rather than a window and takes the structure with it.

The answer was to stop thinking about the plastic and start thinking about the ink.

The boundary. Solid pale frost on one side, the flame glowing through the sheet on the other, with the softened edge that tells you the ink is on the far face.

Held to the light, the card does the only trick it was built to do: the field stays solid, the mark lights up.

What this technique is good for

Selective opacity works when a brand has one strong shape and wants it to behave differently from everything else on the card. A mark, a monogram, a single icon.

It does not work for type. Small letterforms seen through the thickness of a frosted sheet lose their edges, which is why Fandom's wordmark and contact lines print on the front face in solid ink.

It also needs a mark with enough mass. A hairline logo has nothing for the light to fill.

Start from these materials

Same paper, foil and finish, locked in — nothing of Fandom's artwork comes with it.

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