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Printing Industry Exchange (printindustry.com) is pleased to have Steven Waxman writing and managing the Printing Industry Blog. As a printing consultant, Steven teaches corporations how to save money buying printing, brokers printing services, and teaches prepress techniques. Steven has been in the printing industry for thirty-three years working as a writer, editor, print buyer, photographer, graphic designer, art director, and production manager.

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Custom Printing: The Wonder of Clothing Hang-Tags

Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com

My fiancee is a genius when it comes to finding quality clothes in the thrift store. In fact, she recently found a designer dress for $9.00 that had a $900.00+ price tag. (Granted, at a thrift store an original price tag is one sign of quality because it means the garment hasn’t been worn, unlike most of the other clothes in the thrift store.)

My fiancee knows all the brand names, and she can recognize the signs of quality clothing design and quality manufacturing. But the hang-tags (their design, materials, finishing, and attachments) do contribute to a clothing designer’s ability to communicate quality to prospective buyers and hence to charge multiples more than a discount store would.

What Is Branding?

The key word here is “branding.” This refers to the logo mark and overall presentation of a company, reflecting the quality of its materials, clothing design, and manufacturing; perhaps its target audience; plus what values the company extols (sustainability, equity, and so forth). This package of intangibles becomes attached to the logo, such that a customer who enters a clothing store will see the logo colors, the logo itself, perhaps even the design of the store, and have an overall, internal moment of grasping on a deep level the ethos of the company.

As noted above, a clothing brand includes the logo but does not stop there. It also includes all relevant signage, marketing collateral, floor appliques, clothing hang-tags, television advertising, paint colors on the walls in the store, and on an on.

But to get back to the hang-tags, these are essentially print business cards for the brand, just as much as an actual print business card would be.

The Purposes of Hang-Tags

When I mentioned to my fiancee that I planned to write a blog post about clothing hang-tags, she dug through multiple drawers in the house and handed me a pile of about forty hang-tags. She said she had saved them because (and I already knew this) she likes advertising art and these exemplified superior design. So after reviewing all of these samples I have come to an overall awareness as to their purpose, materials, and design.

First the purpose. I have already mentioned branding. First, last, and always, this is the prime directive. Everything is an ad for the clothing company. And second (often on the reverse of the hang-tag) the purpose is functional: to communicate information about the product (size, materials, cost, etc.). These have to work together because the brand is the prime mover. Hence, even the notation of the percentage of cotton vs. polyester is presented elegantly.

So here are some thoughts on the component parts of the overall design presentation:

Substrate

The material on which the manufacturer has printed the hang-tag says a lot about the company. In my fiancee’s stash of hang-tags, I see the following materials on which information has been printed, embossed, debossed, foil stamped, embroidered, etc. These include leather (Coach leather or a knock-off), wood-based paper (of course), plastic or perhaps synthetic paper, neoprene (the material from which SCUBA diving wet suits are made), and woven fabric.

If you think about these, even if the hang-tags were totally blank, each of these would speak volumes based entirely on the substrate material and the associations people have with these substances. For instance, a 2” x 5” strip of fabric (with the weave of the fabric very visible) feels and looks more casual and earthy than does gloss coated paper. And the neoprene swatch looks and feels more youthful and hip (of course, the bright orange background adds to this).

Thickness of the substrate is another consideration. Keep in mind that the substrate material and the substrate thickness in most cases operate below the potential purchaser’s level of conscious awareness. But they are powerful communicators, nevertheless. Regarding thickness, many of my fiancee’s clothing hang-tags are made of very thick paper (15 pt. to 30 pt., for instance). In some cases, presumably, double-thick papers have been used (these are two paper stocks glued together, sometimes of two different colors). Thick paper often translates subconsciously to quality, opulence, and strength, all positive qualities. (Envision a flimsy print business card vs. a thick one.)

Finally, one of the samples is a fold-over card, in black, with a name in handwriting that has been rendered in gloss black hot-stamping foil on the uncoated black background.

Design

Overall, these hang-tags are simple and austere in their design. In fact, I would say that beyond the logo and color branding, plus incidental information like size, the main function is to appeal to the customer’s sense of touch. Many of my fiancee’s sample hang-tags are black ink plus a bright highlight color used sparingly (red, blue, or orange).

One of the hang-tags, which was printed on a low-grade chipboard stock (unbleached) is printed in black ink only (just text in a font approximating typewriter text) on the brownish stock. You can see the black, white, and brown flecks in the paper, and all of this combined with references to the environment on the hang-tag, plus a hemp twine string to attach the hang-tag to the garment, says a whole lot about the values the manufacturer espouses.

Finishing

Hang-tags are a tactile medium as mentioned before. Therefore finishing is an important component of the design and commercial printing process. Many of my fiancee’s sample hang-tags include various colors of foil stamping (often black on black foil, or white on black). When you consider that everything that is foil stamped requires a metal die, you can see that these were not cheap hang-tags to produce. (But again, branding is advertising, and advertising is an investment, not an expense.)

Other samples seem to have spot and gloss UV coatings (cheaper than foil stamping), and one of the samples even has what looks like thermography on the highlight orange type. (Thermography involves adding powder on top of offset ink, and then applying heat to the ink and powder so the mixture will bubble up and look like raised printing. It mimics engraving.)

Finally, one sample (on plastic stock) is a black square with twelve laser-die-cut flower petals plus numerous round holes to depict the center of the flower.

Attachments

People seem to like little embellishments. One of my fiancee’s sample hang-tags is attached to a little envelope (all displaying the same branding). The envelope contains a button. A thin, black string ties the envelope to the hang-tag and a black plastic seal with a raised and painted logo crimps the string in the appropriate position.

In many other cases there are metal grommets in the holes for the tie-strings used to attach the hang-tags to the garments.

In one case the string is actually a loop of transparent rubber (like a rubber band but not flat).

In all of these cases, I think, the goal is to reflect not only the overall quality of the product but also the manufacturer’s attention to the small details. Getting everything right is important to these clothing vendors, and they want you to understand this in every fiber of your being.

The Takeaway

So what can we take away from this analysis of forty or so clothing hang-tags? Here are some thoughts:

    1. Everything is an ad. Everything you print either adds to or detracts from the brand.

 

    1. The tactile is every bit as important as the visual. The paper stock you choose and the various changes in texture (from a matte or uncoated portion of your printed product to a gloss coated section, whether achieved with UV varnish or foil stamping) affects your client directly through their sense of touch. This is often unconscious but is always very powerful.

 

  1. It doesn’t hurt to keep a swipe file of printed products you like. Every so often go through them. Compare and contrast. See how the designers achieved the effects and articulate how these production qualities enhance the company’s brand.

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