[Riculus]

I have an idea for some custom hot stamps. I don't know the first thing on how to begin the process. BCC is the only place that has the colors I want and the chips will have the denominations on one side and my design on the other. That being said, I need some input from someone who has done this or knows how.

[Riculus]

Not everyone at once.

[Vince]

suckoutking and jimjr might also be able to do custom hotstamps.

[machinelf]

You need to render your idea in a clean black and white piece of artwork. Since it's a hotstamp, it can't have too fine of detail--simple and bold works best. If you don't have the skills or the technology to render your idea, you could post in the Request for Hire forum to find someone to render it for you.

Does that help?

[Riculus]

Originally Posted by machinelf

You need to render your idea in a clean black and white piece of artwork. Since it's a hotstamp, it can't have too fine of detail--simple and bold works best. If you don't have the skills or the technology to render your idea, you could post in the Request for Hire forum to find someone to render it for you.

Does that help?

Yes it does help. Thanks. I guess my next ? is who makes the stamp itself? Do I get it made or does the chip maker do such things?

[kmalsom]

The person or company who will do the hotstamping will either get you in contact with someone to make the die, or they will have you send them the info so they can send it on to their die maker.

You have to plan extra space between the shapes on your artwork for movement of the clay. For example an hole in the shape would have to be larger to prevent the foil and clay from closing off the hole. (does that make sense how I described it?)
Hope this helps.

[kmalsom]

Do your design in a vector program if at all possible. Inkscape, Xara, Corel, Illustrator, Autocad... That will make the engraving cleaner. If you use a Raster program (Photoshop, GIMP) turn the dithering down as much as possible. If you have little bumps on the image when they engrave the die, you will get those on your hotstamps and they won't look as clean.

[Riculus]

Originally Posted by kmalsom

Do your design in a vector program if at all possible. Inkscape, Xara, Corel, Illustrator, Autocad... That will make the engraving cleaner. If you use a Raster program (Photoshop, GIMP) turn the dithering down as much as possible. If you have little bumps on the image when they engrave the die, you will get those on your hotstamps and they won't look as clean.

Thanks for the info, I'm using cad so I should be able to hand it to the die maker?

[kmalsom]

Originally Posted by Riculus

Thanks for the info, I'm using cad so I should be able to hand it to the die maker?

You'll need to make sure they can handle the file, but I'm sure that most can handle autocad files.

[Riculus]

Does anyone know if BCC has different color stamps available? I always thought silver would be a cool look.