The ‘unboxing’ process for each new Apple product has become the stuff of legend – and many YouTube clips – and the packaging and choice of print finishes is crucial to imparting the right message about the cool, cutting-edge product within. As Jobs himself, quoted in Walter Isaacson’s recently-published biography, said: "When you open the box of an iPhone or iPad, we want that tactile experience to set the tone for how you perceive the product."

Isaacson also reveals that the most important of the three founding principles of Apple’s original marketing philosophy, devised by Mike Markkula in 1977 just as the company was getting going as a serious business, was to ‘impute’ the desired qualities by presenting everything to do with the firm in a creative, professional manner.

 Touchy-feely
Impute is a fairly unusual word, and here comes another: haptics. Haptics, from the Greek word meaning ‘I fasten onto; I touch’, helps us to explain the tactile appeal to be had from a matt laminate coating, a piece of letterpress printing on a lovely cardstock, a die-cut mailer with an appealing shape or an embossed label. One of the first sensations humans develop in the womb is a sense of touch, which helps to explain why haptics is hard-wired into our brains, whether we realise it or not.

John Haslam, joint managing director at speciality paper supplier GF Smith, has his own way of explaining this phenomenon: "I always say that one eye sees, and one eye feels," he explains. "Whenever you look at something as a consumer, be it a magazine, a brochure or a swing tag, one eye is getting a feel for the texture before you’ve even touched it. Brands like Gucci, Armani and Burberry understand this very well. They know the colour and texture on a swing tag is so important."

Haslam, like Apple’s Markkula, believes people do judge a book by its cover. That’s one of the reasons the publishing industry invests so much in special finishes such as foiling, embossing and spot coating on book jackets. A treatment can ‘speak’ to a customer, whether it’s a fluorescent pink with high-build spot varnish on a chick-lit novel bound for the beach, or luxe special editions such as Penguin’s Classics that marry beautiful design with carefully-selected cover stocks and high-end printing techniques to create a covetable whole.

"What’s important is the target audience and the image you want to put across. These haptical aspects are really important for print," states Rainer Kuhn, managing director of the PrintCity Alliance, the partnership of graphic arts industry suppliers that includes Manroland, Sun Chemical and M-real.

After all, it is haptics that provides print media with an all-important point of differentiation to electronic, screen-based communications, which are overwhelmingly flat and in RGB. PrintCity has run a number of projects to highlight the positive attributes of so-called ‘value-added printing’ techniques. Collateral produced for a FIPP magazine congress included a cornucopia of special treatments. Some examples: thermochromic and scratch ‘n’ sniff panels, UV coatings, day-glo inks, foiling, soft-touch and pearlescents, and Hexachrome printing.

An accompanying survey of publishers revealed that more than 70% felt that the use of such techniques could help magazines attract and retain advertisers. Magazines such as Wired, that champion of the digital age, understand this very well –hence that magazine’s frequent use of special colours and finishes, and different paper stocks.

Ann-Marie Lawson, business development and marketing for UK and Ireland at M-real, says: "The paper and board used in packaging, text and covers, stationery and invitations – to name a few – aren’t the silent carriers of print and identity. These are screaming, all-singing, all-dancing tangible messengers to the core identity of its paying commissioner."

PrintCity has an ongoing initiative in its Value Added Packaging project, part of which involves new sample sets that will be shown at Drupa 2012. These will highlight how a combination of value-added print techniques can increase consumer attraction and aid product differentiation, while at the same time establishing and enhancing that all-important brand identity. A glance at the shelves of any supermarket makes it immediately obvious how important these factors are.

"There is absolutely a clear trend that companies and suppliers are looking to add this extra dimension to the flat print," states Kuhn.

In turn, this trend is prompting a resurgence of what GF Smith’s Haslam describes in tongue-in-cheek terms as "the dark arts" of printing. "Die-stamping, letterpress, thermography – they are all coming back," he reveals.

Printers confirm this. Tim Honnor is managing director at Piccolo Press in Nairn, near Inverness, which specialises in high-quality letterpress and engraved stationery. "Designers are very keen on letterpress business cards – it’s a real growing trend," he says.

Honnor’s own business card is a hefty 700gsm mini-advertisement for the company’s services. "I was visiting some graphic designers last week and I gave them my card. They held it and said, ‘Wow, this is a real statement’. The sort of cards we do might well get you more trade, even though the unit cost is higher.

 Return to quality
"The wheel has turned 360 degrees and we’re seeing a return to quality. Two or three years ago, we hardly did any personal stationery, but it’s coming back. I see a move to people desiring the tangible," adds Honnor. "People don’t seem to mind paying for something they really like. If you’re hosting an event and there’s a nice thick card on the mantelpiece, people are more likely to go than if it’s a cheap, nasty flyer."

This desire to differentiate is echoed by Alan Padbury, managing director at Cardiff’s Westdale Press. Westdale operates in a world of far higher volumes than Piccolo’s bespoke stationery market, yet Padbury says he too is "amazed" at how  services such as foiling, embossing and debossing have become so in-demand.

 "It’s all about the visual combined with the tactile. We’re doing so much work like this now – everyone wants to do something that’s a bit different," he says.

Padbury cites a recent example involving a luxe magazine that used an uncoated stock with the addition of clear foiling for a special cover effect, with alternating gloss and uncoated text sections within.

"It was quite challenging to produce, as you can imagine. People are looking for things that are niche."

Another differentiating haptical aspect of print is the ability to die cut or shape cut. Earlier this year, Unilever ran a promotion for Persil Small & Mighty, which involved a simple one-piece mailer with tear-off voucher. The mailer was elevated above the ordinary by a die-cut opening flap that mirrored the shape of a washing machine door. It was produced by Leeds-based printing company Lettershop.

Specialist firm Papershapers, based in north London, knows how powerful treatments like this can be. Managing director Colin Metson cites an array of examples, including door-drop promotions that are shape cut to incorporate a hanging hook that can be hung on a door handle.

"The recipient’s curiosity is aroused with this unusually tactile interaction," he explains. "Traditionally, a shape cut design for a promotional piece has been considered a fanciful optional extra. Today, as promotional print is being used for more powerful communication, shape cutting has become a desirable cost-effective method of sending a tangible message,"

Stitched booklets with internal shapes – throughout all or part of the book – are also proving a popular way for Papershapers’ clients to create interest. With Christmas almost here, Metson and his team have been busy on the laser cutting front, creating intricate 3D and pop-up card designs.

And it’s not all about paper, of course. Print Leeds is known for its lenticular printing know-how, but also prints onto other synthetic or specialist substrates, such as the ‘rubbery’ Curious Touch range from Robert Horne. Managing director Rod Fisher reports that even with something as visual as a lenticular piece, people can’t help but touch.

"People will pick a lenticular up and play with it; they look at it and turn it on its side," he says.

To conclude, let’s return to Steve Jobs. It’s surely telling that the only thing in Isaacson’s biography Jobs interfered with was the cover design (monochrome, matt laminate finish). He knew the importance of achieving the right image, layout, and ‘feel’. All hail haptics.

Designer views

Andrew Smith
Production director
The Brand Union
"The first time I felt certain papers, they embedded themselves into my memory and every time I re-touch these substrates, they convey me back to those happy memories. However, the way paper plays with your senses goes way beyond the visual. The texture can be intrinsic in the paper, or added to reinforce any branding and graphical messages. So, the texture of papers can create additional brand reinforcement, help recreate memories and add potential extra dimensions to the printing and finishing beyond the immediately obvious. It helps bring print more to life and can be much more memorable and exciting."

Paul Betts
Design manager
Stocks Taylor Benson
"When you have something to say, and when you want to reach out to your clients and their customers, the choice of material is so important. We live in a digital age, but also a tactile one – sometimes the closest we get to a brand is through its packaging; it embodies the brand and drives emotional connection. So, you want every element to add to the story and present design as intended. Tactile papers, embossed papers, print and finishing all contribute to the overall message, and can help build brand consistency and relevance to the customer. They can help set mood and tone better than some other media."