Conventional Finishing; The Wide Variety of Diecutting

There are many creative and unique ways you can use diecutting to enhance the overall appearance of your printing project or to emphasize a particular element of your printing projects. Here are some simple internal diecut holes that enable graphics beneath them to show through.

Internal diecuts

Selfmailer with 4 show-through round diecut holes

Selfmailer with 5 show-through square diecut holes

Perfect bind book with 3 show through irregular shaped diect holes

A creative way to get some dimensionality and 3D effects is with internal die cut push-outs and push-ins. The key to designing with this effect is to have one of the folds of the push-out or push-in fall on one of the brochure folds.

The top accordion folded brochure pictured here has alternating diecut push-out and diecut push-in circles. The bottom oblong oriented brochure pictured has two diecut push-in rectangles and folds out in a double gatefold configuration.

This award winning brochure features two diecut push-outs with a set of short folds.

This accordion folded brochure in an upright layout has three diecut push-out rectangles.

External contour diecuts

Here are some examples of external contour diecuts that are combined with folding the brochures to create cool layering effects as the panels lay over each other.

This accordion folded brochure has an external scalloped contoured shape diecut into the full top edge. When the brochure is folded down this creates a multi-level cascading layer effect of the panels laying on top of each other.

This accordion folded brochure has an external angled diecut into the full top edge. When the brochure is folded down this creates a multi-level criscrossing layer effect of the panels laying on top of each other.

Specific design elements can be highlighted and accentuated to create external contour diecuting.

This brochure has a contour diecut to highlight a graphic element that has specific fitting artwork to both sides of the diecut shape.

This magazine insert had an external contour diecut to highlight the campaign logo.

This award winning self-mailer had an external contour diecut to create a clever conceal/reveal panel. Soft touch aqueous, spot gloss UV and full 4CP variable content were also used to elevate the impact of this piece.

External contour diecut; iron cross format

A popular external contour diecut is the iron cross format. This format may be known by other names such as red cross format or plus sign format. The typical four square wings that fold up into the base panel look great. By changing the wing shapes, the number of wings and or both of those design elements you can come up with some very unique results.

This external contour diecut classic iron cross format has 4 square wings folding back into the base panel. Using creative crossover graphics or copy to tell a continuing story as the brochure is unfolded can enhance the user experience.

This external contour diecut iron cross format has 4 wings, one with a short wing, folding back into the base panel. Other special effects include a tuck-in slot closure, chocolate scented varnish, spot gloss foil stamping and 4CP variable content printing.

This external contour diecut iron cross format has 4 angled wings folding back into the base panel, creating a cool pinwheel shape.

This external contour diecut iron cross format has 4 semi-circle wings folding back into the base panel. The wings can be unfolded in several different sequences creating different unfolding user experiences.

This external contour diecut iron cross format has 6 hexagon-shaped wings folding back into a hexagon base panel.

This external contour diecut iron cross format has 5 triangle-shaped wings folding back into a pentagon base panel.

External contour diecuts; full form shapes

Full form external contour diecuts can yield some very creative and unique formats. The sky’s the limit as far as your imagination as to what’s possible. Please keep in mind most of these unusual formats may require partial or full handwork to complete.

This large external contour diecut format created a unique unfolding experience. Each top panel was a loose flap and folded down to its accompanying base panel and then the piece double gate folded to finish. There was even a glued curved pocket on the back panel to hold some inserts.

This external contour diecut format created a unique unfolding experience. Clever use of graphics and copy enhanced the unfolding user experience. It folded as a double gatefold and then two opposite side right angle folds.