Embellish Your Services — Carefully

The days of embellishment being a luxury finishing option are in the rearview mirror.

The demand to differentiate print with tactile and visual effects is increasing industry-wide, and the availability of finishing technology from companies like Skandacor, Konica Minolta, and Xerox is helping meet this desire to stand out. Still, recent In-plant Impressions research shows that just 19% of survey respondents produce embellishments and special effects coatings. So, why are in-plants a little slower on the uptick?

It could be cost, it could be the challenge of working it into their existing workflow, or it could be the lack of demand for embellishments from in-plants’ customers. But, if the name of the in-plant game is adding value, you might want to consider bringing this capability in-house.

University of Oklahoma: Wowing Customers In-house

If you ask Sherri Isbell, director of University of Oklahoma Printing and Mailing Services, she’ll tell you her in-plant added embellishment to keep more work in-house.

At University of Oklahoma Printing and Mailing Services, Bindery Manager Jeremy May uses the Skandacor LAMpro Lion 22A laminator and sleeking machine to embellish a printed piece.

“For many years, we relied on a local outside finishing partner for foil applications. As we evaluated the costs and turnaround times associated with outsourcing, we recognized a strong ROI in bringing digital foiling capabilities in-house,” Isbell says. “So, expanding our finishing capabilities while improving efficiency and turnaround ultimately made the decision an easy one.”

Today, the Norman, Oklahoma in-plant utilizes the Skandacor LAMpro Lion 22A laminator and sleeking machine along with the EasyCutter 550 Auto Trimmer to produce a variety of projects such as:

• Single-sided flyers with four-color printing, soft-touch lamination, and foil accents.
• Double-sided door hangers with soft-touch lamination, foil on both sides, and contour cutting.
• Personalized fold-over notecards with gold foil.
• Banquet and recognition dinner programs with double-sided foil embellishments.
• Greeting cards featuring single-color foil on the cover.

“These applications have been especially well received because they combine visual appeal and a high-quality feel,” Isbell explains.

This door hanger was embellished with gold foil by OU's in-plant.

Initially, the in-plant was only looking to replace a laminator, Isbell says, but after discovering equipment that could digitally sleek and foil, the shop decided to “broaden the evaluation process.” She also explains that input from industry friends helped sway the decision as well.

“After learning about the success another in-plant operation was having with the Skandacor system, we began seriously considering it as a strong fit for our environment,” Isbell says.

While the university’s athletics department was already a strong user of foil-enhanced print applications, now that the in-plant’s embellishment capabilities have grown, other departments like development, individual colleges, and student organizations have started embellishing their printed pieces.

So, how is it all being marketed?

“Our customer service representatives and design team play a key role in promoting these capabilities and helping customers recognize the value they add to print projects,” Isbell says. “During the order intake process, they communicate the embellishment options now available and explain how finishes such as soft-touch lamination and digital foil can enhance both the presentation and impact of printed materials. Their ability to identify opportunities and offer creative recommendations has been instrumental in driving customer interest in these enhanced print solutions.”

This communication is key, because Isbell does admit that one of the biggest challenges that came with adding embellishment services was properly communicating with customers who create their own designs.

“One of the primary challenges was helping customers understand how to use foil effectively within their artwork. Early on, many designs incorporated excessive foil coverage, which did not work as well, but over time customers developed a better understanding of how strategic, selective use can create a stronger visual impact,” Isbell says.

As for why she believes in-plants should hop on the embellishment train, Isbell says it’s more important than ever for in-house printers to really “wow” their customers.

“I believe the greatest opportunity for in-plants lies in their ability to provide premium applications with fast turnaround times,” she declares. “Expanding in-house capabilities not only improves efficiency but also strengthens an in-plant’s ability to compete with commercial printers. As in-plant managers, it is important that we continually evaluate customer needs and anticipate opportunities to enhance their printing before customers even ask. By introducing new finishing and embellishment options, we can help customers create more impactful printed pieces while delivering greater value and return on investment.”

Messiah University: The Challenge is Worth the Added Value

Dwayne Magee, director of Messiah Press and Postal Services in Mechanicsburg, PA, says he got the bug for embellishing when he first saw samples of specialty work being done by vendors at different conferences.

Messiah University Press used the Xerox Vivid Kit to embellish the university president’s retirement program. The piece won a Gold award in the In-Print 2026 contest.

“I was replacing a machine anyway, and we were learning about the capabilities of some of the machines where there’s not much added expense to add at least a little bit of capability,” Magee says. “Xerox offered this Vivid Kit, and they offered the gold, clear, white, silver, and they also offered a neon package.”

Magee says he was warned before purchasing the Vivid Kit that he might struggle to find paying customers — and admits that the prediction wasn’t far off.

“We haven’t had much use for it,” he admits. “It’s difficult to sell. It’s not cheap. And it’s often when someone has a project, they don’t have the time to go through the samples and have multiple proofs done. So, it does take some planning. And I don’t think I was aware of that when we were going about this decision making. But for me, it was just an added capability, value-add for not much more expense.”

That said, Magee and his production manager, Bill Althoff, have used embellishment to great effect on special projects like the university president’s retirement program — which earned the in-plant an In-Print™ 2026 contest award — along with some holiday projects.

“Just anything where the university wants some extra embellishment, but they don’t want to quite pay for ... like a foil stamping or something,” Althoff says. “And so, we kind of found that we can do something a little extra without putting a lot of cost into it. So, I think that’s really where we found use for it.”

And even though embellishment isn’t exactly selling like hot cakes at Messiah Press, Magee says the projects his team has done have garnered positive attention that makes him hopeful for the future.

“I can say that I’ve seen two or three projects, especially that one that we won the award for, the president’s retirement reception ... people passing it all over campus saying, ‘Did you see this? ... We need to do that for our next project,’ Magee observes. “It’s been received very positively.”

Magee has two lasting pieces of advice for any other in-plants that are considering adding embellishment:

1.  » Outsourcing helps: When the in-plant was first kicking around embellishment, instead of investing in equipment right away, the shop outsourced the work. “We slowly build up to the acquisition in that we will find vendors who have the capability and maybe outsource some projects and track not only the customer feedback, but the expense and the ‘Is this going to be something that gets traction and people are going to want more of?’ So, we actually did some projects with embellishments with outside vendors before we took on that ourselves,” Magee says.
2.  » Don’t assume anything: “Thinking if you build it, they will come is not a valuable strategy. They will not come. You will build it and they will not come. So, you’ve got to find other ways to make it exciting.”

University of Alabama: Increasing the Impact

Although not all of the University of Alabama’s embellishment work is done in-house, Wayne Meherg, director of Printing Services for the Tuscaloosa, AL-based in-plant, prides himself on working with customers to achieve what they want for the least amount of money.

Assistant Director Brett Christman looks at an annual report cover produced by University of Alabama Printing Services, which features a spot varnish to give the piece some extra pop.

He explains that his predecessor bought a toner-reactive foiler that also does a soft touch laminate and one-sided laminate. In addition, the in-plant has a relationship with three or four vendors outside of the university that provide embellishment.

“They do the embellishments we don’t do in-house because we don’t have enough demand for the equipment. But we work with the customers to try to increase the impact on the piece that they have and do so in the most economical way possible,” Meherg says.

Currently, the in-plant has a five-color, 24x36" Ryobi 920 UV offset press which is able to do varnishing, and occasionally the shop reaches out to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to use its five-color RMGT 970 press, which also has a coater on it. This helped his operation print an award-winning annual report cover.

“It was coated with a soft touch coating by them,” Meherg says. “We printed it, sent it to them, they put a coating on it. We brought it back and then put the spot varnish on it, and that had a little bit of gloss that gave it more pop.”

In addition to annual reports, the in-plant also prints football scholarship letters and has tried to elevate them with embellishments.

“Every year, you’ve got to increase the pop on it,” Meherg says. “So, they escalated the amount of embellishments that were done to them, and ... we’ve increased it to an envelope that was embellished and diecut and assembled. We embellished it off-site and then did the diecutting and assembled the envelope here. It was just totally covered with embellishment.”

Although the in-plant isn’t doing all its embellishment in-house, Meherg feels this is working out well right now.

The University of Alabama uses its five-color, 24x36" Ryobi 920 UV offset press to embellish pieces with varnish.

“We will probably continue to outsource for the foreseeable future on a lot of this, just because the cost of the equipment is so expensive. And if you get the lower-cost equipment, you end up with the equipment that requires a lot more of an operator — and finding a skilled operator is getting harder,” Meherg says. “I would love to be able to buy the nice machinery, but the ROI on it is not favorable. And we are, at the end of the day, self-sufficient. So, we have to be judicious about the equipment we buy.”

As for Meherg’s advice to other in-plants that want to get into embellishment, he suggests, like Magee, they start by outsourcing this work.

“I would advise them to first do what we’ve done with developing an ... off-campus supplier, and then see where that takes your business,” he says. “If you spend the time to develop the work before you buy the equipment, then you can move in and grow that market.”