‘Touch’ is one of the most powerful senses in shaping consumer perception.
When consumers can physically interact with a product’s packaging and feel its texture, weight, finish, and shape, it creates a deeper emotional response, a stronger sensory connection, and promotes long-lasting engagement.
This cannot be replicated with visuals alone and is a driving force for brands to seek embellishments that make their packaging stand out.
Tactile packaging engages the senses and creates a physical connection between brands and consumers.
From embossed glass jars to screen printed labels, there are a variety of ways to achieve this effect.
At London Packaging Week 2025, there is plenty to see, touch, and feel to get your creative juices flowing.
Look first, then touch.
Perigon (G34) uses a unique embellishment technique to turn glass bottles and injection-moulded plastic parts into individual and desirable objects.
It is the first in the world to offer a process that enables customers to use high-quality designs to decorate the entire surface of complex 3D objects. This is done in brilliant colours, with razor-sharp clarity and free from distortion.
The process works by having the desired image printed directly onto a thermoformable film with special inks. Using a vacuum oven, the film is first raised to a temperature where it becomes soft and flexible, and then a vacuum is created to form the film around the product. Via the chemical reaction of diffusion, the gaseous ink transfers to the amorphous structure of the substrate and the desired image is transferred from the film to the topper. The film is then removed, leaving the fully decorated object behind.
This creates striking and impactful packaging, without constraints of run size or pack format.
While Perigon is focused on the decoration of glass bottles and plastic parts, Vrijdag (H80) applies a wide range of finishing effects to paper and board to create desirable labels and packaging that emphasise the look and feel of a brand.
Microstructures are created using lacquering, soft-touch varnish creates a velvet-like feel, spot UV elevates specific areas of the surface, and metallic powder is used to ‘gild’ packs. These are just some examples of the finishing techniques Vrijdag uses to increase the tactile appeal of packaging.
The labelling arm of Autajon Packaging (D32), Autajon Labels Royston, similarly places a strong focus on decorative and tactile effects such as foil, varnish, embossing, and speciality textures. These create different qualities of packaging, for subtle and sophisticated textural experiences or those which generate a bold visual appearance, such as when overprinting cold foil for a rainbow of metallic colours and bespoke metallic finishes.
Hot foiling is used to create metallic, reflective, pigmented, holographic silver, and transparent effects, using flat and fluted foil blocking and textured foiling dies. Spot varnishes applied using flatbed or rotary screen-printing processes create height and enhance the look and feel of a label.
Even the humble laminating film, historically used for protection, is now available in a wide variety of striking textural and visual finishes. This includes options for high gloss, textured, matt, soft-touch, silk, and UV resistance.
Amberley Labels (F90) is a long-time user of embellishment technology from Kurz (H32) to create striking and impactful labels. This technology, Digital Metal (DM), works by digitally applying an energy-cured adhesive onto the substrate, with metallic foil then transferred from a carrier film. This process creates high-value metallic effects in one pass and can be integrated into a digital printing line and operated at the digital press’s speed. The adhesive in effect becomes the ink and can then be overprinted for additional impact. Amberley offers this under the brand named ‘ecoLux’, which is marketed as digital variable foiling technology suitable for brands wanting to make a unique, premium and sustainable impact.
Amberley’s other embellishment techniques include hot and cold foiling, embossing and debossing, and the use of speciality inks, finishes and varnishes. Specifically, a major investment in an A B Graphic Digicon Series 3 finishing line with the ‘Big Foot’ 50-ton stamping module supports the growing demand for luxury, multi-embellished labels. This allows for the creation of sophisticated 3D tactile finishes, including braille.
As well as the hardware needed to create the desired embellishments, Kurz manufactures a range of foils and pigments to add colour and lustre to packaging surfaces. Luxor® (gold and metallic) and Alufin® (silver) are aluminium metallised foils for high-quality hot stamping. The Light Line® product line is also suitable for hot stamping but is used to deliver holographic effects and a diamond-like appearance. These striking aesthetics highlight the premium nature of a product and invite engagement through tactile appeal.
For all products, Kurz has sought to improve their environmental footprint with embellishments. Surface finishing is now achieved with a delicate 0.02µm aluminium layer, and the substrate material thickness has been slimmed down to 10µm for hot stamping and just 6µm for cold transfer products.
Emboldened with embossing
Beatson Clark (G62) is the UK's only independently-owned glass manufacturer. It designs, manufactures, and decorates glass packaging for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical markets worldwide. Several decoration techniques are offered, including spray coating, screen printing, labelling, and embossing.
The company’s design team specialises in sculpted embossing. Using the latest software, they ensure that even with the most complex designs the embossing is perfectly defined.
A newly added premium in-house decoration service means glass packaging can be spray painted in any colour and achieve dazzling effects, such as opaque, frosted, vignette, glitter and pearlescent. This decorating plant uses both an electrostatic disc and a spray gun method to achieve a variety of colourful effects, with a quality finish. Premium water-based paints are used to deliver high gloss or full matt finishes, in a choice of translucency levels. Paint can be colour-matched to suit the customer’s requirements.
Amcor (E60), the global leader in packaging solutions for consumer and healthcare products, offers the Domino and Chameleon bottle types. Both are formed from high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Domino is a customisable, rectangular bottle with a 250ml capacity and includes a 75-millimetre-wide front face for high impact on shelf retail presence. In addition, the bottle’s side panels can be customised with distinctive, textured embossing or debossing. In addition, all four sides of the container can be printed, maximising opportunities for brands to combine tactile and visual elements to create a unique packaging experience with high impact.
Amcor’s 400ml Chameleon bottle has the unique feature of offering a variety of changeable embossed or debossed bases as standard, in addition to the option of customisation.
Whilst embossing is a popular option for branding bespoke containers, it is one of multiple decorative techniques Amcor offers to differentiate the look and feel of products and their packaging. This includes screen printing, labelling, spraying, full-body sleeving, etching, sandblasting, metallic coating, hot-stamping, and frosting.
Embossing is a popular embellishment technique for other forms of packaging too.
Tube (E14) offers customised embellishments on laminate tubes. This includes embossed logos and premium foil stamping for an elevated brand perception. This is identified as being of particular interest to the cosmetics market, where a striking and impactful appearance is paramount. The use of digital flexo, and screen-printing technologies, complemented by matt, gloss, and metallic finishes, creates a fully sensory experience that resonates with consumers.
Another example is that of Dapy (E32) and its work with luxury Swiss spirits brand VETA+, where embossing was used to bring the product’s moulded pulp secondary packaging to life. The embossed material is made from a blend of bamboo fibre and sugar cane residue.
Rather than embossing, Impact Emotion (J24) uses chemical etching to produce decorative metal plates that adorn a variety of products. These are made from stainless steel or brass and available in gold, silver, rose gold, or black plating. Chemical etching (engraving or cut out) is combined with screen printing for high impact. Plates can be sequentially numbered and have text added.
Even gift wrap can be augmented with unique finishes. Suttons Packaging (F60) offers a bespoke gift wrap service, whereby gift-wrapping papers in weights of 60gsm onwards can be personalised. This includes several formats and finishes, such as metallic, coated, and uncoated. Personalised designs in as many as four colours can be printed, with a full PMS colour matching service offered.
For the perfect finish for your products, make sure to visit London Packaging Week 2025 on 15 & 16 October at Excel in London, where these solutions and more will be on full display.