How to Avoid Overwhelming Your Design
Let’s say you’re just getting started on a design with our Signature Coins team, and you’re looking for a way to include a bright golden shine to the artwork. Choosing high polish gold plating will certainly give you the bright shimmer you’re looking for, however, it’s easy to get carried away and let the plating overwhelm your design.
We’ve made all kinds of beautiful coins that use high polish gold, silver or copper plating, and we’ve learned firsthand that when a reflective metal is overused in a design, it can become a distraction. To help you get an idea of what we mean, we put together a few examples that make the most of their high polish plating, as well as others that are better suited for an antique design or, at least, some extra colorfill to help the design stand out against the reflective metal.
When High Polish Plating Gets in the Way of a Great Design
High polish plating is perfect for giving a set of coins a higher perceived value and for making any type of design shine a little brighter. However, high polish plating can take away from certain designs, rather than add to them.
This coin, for example, is incredibly detailed, but it’s difficult to appreciate because of the amount of gold plating. This is most apparent in the skull designs on the back of the coin. While the artwork itself is beautifully crafted, the high polish gold doesn’t do it justice. Instead of being wowed by the intricate design, most people have difficulty squinting through the glare to see the finer points of the artwork.
The recessed areas of each skull are sandblasted to reduce glare, but with such a heavy concentration of gold, sandblasted plating alone doesn't provide enough contrast to help the artwork stand out. One possible solution is to leave the artwork unchanged and to use antique plating instead.
Antique plating is less reflective and makes the most out of the natural shadows between the raised and recessed levels of artwork. A bright gold, silver or copper coin will have a brighter appearance than its antique counterpart, but the darker hue of antique metal makes it easier to read text and appreciate the finer points of a design without having to look through the glare.
High polish plating is a free option while antique plating increases the cost of your coins slightly. Whether switching to a different plating option is outside of your budget, or you simply prefer the look of a high polish plating, another great way to add contrast and help your artwork stand out is to include more enamel color. Adding color will help you get the most out of a high polish design by bringing the artwork to center stange and making sure the high polish plating doesn’t outshine the rest of the design.
Using High Polish Plating to the Greatest Effect With Enamel Colors Since high polish plating can overpower a coin so easily, it works best as an accent rather than the centerpiece of a design. The gold coin with the skull designs from the previous section may have incredibly detailed artwork, but without any colors to add contrast, the details are mostly lost. Adding enamel color to a design allows the high polish plating to add a bright shimmer to the artwork without overpowering it.
This military birthday ball coin is made with high polish gold plating, just like the coin from the previous section. However, instead of leaving most of the design bare, both sides are filled with enamel paint. For the most part, the only gold plating visible in the design is found on the raised metal lines used to separate colorfill areas. The text around the edge of the coin is filled with black enamel, but the outline of gold plating around each letter helps the words stand out.
The Air Force coin uses a lot of blue colorfill as well. The artwork and text are clear and legible, thanks to the contrast provided by the dark colors against the bright silver metal. Without the added color, the eagle emblem on the front of the coin, and the flag design on the back would be almost impossible to see.
Different colors compliment different types of high polish plating. Copper plating, for example, pairs well with warm shades of orange enamel, but the same orange on a gold coin will most likely looked washed out. Darker colors like the blues and greens used in the military ball coin and the Air Force coin help the smaller areas of exposed gold and silver plating shine even brighter and draw the eye to certain parts of the design.
Make the Most Out of Any Plating Style
Our goal here isn’t to talk you out of using high polish plating, but rather to help you make the most out of any high polish design. Gold, silver and copper plating are excellent choices for all kinds of different challenge coin designs, and knowing how to make the most out of the plating will ensure you get the best coin possible.
It’s a good idea to avoid presenting large portions of your artwork in high polish plating alone. Using enamel colorfill to add contrast will give your artwork a chance to take center stage. Different colors work better with different types of high polish plating, but a good rule of thumb is to stick with darker enamel colors that will contrast the bright, reflective metal.
The best way to incorporate high polish plating in your design is as an embellishment, not as a centerpiece. Let your artwork breath by adding contrast in color and allow the high polish plating to frame the design and draw the eye to the more spectacular portion of the colored artwork.
