Whether a business card or product packaging, texture plays a huge role in your customers (or potential customers) assumptions of your brand. If a business values its brand identity - the visible elements of a brand like color, design, and texture - it should be represented through the entirety of the company, including business cards and product packaging. From just looking at or feeling a business card, your customers should immediately get an essence of what your brand is or stands for. An excellent example of this is when eco-friendly brands use 100% recycled, textured paper for business cards or packaging. By doing this, the brand communicates that its care for the planet goes above and beyond just its products or services they offer.
If your brand oozes of luxury and sophistication, your brand identity should illustrate that too. One of the best ways to do so through business cards and packaging is using a smooth, silk matte finish. Companies like Apple have taken full advantage of this with its packaging, which has a velvet texture and is smooth to the touch. Apple is a beautiful example of this as the luxury and sophistication of its products is reflected in its packaging through the simplicity of touch. But can touch and textures evoke emotion that can communicate a brand identity? We definitely think so! But don’t take our word for it, it’s science!
It Is Science
Our hands and fingertips are incredibly sensitive to texture and can easily distinguish different ones. From rough sand to silky fabric, we can clearly distinguish between these two and the broad spectrum of textures between them. When we touch a texture, information is transmitted from our sensors in our skin to the somatosensory cortex, which is part of the brain that interprets the sense of touch. In an article by Science Daily, Dr. Sliman Bensmaia (associate professor of organismal biology and anatomy at University of Chicago) said, "Objects can have textures that we can describe in simple terms like rough or soft or hard. But they can also be velvety or cottony or furry. The variety of different adjectives you can use to describe texture just highlights that it's a rich sensory space. So, it makes sense that you need to have a rich neural space in the brain to interpret that too."
Two of the most touch-sensitive branding points are business cards and packaging. It is, therefore, essential that these two evoke pleasant emotions in potential customers.
But Can Texture Truly Evoke Emotion?
The simple answer is yes. Different textures evoke different emotions in people. According to the results of an experimental study published in Science Blogs, when female participant A was asked to feel various textures, it evoked different emotions. The most vivid emotions were evoked by silk, which brought about a strong feeling of happiness and contentment. Additionally, denim evoked feelings of disgust and depression, corduroy invoked confusion, leather invoked the feeling of being criticized, wax evoked embarrassment, and sandpaper brought about guilt. As part of the same study, female participant B was given the same or similar textures which evoked different emotions. Like participant A, smooth textures made her feel calm, while textures like wax and corduroy evoked disappointment and disgust.
But the discovery of smooth textures evoking pleasant emotions is not uncommon. Another study ‘Textures that we like to touch: An experimental study of aesthetic preferences for tactile stimuli’ published on Research Gate, also proves that after various experiments, ‘smooth textures such as satin and tinfoil were rated as the most pleasant.’ We can, therefore, conclude that having a smooth, silky texture associated with your brand will leave your customers with a pleasant feeling.
Smooth Textures In Business
As mentioned above, two of the most touch-sensitive branding points for a business is business cards and packaging. It is, therefore, essential that these two evoke pleasant emotion in potential customers. Whether you’re a spa owner, vintage car repairman, hair stylist or travel agent, one of the easiest and most affordable ways to add a silky smooth texture to your brand is through business cards. By adding a silk coating or finishing to your business cards, you will leave potential customers with a pleasant feeling toward your brand.
As one of our most popular finishes, the silk matte coating has been described by our customers as luxurious, sophisticated, simple, and smooth. The velvet texture of this finish has become somewhat of a trend as more and more brands choose to use this texture. Even though other finishes like gloss are still beautiful, a silk matte finish is an obvious better branding choice. Why wouldn’t you choose a sophisticated finish that evokes good emotion within customers? If you want this beautiful texture for your brand, then order our silk business cards.
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