7 FSEA Gold Leaf Awards: foil, die cuts and variable data
Seven printed pieces, each solving a different problem: a vinyl banner with raised foil and soft touch, gift boxes with a different name on every box, and a business card that opens a digital menu with one tap. I designed or directed all seven at bigDAWGS, from the die line to the press settings. One was an intern’s project I mentored. Together they won 7 FSEA Gold Leaf Awards in 2026: 2 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze.
2026 FSEA Gold Leaf Awards
7 awards
in 7 categories
2 Gold, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze at the 2026 FSEA Gold Leaf Awards.
Most corporate print looks good, then gets put down.
Structural UX covers how a piece survives being handled, shipped and used, not only how it looks. These seven pieces covered foil, embossing, die cutting and embedded tech for the FSEA (Foil & Specialty Effects Association) Gold Leaf Awards.
01 · Gold Leaf, Digital Embellishments (Miscellaneous): bigDAWGS Yoga Banner
The shop wanted an expo banner with raised foil and soft touch on vinyl. Standard hot lamination melts vinyl, so most shops laminate it cold. We kept hot lamination, which costs less in material, and set the heat and dwell time to laminate the banner without melting it. Then we tuned the raised foil to hold fine detail before the varnish cured.
My role: Concept and design. I set the lamination and foil settings with the press operator.
Result: It pulled people to the booth at the expo, and it won Gold.
02 · Gold Leaf, Digital Foil (Varnish Adhesive): Holiday Corporate Favor Boxes
Every box carries a different name in raised foil. Digital foil needs no plate, so a new name on each box adds no setup cost. Two foil passes, red and silver, sit under a raised UV layer, so I planned how the three layers stack without blurring each other. The boxes are digitally die cut too, which means one custom prototype takes under 30 minutes, and a 10,000 box run goes at the same speed.
My role: Designed the box and the embellishment layout, tested it with production, and art directed the product shoot.
Result: Gold.
03 · Silver Leaf, Digital Embellishments (Folding Carton): Holiday Corporate Gift Boxes
The die cut opens like a star to reveal the gift, instead of a lid lifting off. Each box has a name in foil. Variable foil is rare, because most shops find it too costly to run, and bigDAWGS could do it affordably. Soft touch coating and a raised texture make the box feel closer to fabric than paper. Touch was the point.
My role: Designed the whole box (die cut structure, foil pattern, coatings), tested the die with production, and art directed the shoot.
Result: Silver.
04 · Silver Leaf, Special Diecut: RE/MAX Premiere Pop-Up Business Card Set
No foil and no gloss. The fold does the work. The card stands as a tent, with the agent’s photo cut to rise above the fold like a greeter. It’s sturdy enough to stand on an open house table by itself.
My role: Designed the card and the die cut.
Result: We set a few out at a Toronto real estate expo, and people crowded the table to pick them up. It won Silver.
05 · Bronze Leaf, Embellishments with Technology: Gideon Portfolio videoBOOK
Gideon was an intern I mentored. I suggested a hardcover videobook instead of a printed portfolio, because an object someone holds does more in a job search than a stack of pages. I walked him through building the gold foil pattern from his own branding, since a pattern tied to a person is remembered where a plain foil block isn’t. A screen plays his reel when the book opens, and an NFC tap opens his contact menu.
My role: Mentor and director. Gideon designed and built it.
Result: An intern’s project won Bronze.
06 · Bronze Leaf, Foil/Embossing (Business Card): bigDAWGS NFC Business Card
The two foils do two different jobs. Holographic foil shifts as the card moves, which catches the eye before anyone touches it. Raised foil adds texture under the thumb. The NFC chip sits inside the paper, not on a sticker, so the card looks ordinary until someone taps it. One tap opens contact info, social links and video, and adds the person to a Google Ads retargeting list.
My role: Designed the card and its embellishments.
Result: After seeing it, brands including Moose Knuckles, Print Three and Fujifilm ordered NFC business cards of their own from bigDAWGS. It won Bronze.
07 · Bronze Leaf, Digital Embellishments (Client/Self Promotion): NFL Draft videoFOLDER
This began as a standard video brochure. CMYK can’t reach a true vibrant pink, so it ran on a Fujifilm Revoria PC1120 with an added pink channel, which gets closer to the colour on a screen. The gold is raised foil from an MGI press, which lays varnish down drop by drop. Drops that land too close merge and blur the detail, so UV light cures each drop almost instantly, and the foil roller runs at the temperature that lets foil grab lines that fine.
My role: Turned the standard brochure into the embellished piece: the colour approach, including the added pink channel, and the foil design.
Result: Bronze, awarded for the embellishment and colour work.
I worked side by side with the production team and our vendors: testing materials, refining dielines and finding each structure’s limits before anything went to press.
What the seven pieces have in common.
7 awards in 7 categories, from one Toronto team. What mattered more to me: treating the material itself (foil, die cuts, embedded tech) as part of the interface, not decoration added afterward.