Marked for Life - Engraved USB Flash Drives
If you’re paying to have your brand or logo on a USB flash drive then ideally you want that image to be permanent. You want it to be optimised for to the available print space on the drive and you want it to “wow” whoever you’re giving them out to. Any promotional USB flash drive that has your logo on is really an extension of your brand so it needs to be a product/finish that you are happy to associate with your brand. There can be no compromise, it has to be right and ideally it has to be right over the life of the USB stick.
For some companies getting the branding right means a slavish adherence to the companies branding guidelines and in turn this means that the company logo can only be reproduced in colour. Occasionally it will extend to the actual colour of the USB flash drive itself with this having to be pantone matched to one of the company’s primary brand colours (all “doable” but at a small additional cost).
If you have to go down the colour route then printing really is your only option because whilst embossing or engraving the USB flash drives looks great you can’t apply any colours during these processes. Printed USB flash drives do look amazing (subject to the quality of the artwork used) but just like any printed product the colours will fade over time and printed logo may potentially “chip away” for flake off over time. It doesn’t matter how much the USB flash drives are primed before printing (to ensure a stronger print bond) or baked after printing (to harden the ink and improve the bond strength) eventually the print will chip and scratch – if you put the USB drives on a keyring then expect any printed image to disappear pretty quickly – they just can’t take the punishment.
One option that not only looks great but won’t chip away over time is engraving – engraved USB memory sticks, particularly wooden ones look amazing and the beauty of engraving on wooden USB sticks is that the engraved logo on it will age with the stick – OK it might take a few bumps and bashes along the way but the aging is sympathetic and looks in keeping. The brand integrity will be maintained and arguably enhanced.
The tactile nature of engraving is such that for many engraving is the preferred option rather than a choice just to ensure the longevity of the brand applied to the USB drive. Lots of professional photographers are now moving over to engraved wooden USB flash drives because they look amazing and they are an ideal choice for them to hand out to their wedding clients. When coupled with an engraved wooded gift box the end “packaged” results look stunning.
