When metal coatings overshadow challenging coin designs: Key caveats

Did you know what? According to research, humans are naturally attracted to shiny objects.

If you're designing a challenge coin, you'll probably choose the shiniest metal plating. However, if you do this, you may run into problems where the metal coating exceeds the rest of the coin design.

Does high polish plating overshadow your well-designed design? Highly polished metal plating can make small details hard to see and writing hard to read.

Fortunately, there are many simple fixes that can solve this problem. Read on for some key tips to ensure that the highly polished coating does not overshadow the details of the coin.

Don't overdo it with high polish plating

When designing custom challenge coins, you naturally want them to be as compelling and appealing as possible. A common mistake people make when designing challenge coins is to choose metal coatings with a high gloss without anything to contrast with.

Highly polished metal plating can definitely lift custom challenge coins. However, if you have a complex design, the light-reflecting nature of the highly polished coating may make it difficult to see the details.

Instead of being able to easily see text and other design elements, you may end up having to squint to see these details.

Initially, the highly polished plating on the custom challenge coin looked impressive. But it's also easy to wash away important elements of your design. This doesn't mean you can't use a high-polish coating. But you should use it wisely.

Combined with matte plating

If high-gloss metal plating adds too much shine and glare to your custom coin design, you can increase contrast and reduce shine by incorporating matte plating.

The matte coating reduces the reflectivity of the highly polished coating. It reduces glare and can provide enough contrast to make your design more noticeable.

Choose Antique paint

A more effective way to stop high-gloss metal plating from eclipsing your design is to choose an antique finish.

Antique finish Challenge coins still have glowing raised areas. However, antique decor will make your design stand out more, as it will also add darkness to hard-to-reach areas.

Imagine that you are polishing an old, tarnished copper ornament. Higher areas where friction is more likely will become brighter. Those hard-to-reach areas still retain some primitive darkness.

On a challenge coin, this places the design elements on high relief. The "shadow" around any text, logo, or other raised area makes them stand out.

Color with enamel

Another easy way to ensure that the shiny metal plating on the challenge coin doesn't overwhelm the details of your design is to add colored enamel. Colored enamel can bring life and body to your designs. Not only does it make challenge coins more colorful and compelling, but it also makes your design clearer.

By adding color, you can also use color psychology and symbolism to add meaning to your designs.

If you add colored enamel to your challenge coin, this will cover some shiny areas. Even if you use enamel in most of the coin's design, the prominent edges, edges, and ridges will still have a shine.

If you want more high-gloss plating, you can also choose to use a portion of colored enamel in your design, such as a center badge, or a border ring.

Choose contrasting metals

If you really want your coin to pop and don't want the highly polished plating to obscure the design, you can also choose a metal that contrasts sharply with the color of your chosen enamel.

For example, if you're going to use a bright gold high-finish coating, cool colors like blue and green will work well. Yellows, oranges, and pinks are easier to mix with the color of the metal and less prominent.

Create 3D designs

If you want your design to be dominated by shiny metal plating, then a great way to make your design stand out is to choose a 3D design.

The look and feel of the 3D Challenge Coin is very high quality. You can add surreal details that really bring your design to life.

3D custom challenge coins are especially good if you want to incorporate buildings, mascots, badges, or faces into your design.

Work with custom challenge coin companies that offer revisions

Another important trick to ensure that bright metal plating doesn't overshadow the details of your design is to work with a custom challenge coin company that will allow you to modify your design.

That way, if you feel that your design details are being lost or not standing out enough, you can modify certain elements.

At Qunyigifts, we want our customers to be 100% satisfied with their designs before production starts. That's why we offer free design modifications. We will work with you until you are completely satisfied with your design.

How important is legibility to you?

The last thing to consider is how important is legibility to you? Do you want the text and design to stand out?

Or would you rather let the high finish coating be the main attraction? This is also fine if you like the look of a coin with a high-gloss metal plating, and you're not worried about details sticking out or being easy to decipher. However, if legibility is important to you, then you can use the above tips to make your design details stand out.

Need help choosing the best metal plating option for your design?

If you're worried about the highly polished coating obscuring the details of your design, consider adding color, doing a 3D design, or choosing a different metal. Are you unsure which metal plating option is right for your custom challenge coin? We can help.

Qunyigifts has been designing and producing challenge coins for over 10 years and we are committed to making our customers happy. Whether you need to design a law enforcement challenge coin, a military challenge coin, or any other type of challenge coin, we can talk to you.

Complete a free, no obligation quote. We will help you perfect your design, contact us via email /WhatsApp with any requests until the design is just right.