Holographic shapes and brilliant colors that shimmer vividly in the light, bringing hot stamping on paper to life: With Prismateec™, Spanish artist J. Demsky, together with LEONHARD KURZ and its subsidiary Hinderer + Mühlich (H+M), has created an artistic work that blurs the boundaries between art, design, and technology.

Hot stamping on paper that comes to life with a colorful shimmer when exposed to direct sunlight? That is exactly what Spanish artist J. Demsky has achieved in collaboration with KURZ. J. Demsky is known for his unconventional art, which evolved from the sense of freedom of the 1990s and continues to push the boundaries of graffiti art to this day. In his studio Neofvtvro, he designs cross-media art forms intended to stimulate the audience’s senses through holographic effects and emotions.

From previous projects, J. Demsky was familiar with the possibilities offered by KURZ as a finishing specialist, and so both parties combined their expertise to create a unique art experience. J. Demsky’s artistic ideas, combined with KURZ’s high-end finishing products and technologies and H+M’s embossing dies, have led to an extraordinary result thanks to a close and inspiring collaboration.

Conceptual Challenges and Implementation

Prismateec™ is not simply hot stamping: It is an experimental project that combines holographic elements and design in a single work. To fully unleash its visual potential, the work requires direct sunlight. This is because the holographic embossing causes the work to constantly reinvent itself, transforming it into a dazzling, dynamic experience. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms flow into one another, creating a dynamically shifting visual composition.

The central challenge was to translate industrial high-tech finishing processes into an artistic embossing. Coordinating complex industrial finishing processes - typically used in the luxury packaging industry - and implementing them on an artistic paper format was demanding, but thanks to the excellent collaboration of all involved, it was a success.

For the 50 x 50 cm artwork, two embossing passes were performed using a BOBST hot stamping machine. In the first step, a flat embossing was performed with the transparent LIGHT LINE^® Laser Seamless TS-XL, and in the second step, a relief embossing was added using the LIGHT LINE^® Laser Seamless AL-XL. The embossing tools used for this were supplied by KURZ subsidiary H+M. A total of 500 copies were embossed as a limited edition.

Strong partners for extraordinary results

The Prismateec™ project clearly demonstrates how interdisciplinary collaboration can produce unique and innovative results when technological innovations and artistic visions come together. With our decades of experience in the fields of design, surface finishing, and printing and embossing technology, we stand by our customers. We perfectly coordinate design, finishing, and finishing technology so that you can realize your projects to the best of your ability.

You can find exciting case studies on this and other projects on our website, KURZ Feed - KURZ Graphics.