Designing and customising your own ceramic mug as a personal or corporate gift can offer your business many advantages in this competitive environment. Designing ceramic mugs is great for corporate gifting as it's a great gift for events like holidays, anniversaries or promotional events. A ceramic corporate gift mug can be customised to print your company logo, brand, advertisements and patterns. Coffee mugs are made of ceramic which makes them suitable for some printing methods.
Screen Printing
Screen printing is a process to transfer a logo, design or artwork onto a flat ceramic surface using ink or dye. The printing machine not only can be used on ceramic mugs but can be used on any object or container which makes it a popular method for industrial and home printing. Screen printing is achieved by creating a screen and using that screen to apply layers of dye wrapped onto the face of the mug. A major advantage of this method is that the screen can be reused multiple times, thus reducing production costs. This, cost effective method makes it a great option to consider for printing logos on a ceramic mug on a budget when customising corporate gifts. One major limitation is that screen printing can only use or two colours at most giving rise to simple designs. In addition, the printed dye durability may start to fade with time.
Pad Printing
Pad printing is a method that prints 2D designs onto a ceramic mug, flask, container or any object by a digital machine. It's a process that involves transferring dry or ink from a silicone pad onto an object to generate a printed image or logo. This technique is more suited for more complex patterns and objects that don't have a perfect cylindrical shape. Pad printing allows for more colours and finer print in contrast to screen printing. However, one problem limitation with this method is speed. Adding multiple colours need to be added separately which delays manufacturing rate. Despite this limitation, pad printing is still an effective and common method for printing ceramic corporate gifts.
Water Transfer Printing
Water transfer printing is a technique to apply printed designs onto most objects. This method is suited for ceramic mugs due to not being affected by water. Designs are created by preparing a special hydrographic film that floats on top of the water tub. The ceramic mug or object is then dipped into the container and the paint sticks to the surface of the mug. This printing method is very fast and efficient as it can produce a large amount of customised corporate gifts in a short period of time. However, this technique is generally suited for simple patterns or single colors.
Sublimation Transfer Printing
Sublimation printing uses heat to transfer ink to print on an object. An advantage of this method is that the designs can be complex and they are permanently printed which makes it one of the best options for corporate gifting. A design is printed on special paper which is then passed through a machine under heat. This image is then pressed onto the ceramic mug and allowed to cool to let the ink stick onto the face of the mug.
Conclusion
All methods mentioned are all viable options for printing your company brand, logo or design on your desired ceramic mug as a corporate gift. Customised printed designs make perfect ideal corporate gifts and souvenirs for employees, clients and for special promotional events. The best method to consider would depend on quantity, time constraints and budget. For simpler designs and faster production, screen printing and water transfer printing are two good options for designing your thermos as a corporate gift. However, for more complex designs no time constraints, pad printing or sublimation transfer printing are recommended options.
FAQ
No, as coffee mugs are made of ceramic which can withstand high levels of heat stress during printing.
You can absolutely print your company logo, brand or design on a coffee mug with many printing methods to choose from.
There are many methods to consider such as screen printing, pad printing, water transfer printing and sublimation transfer printing
Graduated with a Masters degree from Ireland with a Masters degree in Business Information system. English native speaker specialising in business and data analyst. Currently enrolled in Tunghai University's language centre for studying Mandarin Chinese and undertaking a student marketing internship at SourceEC. My role involves content writing, SEO analysis and web page optimisation After my studies and completion of this internship, I am hoping to pursue a career in data analytics in the digital marketing field in Asia.
