What Is Gold Leaf Film?
We use three styles of gold leaf film for most of our classy boat names. This yacht, Golden Light, looks great with Florentine swirl gold leaf lettering. Gold leaf film is our go-to material for naming sailboats and powerboats with fiberglass hulls. Once we apply a new name to your gelcoat, it will look good for eight years or longer. In contrast, paint breaks down faster, and it’s far harder to remove. Because our gold leaf sits on a vinyl base, we can remove it quickly when the time comes. Even so, your hull may need a little buffing to clear away the faint shadow of the old letters.
Silver Leaf for Classy Boat Names Too
Besides Florentine, we also offer burnished and engine turn gold leaf, and all of these finishes come in silver leaf as well. Our most popular and traditional film is engine turn gold leaf, the kind you often see on fire engines and luxury yachts. We also use these films to make custom life rings and ring buoys that match your boat name. However, we don’t use film on teak name boards. For carved boat name signs, we use traditional patent gold leaf or palladium leaf, and we paint the outlines by hand. So let’s put your classy boat name on your life rings and teak quarterboards too!
Creating Contrast with a Secondary Color
Golden Light has a dark blue hull. That’s not unusual, but it does change our usual approach. Normally, we set off a gold leaf letter with a dark color, such as navy blue or black, because a classy boat name always needs good contrast. On a dark hull, however, we have to create that contrast with a lighter color. White is usually the best partner for a gold leaf letter and outline on a dark hull, and any shade of light blue works well too. It’s tempting to apply gold leaf with no outline on a dark blue hull. However, that can cause problems down the road.
Why Gold Leaf Film Is Hard to Remove
Gold leaf film has a very aggressive adhesive on the back. If you put it directly onto your boat, it can be trouble later. It doesn’t peel off the way premium Avery cast vinyl does. Instead, the film breaks into tiny pieces, and even a heat gun won’t make it come off quickly. Worse, it leaves all of its glue behind on the transom, so a removal like this can take eight hours. That’s why we always put gold leaf on top of another color, such as premium Avery cast vinyl. As a result, you’ll save a lot of trouble when it’s time to change the name.
Order Your Classy Boat Name Today
When you’re ready for a new boat name, we’ll ask a few questions, and then we can usually send you a quote within a day or two. We letter boats from our Edgewater, MD shop throughout the Annapolis area. Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of the photos on our site.
Contact Designs & Signs
The quickest way to get started on your project is to send us an email.
We can also be reached by phone at (410) 798-5115.