Printed, not filled.

Two ways to get colour onto a pin

Almost every record in this library is die struck soft enamel: the design is stamped into metal, leaving recessed wells, and coloured enamel is poured into each well. The raised metal lines between colours are part of the look — that is why enamel pins have that slightly jewelled, sectioned appearance.

This one is offset printed. The artwork is printed onto the pin face as an image.

When printing is the right answer

Enamel has a hard constraint: every colour needs its own well, separated by a metal line. That is fine for a logo with flat colour areas. It fails for:

• Gradients — enamel cannot fade one colour into another
• Photographic elements — a face, a skyline, a photograph of anything
• Very fine detail — below a certain width, the metal line separating two colours is thicker than the colours themselves
• Colour counts — every additional enamel colour is another fill

Printing has none of those limits. It also doesn't have enamel's depth or the metal line work, so it is a genuine trade rather than an upgrade.

The test is simple: could you draw this design with a fine metal outline around every colour? If yes, enamel. If no, print.

The order

Two designs, 250 pins each, two inch. Two moulds, one shipment, one purchase order — the same combining logic as any multi-design order.

Ordered the day after quoting, flagged rush, with a two-week in-country window.

Why this one is here

Because most teams are never told printing exists. They send artwork with a gradient in it, get a proof that has flattened the gradient into two enamel colours, and assume that is just how pins are. It isn't — it's how enamel is.