We all love a bit of bling on paper, especially the gold variety, or silver, or bronze…we’re not fussy! Matt Murcott, Director at Matte Gold sure knows how to make paper sparkle. Being in the business of embellishments, they specialise in foil stamping, embossing, forme cutting, holographics and even highly secure hologram foils.
Family owned and operated, Matt first sighted a foil-stamping machine as a child in the Moorabbin factory where his father worked. After countless school holidays cutting his printing teeth on the Milford Astor hand foil stamping press, at 17 years of age, Matt began his foilstamping apprenticeship. The rest is history. Matt shares: “Matte Gold was always going to be realised – it was just a matter of when…”
Now a Foilmaster in his own right, Matt and his team work on some seriously cool projects from shimmering candle labels to stickers for tattooists, specialised business cards with coloured foils and specialty applications like Perspex and leather. For the last five years Murcott has worked closely with the RMIT Design Management and students, sharing his knowledge of the trade and is also on their Program Advisory Committee.
The embellishment industry has come a long way in recent years and business is constant for Matte Gold. The biggest challenge has always been about education, for designers and consumers. Matt says: “Offshore options for consumers are slowly being reigned in thanks to poor quality and slow turnarounds but what remains is the ‘I want it now and I want it cheap’ issue… Designers are more inclined to ask questions before pushing the boundaries.”
When asked what the ultimate job would be, Matt said: “We do a bit of work with musicians and tried to get a spot producing some items for Midnight Oil’s tour this year, this would have been my personal dream project if we had pulled it off. Other than this, a lot of our work is so much fun and some days what we are doing right now, is dreamy enough.”
You can check out more of Matte Gold’s flashy creations here.