A crate gets handled, stacked, dragged and stored. Whatever you put on it has to survive that, and the three methods behave very differently.

Laser engraving

The laser burns the mark into the grain, so it is a permanent feature of the surface rather than a layer on it. It cannot rub off, it does not scuff at the edges where a crate takes its knocks, and it darkens slightly with age as the wood does.

It holds fine detail well — considerably finer than most people expect on pine — but it is monochrome. The mark is the colour of scorched wood, and no amount of asking will make it your brand blue.

Screen printing

Printing gives you colour, and that is the only reason to choose it. On a crate that will be handled it starts scuffing at the corners within weeks and looks tired within a season.

If the crate is a single-use presentation piece that will be photographed once and then kept indoors, printing is defensible. For anything reused, it is not.

Branding irons

The traditional method, and it looks it: a heavy, slightly uneven burn with a lot of character. It is genuinely charming on rustic products and hopeless for fine detail, because the iron has to be a physical relief plate.

It also costs a tooling charge per design, which laser engraving does not.

How to choose

Reused crate: engrave. Colour is essential to the mark: print, and accept the lifespan. Rustic single mark with no fine detail and a long production run: an iron is worth considering.

We will tell you which we think your artwork wants, including when that answer is the cheaper one.