If the lion is the King of the jungle then the dragon is without doubt king in the kingdom of magical beasts. And whilst this doesn’t mean that the person born under the dragon sign is superior, they do certainly have the potential to stand out from the crowd!
Learn more about the characteristics of the dragon and the enhancements of the dragon card below.
 
Characteristics of the zodiac
The dragon is the only fictional or mythical beast of all the twelve signs of the zodiac. In China the Dragon, the Phoenix, the Qilin (Chinese unicorn) and the turtle have always been considered Si Ling – “inspired beings” – promising to bring good and good luck.
 
People born in the year of the dragon display a mysterious character and can be difficult to analyse. They have ambition, are dreamers, adventurous and strive for a romantic life. At the same time they do not let themselves be held back by secular views and naturally radiate an aura of importance. Dragons also have easily changeable personalities. In everyday life they can be very comfortable and easy but as soon as circumstances change they can become extremely active and ambitious – more so than anybody else. They can be extremely charismatic and can shine in many fields. Seeming to have endless energy and rarely showing signs of tiredness, they can accomplish several tasks simultaneously. Last but not least dragons are extremely intelligent and have a good understanding of many subjects; be those humanities, science or economics. No wonder many (Chinese) parents wish to have a child born in the Year of the Dragon._[1]
 
Years of the dragon
1928 | 1940 | 1952 | 1964 | 1976 | 1988 | 2000 | 2012 | 2024

Celebrities born under the sign of the dragon:

Paper: Metapaper EXTRAROUGH Warmwhite
EXTRAROUGH is an extremely tactile natural paper which perfectly combines touch with printability. It has a particularly appealing feel and is an extremely popular Metapaper paper. You can read more about EXTRAROUGH here in the wiki.
 
Finishing techniques

The metallic gold hot foil is applied in a stamping process where an embossing stamp is heated and pressed onto a film - the hot foil coats one side of the film and is applied to the substrate. Under heat and pressure the foil ink dissolves from the film and transfers to the substrate.

The white hot foil is applied in the same embossing method as the gold; the only difference here being the pressure - more intense pressure was applied to leave a stronger depression / embossing.

Relief varnish offers a tactile finish after application. In this case a slightly more viscous UV varnish was used and applied using screen printing. Subsequently, the paint is immediately dried using UV drying.
 
The interaction of these three finishes created a particularly dynamic image. In places with relief lacquer the metallic glossy foil looks quite different from those places without the relief. This contrast together with the silhouette, which was already present in the print image, creates multiple layers which give the card an almost 3-dimensional quality.
 
A detailed insight into the “making-of” the dragon card is available online at PAGE.
 
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To check out the other blog posts in this series simply click on the desired entry below:
Metapaper meets Chinese Zodiac