An image is first developed and printed onto a piece of plastic, which is heated so that it becomes malleable. This is then placed onto a mold that has the contours of the three-dimensional properties the final product will exhibit. A vacuum is then used to fit the print onto the form of the mold, creating the final product.
It typically takes numerous attempts to get distortion printing right. The printed image is stretched and distorted so that when it fits onto a three-dimensional surface, the final product will have a crisp, clean image. After the first few attempts at a print, the image will have to be altered slightly to make up for any inconsistencies in the final product. This is done on a computer image-editing software, like Adobe Illustrator.
Distortion printing is often used in advertising for in-store merchandise displays and point-of-purchase advertising. It's useful for making sturdy, graphically precise images on surfaces with raised lettering or an otherwise uneven texture.