Saturday, February 21, 2009

Custom Embroidered Hats: Design On The Brim?

You want your custom embroidered hats to have an embroidered design on the brim. Can that be done? Yes, if you meet minimum custom order requirements of at least 75 hats. Embroidery on the brim or visor must be embroidered before the hat is assembled. Some hat manufacturers will do this if you meet minimum requirements. Before placing your final order inquire about approving a sample hat before your order is run. You'll have to pay a sample fee of approximately $25.00 but the cost is worth it.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Embroidered Hats: Get the Look You Want

You've placed an order for custom embroidered hats. You want to keep the cost down so you've decided to use just embroidered text rather than a full design. Your embroiderer can do that but you are limited to stock embroidery fonts unless you pay a set-up fee. That sounds fine but when you receive your embroidery set-up you're unhappy with the results. What should you do? Have your embroiderer do an artwork set-up using true type fonts. Using TT fonts will allow you a much wider range of font styles. You'll have to pay a small digitizing fee but you'll achieve the look you want.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Embroidery: Design Your Own Logo?

Just purchased Photoshop so you can create your own logo? Before being tempted to use cool-looking effects think about what elements make up a logo that is unique, memorable and appropriate for a business. The best logos have a simple design that is easily modified to work in a variety of mediums such as print, a web page or embroidered apparel. The largescale, detailed picture you created won't translate well into embroidery if you use complex gradients, shadows, small text and other fine details. Make sure your logo is designed at the correct scale, 3.5"-4", for most left chest embroidered logos. Print your logo and tape to a shirt. Can every element be easily read from a three foot distance? If any detail is borderline in print it will be unreadable when embroidered so it must be enlarged or eliminated. Remember, when it comes to logos, simple works best.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Embroidery Questions: Uneven Text?

You've ordered custom embroidered polo shirts. You've been emailed your embroidery set-up, a screen shot from the embroidery software. You view the file. Everything looks good except the text is very uneven! You've seen actual embroidered samples from this embroider and the text always looked fine. What's wrong?

Most likely the uneven text is due to a condition known as the"push and pull of embroidery". Depending on the shape of a element, some elements "push in" (shorten) while other elements "push out" (lengthen). For example, when a circle is digitized (translated into stitch format) it must be an egg shape to embroider as a circle. To compensate for this condition some letters must be created at a bigger size in the embroidery set-up so they will embroider at the correct size. If there's any question ask your embroider if they can email a scan of an actual sew-out of your logo.