Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Your Embroidered Logo: Looking for New Ideas?

 Consider these design ideas when creating your new logo:

  • Use a mix of unexpected colors. Experiment with new shades such as warm greens, oranges, and orange-reds or cool greens mixed with different shades of aqua. 
  • Place some text on a slant.  Just make sure the remaining elements in your logo give your design an overall balanced look.
  • Use gold for a thread color.
  • Create your entire design around a short URL name. If it consists of two or three words consider having each word in a different color, size or font for easy readability.
  • Interlock or overlay one or two design elements to create a more unified appearance.


Monday, March 18, 2024

Your Embroidered Logo: Simplify Colors!

Simple is best for embroidered logos! Keep the number of colors in your design to a minimum. Multi-color designs can lose their distinctiveness and finding a garment color that contrasts with every color in the logo can be more difficult. Single-color designs can be especially easy to work with. Many businesses use one bold thread color such as a shade of red or blue and have this single-color logo embroidered on a variety of shirt colors. Other groups vary their logo color depending on whether the garment is light or dark with dark apparel embroidered in white thread and light items embroidered in black or navy-colored thread. 

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Your Embroidered Logo: What Doesn't Work Well?

While a well-designed and executed embroidered logo can look great, not every printed design translates well into embroidery. What doesn't work well for an embroidered design? 

  • Small, isolated objects such as a group of tiny stars separated by space. Why? Very small objects or areas of thread can look 'lost' on their own. 
  • Outlining of text with a narrow outline. It's doable but often looks messy because it's hard to correctly place an outline when dealing with thread and fabric. Areas such as the inside of letters can look muddy. Text usually has a cleaner look when outlines are avoided although eliminating an outline can affect how well the color of the text contrasts with the background or garment color.
  • Lots of small text. One to four words of small text can work as long as it's divided into two lines but additional wording is too much for a small embroidered design. 
  • Small negative areas where the garment color shows through the design. Negative areas can lose their shape especially when they are small. These areas must be embroidered in a thread color that matches the garment color to maintain their correct appearance. Dark thread colors like black are easier to match to the garment color while lighter shades can be more difficult.

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Your Embroidered Logo: Color Limitations?

Most commercial embroidery machines have fifteen needles so fifteen different colors can be used in a design. While many logos have one to four colors, some designs have over fifteen colors. These designs are doable but they require stopping the machine additional times for rethreading which adds to the running time and cost of the logo. What are your options? Consider limiting the number of colors in your design. Often, a neutral color will work in more than one area, especially if the area is very small.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Your Embroidered Logo: Recreate an Existing Design

Need to recreate an existing embroidered design but you don't have the original digitized file?

If you have your artwork file that's a good start. In addition, you'll need to measure your existing design and take a closeup, overhead photo of it. This photo will give additional information such as what stitch types were used, spacing, and other modifications that may have been made when adapting your artwork into an embroidered design.

What if you don't have the right artwork? You can use what you have or your photo to have vector artwork created.  Once you have your vectorized file, proof it carefully. In addition to checking the elements of your design, make sure the colors are correct, especially since colors can appear to be very different online. If you're unsure about the colors, request an embroidered sample.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Your Embroidered Logo: Get an Accurate Quote!

Need a quote for embroidered garments? Wondering what information to send to prospective embroiderers?

Please include:

  • The general size of the logo (e.g. left chest or full front) and placement
  • Style number, size range, and color of items to be embroidered. Are the garments for men and women?
  • Attach your artwork
  • Additional needs such as names are to be embroidered on the shirts
  • Specifications about the logo such as required PMS matching or placement restrictions
  • Shipping address
  • Needed 'in-hand' date if necessary
If you don't have a garment style picked out, stating your requirements or preferences will help your embroiderer make suggestions that will work for you. For example,  you could say, "I need black button-down shirts for men and women in a wrinkle-resistant fabric" or "I need red polos for men in sizes XS-4X in a 100% cotton fabric".

If you are redoing a previously embroidered design and you want to duplicate that logo, include the logo's dimensions and a clear, overhead photo of your original embroidered design.

If you have multiple artwork files you can attach all of them and your embroiderer will pick which file works best for them.

Saturday, February 3, 2024

Your Embroidered Logo: Artwork First

Starting a business? Want to have business cards printed? That's fine if you already have a logo designed. But, what if you don’t have a logo? Think your card person can put together a quick design without charging you a design fee and then you can use your business card as your artwork?

While your printer might design a nice logo that works for business cards, this design may not represent your business well and translate easily into other mediums such as a left chest embroidered design or a web page logo. Instead of starting with a poor design that isn't unique to your business, spend time with an experienced designer who understands how to create a flexible design that can be modified to work for different mediums and represents your unique business. They can provide you with different versions of your logo in the proper file formats so your design can easily be adapted to different applications.