Friday, September 13, 2019

Your Embroidered Logo: Shirt Colors?

Your logo design is finished! You love it! Now you’re wondering about shirt colors. What colors will work best? Pick shirt colors that contrast well with your logo colors. If your logo contains multiple colors, choose shirts that contrast with your business name. Want a subtle look? Use tone-on-tone colors to create a classy appearance. Still unsure? Have your embroiderer show you proofs of your logo against different background colors.

Friday, September 6, 2019

Your Embroidered Logo: to Difficult For Embroidery?

l’m often amazed by how a digitizer (person to sets up an embroidery design) can use thread to recreate a detailed design within a small area. Is there anything a digitizer can’t do? Well, there are some details in logos that are hard to recreate with thread. Here are some effects that generally don’t work too well when embroidered:

Decorative Fonts -  Fonts with solid, filled strokes are fine but pictorial fonts with lots of detail may be difficult to embroider.

Drop Shadows  - Drop shadows on fonts tend to muddy the readability of the font especially if the lettering is small.

Font outlining - Outlining can look sloppy when every stitch doesn’t line up perfectly with each letter.

Color Gradations -  Gradually changing from one thread color to another takes space.  This technique is best reserved for large embroidered logos such as jacket back designs.

So, what do you do if your printed logo contains one or more of these effects? Simplify. While embroidery can recreate an amazing amount of detail, embroidered designs usually look best when they are kept simple.

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Your Embroidered Logo: Offcenter Hat Design?

Cool! Embroidered hats with the logo centered on one side. You love the look but will that placement work for you? Its attention-getting but will your logo fit in that space?

Possibly. The area within one side panel is small. If your logo isn’t very wide it may fit (keep in mind it’s limited to 2.25” high) but you don’t want it to extend past either panel seam. If it almost fits try downsizing it slightly. Embroidered designs can only be downsized by 10%-20% if at all so that may not work. Your best option may be to use part of your design - possibly the image or your business name. Once you’ve chosen your small design print it at the correct size, tape it to a hat, stand a few feet away and see how it looks. If its readable and looks good you’ve got your offcenter hat design!

Sunday, September 1, 2019

Your Embroidered Logo: Pocket Placement

What? An embroidered pocket polo without the logo on the pocket? You’ve seen department store pocket polos with a logo embroidered on the pocket. Why can’t your business logo be embroidered on the pocket?

If you need a full-sized embroidered logo then you’ll need more room. Mass produced polos are embroidered before the pocket is sewn on the shirt so it’s easier to have a larger logo on the pocket. Very small logos can be embroidered on a pocket that’s sewn on but most business logos are too large for an embroidery machine to work from the underside of the pocket.

Where should your business logo be located on a pocket polo? Most people have their logo embroidered above the pocket but some prefer the right chest side especially if the shirts may be worn with items extending from the pocket that might cover up the logo.