EMBROIDERY ARTWORK RECOMMENDATIONS

Many customers are not familiar with embroidery production, nor what makes for a good high-quality embroidered product. Even many professional designers are unaware what artwork should be for embroidery or screen printed textiles versus paper printing.

TEXT differs greatly from printed fonts. The detail of the font and the minimum size is limited. For example a 12 pt. font can be printed well on a brochure, looks good as a web file, but is impossible to reproduce with needle and thread.

Generally speaking fonts below 20 pts. do not sew well. The more detailed the font the larger it needs to be. For small embroidery use a simple font like Arial. Fonts below 24 pts. generally lose the unique features of the font and appear as simple block lettering. Fonts should not be spaced closely together in order to prevent the letters from sewing on top of each other. Remember stay large, bold and simple for the best product.

COLORS: Designs should be reduced to spot colors. Most web art is rendered in hundreds of colors, shades, blends, etc. which is not useable for embroidery. Our embroidery machines can produce up to 15 thread colors. Most corporate logos contain 3 to 4 colors. When designing a logo an ILLUSTRATION should always be used over a photographic design. Small details below 3/4inch need to be omitted. Photo editing effects such as shadowing, color fading, blends and bleeding, metallic fibers and blurring are not useable for embroidery. A Photoshop or Corel rendered shadow may contain 32 shades of gray, imagine trying to produce this in thread.

OUTLINES of objects or text need to be a minimum size (1.5mm or thicker). Outlining small text or object is NOT recommended as it will not produce clearly.

SIZE of your finished logo, including text, should be limited to 3 – 4.5″ wide for left-chest emblems on polo shirts or t-shirts. Cap embroidery is limited by the width of the front panel and the area from the visor to the crown. A cap logo should be no taller than 2.25″ and about 3 – 4″ wide.

ARTWORK FILES for embroidery should be sent to us as .eps (encapsulated postscript) file only. Web graphics (.gif, .jpg, jpeg) and Bitmaps are harder to recreate in an embroidery file. Faxed graphics are not useable. Business cards are usually to small and distorted to be copied. email us with questions on sending your design.

We work with .dst files , these are locked images. Once a file has been digitized the only part of the image that can be changed is the color of the thread, without incurring additional artwork fees.

Send us your image and we will quote you.

Accepted digital artwork formats
CDR- CorelDraw -AI – Adobe Illustrator -EPS – Encapsulated Post ScriptPSD – Adobe Photoshop -DST – Embroidery format
PUB – Microsoft Publisher format

If you would like a quote on any of the products you see fill out the form below.

By Laura Lake About.com

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.
Therefore it makes sense to understand that branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.
The objectives that a good brand will achieve include:

• Delivers the message clearly
• Confirms your credibility
• Connects your target prospects emotionally
• Motivates the buyer
• Concretes User Loyalty

To succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your customers and prospects. You do this by integrating your brand strategies through your company at every point of public contact.

Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot.

A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It’s important to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. After all your brand is the source of a promise to your consumer. It’s a foundational piece in your marketing communication and one you do not want to be without.

Author: Mary White

Posted: Aug 06, 2008

One of the best things a small business owner can do to increase visibility for his or her business venture is to participate in local trade shows and business expo events. Most communities with an active Chamber of Commerce or other membership based business organization have at least one annual expo designed to spotlight local businesses. The exhibit fees are usually very affordable, and participating is a great way to gain exposure for your organization.

Finding Events

To find out about trade show events in your area, it’s a good idea to get involved in appropriate professional organizations and networking groups. You should also scour the business section of your local newspaper on a regular basis to find out about upcoming opportunities. Many television stations, municipalities, and convention and visitors bureaus also post upcoming exp events on their online community calendars. The good news is that once you participate in a show, you’ll start to receive email and snail mail announcements of upcoming events.

Exhibit Considerations

Before you can participate in a trade show or business expo, you will need to develop or purchase a booth display. Displays can be as simple as tablecloths with a few brochure holders, or as elaborate as a full screen multi-media presentation. They can range from being very inexpensive to costing thousands of dollars.

Before deciding what type of display best meets your needs, it’s a good idea to visit a few trade show expos so you can see several types of displays in person. In addition to cost and design, factors you need to consider include: ease of transportation, ease or difficulty of set-up, and versatility.

Giveaway Goodies

In addition to creating or purchasing an attractive display, you’ll also need to come up with some type of giveaways to have at your booth. You should purchase some type of promotional items that include your company name, phone number, and website to give away during the events in which you participate.

Many trade show attendees look forward to collecting pens, mugs, notepads, coupons, and other goodies from vendors. Promotional items don’t have to be expensive to be appealing. They’ll attract people to your booth and serve as reminders of your company long after the event is offer.

Get Contact Information

You need to have a plan to get contact information from the people who stop by your booth. This will allow you to place visitors on your mailing list, as well as make follow-up phone calls once the event is over. Many trade show participants bring a door prize, and require visitors to drop their business cards in a basket or fishbowl in order to register. This is a win-win proposition for the exhibitor, who gets contact information from visitors, and the booth visitors, who get a chance to win a great prize.

Staffing Plan

When you commit to participating in a trade show, you have to be prepared to staff your booth throughout the event. An empty booth isn’t going to attract visitors or help promote your business. A major advantage of participating in trade show expo events is having an opportunity to meet new people and chat with them about what your business does.

Get Ready to Grow Your Business

Now that you know how to find local trade show events, it’s time to research opportunities in your area and create a winning trade show display. You’ll be on your way to developing new business opportunities in no time at all.

2) How long has the distributor been in business? There are many fly by night distributors that are here today and gone tomorrow. Make sure you choose one that will be in business the next time you are ready to order. Also, a distributor with many years of experience has withstood the tests of time and most likely has a lot of knowledge that could be useful for you.

3) Is the distributor part-time or full-time? Many of the promotional products distributors are part-time distributors which means they earn their bread and butter doing an unrelated job and the job as a distributor comes second to their primary career. This means you would also come second. This also means that they don’t have as much time to keep up with the current trends of the industry. They are not able to offer you the freshest advice on how to improve your campaign.

4) Check with the Better Business Bureau. You can search the BBB online database and check for complaints. Specifically, check for the resolutions. If a company consistently doesn’t respond to their complaints in a positive manner, I would steer clear of that business. If a company is not listed with the BBB, that should also be a red flag. They are probably not listed because they are afraid or they were not approved due to too many complaints.

5) Trust your gut! When you speak with the distributor, do you get a good vibe or a bad one? If it is a bad one, trust your intuition and call the next distributor that seems reputable to you. Keep searching until you feel comfortable with your choice.  Promotional products distributors are a dime a dozen, but knowledgeable consultants are harder to find.

Using a reputable and knowledgeable distributor will help ensure that your next promotional products marketing campaign is more successful.

Perfect Imprints.  Copyright 2009.

Have you had mediocre results with your tradeshow booths in the past?  Have you spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on your tradeshow display with little to no return on your investment?  Research has shown that promotional products increase your tradeshow traffic to your display and that promotional products of great value generate more sales leads than products of lower value.  In plain English please…If you give someone a $0.41 cheap pen, they probably won’t remember you.  If you give them something of value such a personalized USB flash drive, then not only would that tradeshow attendee remember you, but they would be more likely to do business with you.  In addition, the flash drive would be used over and over again yielding repeated advertising for your company.  Here are a few statistics:

• 72% of tradeshow attendees who received a promotional product emembered the name of the
company that gave them the product.
• 76% of attendees had a favorable attitude toward the company that gave them the product.
• Including a promotional product with a pre-show mailing increases the likelihood of an attendee
stopping by the booth.
• As a rule, promotional products of greater value generate more sales leads han products of lower
value.

If you are able to get the names and addresses of the show attendees, be sure and send them a promotional product and tempt them to visit your booth to receive a FREE gift.  When they get to your booth, you can give them a promotional item of value so they will remember you increasing your chances of closing a sale.

Source: 2004 study titled The Effectiveness Of Promotional Products In Tradeshow Settings conducted
by Georgia Southern University

How Promotional Products, Print and Television Advertising Impact Consumer Perception

Many traditional forms of advertising and promotion are losing ground to newer media. This trend presents opportunities for the promotional products medium. However, very little research exists documenting the effectiveness of promotional products when compared to and combined with other traditional forms of advertising such as television and print.

To further research this, a study utilizing the most critical demographic group ages 18-34 years was conducted for PPAI by researchers at Louisiana State University and University of Texas at San Antonio. The study which was conducted in a controlled environment, measured the:

• effectiveness of promotional products and compared them to two other media, television and print advertising
• synergistic effects of promotional products when used along with these other media
• consumer’s preferred medium for information about a product or brand

Those in the 18-34 age group are among the hardest for marketers to reach, one that nicely coincides with the population available in a university setting. From an advertising perspective, this audience is usually highly desirable.

If promotional products have an impact on this critical demographic group then the utility of the medium is likely to be expandable to other age segments.

The Method:

Participants in the study were exposed to three forms of advertising—television, print and promotional products. They were then asked to complete a 60-item questionnaire measuring their perceptions of the advertising.

In particular, the questions measured the following:

• advertisement credibility
• attitudes toward product, advertisement or promotional product
• product purchase intention
• referral value
• impressions of the advertisement
• perceptions about the product

East of Chicago Pizza graciously provided the advertisements for the study for a new pizza product. The company had previously run both the television and print ads. The promotional product created for the experiment was a 6 1/2” x 3 3/4” refrigerator magnet reproducing the front page of the print ad along with a calendar for the coming year. The sample consisted of 310 college students of whom 57% were female and 43% male in the 18-34 age group. Seven different groups of students were recruited for the study and each group was exposed to a different condition. These were:

Additionally, the research instrument also involved questions about media use, including an item requesting respondents to rank their preferred information sources.

Key Findings: Chart 1
Advertising Effectiveness Of The Three Mediums

• While the print ad came in first overall, the promotional product outperformed television across the board.

• Respondents preferred advertising through a promotional product to the television ad in terms of their positive attitudes toward the ad (41% to 18%), positive attitude toward the product (20% to 16%), message credibility (54% to 33%), purchase intent (25% to 17%) and referral value (26% to 16%).
• Adding a promotional product to the media mix generated favorable attitudes toward the ad in all cases (up to 44%) (See Chart 2).

Chart 2
Advertising Effectiveness Of Promotional Products In Comparison With TV And Print

* No statistically significant differences were found for purchase intent and hence is not presented in chart above

• Integrating a promotional product with the television commercial outpaced the two other media alone in message credibility and referral value.
• Integrating a promotional product with television and print increased referral value as well as credibility of the message.

Synergy

Promotional products when used in synergy with other mediums led participants to develop a more positive outlook toward the ad and the brand.

• In this study, groups who were exposed to promotional products tended to rate the message more positively than those groups not exposed to a promotional product (See Chart 3).

Chart 3
Respondents’ Evaluation Of Advertising Messages

(Exposure to TV and Print together vs. TV and Print with Promotional Product vs. Promotional Product alone)

• In some instances, the use of a promotional product as the ad medium alone achieved maximum impact, up to 69% in increasing brand interest and 84% in creating a good impression of the brand.

Brand Evaluation and Product

• In most conditions, the receipt of a promotional product as an ad medium is more effective in developing positive attitudes toward the product or brand than exposure to a TV commercial in conjunction with a print advertisement (See Chart 4).
• In all cases integrating the promotional product with a TV commercial and print advertisement proved more effective than the use of promotional products alone, or TV commercials and print advertisements in combination.

Chart 4
Respondents’ Evaluation Of Brand Or Product

(TV and Print vs. TV and Print with Promotional Product vs. Promotional Product alone)

Media Information Preferences

In addition to the actual experimental testing, respondents were also asked to indicate their top three generally preferred sources of information on food. The findings revealed:

• Promotional products were the second most preferred source of information following television advertising (see table below).

• Interestingly, while respondents advised that they prefer television commercials as a source of food product information, the experimental study revealed otherwise; statistically showing a more positive product and brand response with print advertising and promotional products over television commercials.

In a nutshell, promotional products

• may be effectively employed as a stand-alone advertising medium (second to television in terms of reported information value)
• add to the media mix, creating impact by supplementing other advertising media such as television and print
• are a useful information and reminder medium
• enhance impressions about both the brand and product
• Contribute to consumer intent to buy

The Authors

This study, using scientific methodology and statistical techniques, serves as baseline research to further document the value of promotional products in today’s competitive marketplace. The experiment was conducted in November 2006 for PPAI by Dr. Richard Alan Nelson, Ph.D. (Professor, Louisiana State University), Dr. Ali M. Kanso, Ph.D. (Professor, University of Texas at San Antonio) and Dr. H. Paul LeBlanc III, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, University of Texas at San Antonio).