Not always!!! Often times you will hear RGB or PMS colors. There really is a reason for this. When you had your logo designed, you carefully chose the colors that you liked and that fit your brand.

The graphic designer may have shown you a booklet full of different colors or just simply showed you how your logo would look with different colors. The book was most likely full of Pantone Colors. This is the best way to make sure your logo is consistent from one media to the next is by choosing a pantone color.

Pantone colors are not always able to be reproduced exactly. Embroidery is a good example of this. There are many different thread colors but not as many as there are pantone colors. Because of this, we simply find the thread that is the closest match to the pantone color.

Here are the three most commonly used color descriptions:

RGB – Red, green, blue – This is mostly used for web and photography for displaying the images in electronic systems.

CMYK – Cyan, magenta, yellow, black – This is used for printed material such as the four color process. It is often times used to describe the printing process itself.

PMS – Pantone Matching System – This is a standardized color reproduction system.

Labels: Embroidery, Logo, Logo colors, Pantone Matching

Have you heard of .eps or .ai format?

When you placed an order for promotional products or embroidery you were probably asked to provide your logo in .eps or .ai format. Were you confused about what these are? If so, you are not alone!

Below are brief descriptions to help you understand the differences:

.eps - Vector art file – This can be enlarged or shrunk without losing the quality of the artwork.

.ai - Illustrator file – This is also vector artwork that can be enlarged or shrunk without losing the quality. We prefer the original artwork with the outlines. Sometimes we do not have the same fonts that you may have. If artwork is given to us and the fonts are not in outlines then the look of the logo can totally change if we do not have the same font file.

.psd – Photoshop file – This is mostly used for photographs. Photographers like this program to edit photographs or create collages.

.jpg – This is the most common format. It is a compressed file to help in reducing the storage size.

.gif – A bitmap image – This is commonly used on the web. It is well suited for simpler images.

.tiff - A computer file format for storing images, including photographs and line art. It is typically used for printed

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Labels: Embrodery, file endings, Logo, Promotional Products

Labels: Embroidery, Fishers, Good Embroidery VS Bad Embroidery, Good VS Bad, Indiana, indianapolis, Kristie's Kreations, Logo, logos, Networking

Today I was in a meeting with a client and he mentioned Mr. T and then followed it with, 'You may be too young to know who he is".  Well, I am definitely not too young to know who Mr. T is but I have to admit I did not remember the Mr. T quote he was mentioning.  Then later in the day, Nathan, my soon to be 6 year old, was watching Scooby Doo.  As I sat with him, I starting thinking about all the things that TV characters can teach us.  Then I remembered a conversation that I had with Erik Deckers about what Gilligan's Island can teach you.

I wondered, in a weird sort of "spent too much time in the Mystery Machine" way, what could Scooby Doo and the gang teach us about promotional products.  Here's what I came up with:

[caption id="attachment_400" align="aligncenter" width="163" caption="Scooby Doo Backpack picture"] [/caption]

1.  Scooby-Dooby-Doo, Where are you?. . . make sure others can find you from your imprint on the promotional product!

2.  Logos mean everything for Name Recognition. . .even 'Scooby Snacks' have a logo!

3. Keep trying different things until you find just the right one that works for your company. You may make a few mistakes along the way but something will always work out!

4.  Get away from the monsters (your competition) by standing out in the crowd.

5.  Promotional Products are like "Scobby Snacks". . .everyone loves them. . .  even Shaggy!

6. Even the littlest promotional product can 'catch' your business. . . just like Scrappy!

7.  Don't run away from something different and unique. . . it may come back to haunt you!

8.  Be like Freddy. . . .Always have a plan!

9.  Confront danger with a hearty "Zoinks!". . . or better yet, don't get discouraged, you will find the right product for your business!

10.  Have a great tag line. . . Scooby Dooby Doo

Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all!  Not only do some of them really make sense but it was also fun doing it!  In fact, I had Nathan help me write some of them!   Great job Nathan!!

Labels: blog, Embroidery, Erik Deckers, Fishers, Indiana, indianapolis, Kristie's Kreations, Logo, logos, Promotional Products, Scooby Doo

Sunday morning Mark brought me the Business section of the Star Newspaper and said look at this.  In the upper right hand corner of the newspaper was a small picture of one of our clients, Steve Gray of  Steve Gray Renovations!  How exciting!

[caption id="attachment_387" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="        Steve Gray with GREAT Embroidered Shirt!         The picture found on www.indystar.com."][/caption]

Steve had a very nice article in the Business section about how he started his business five years ago and how he has been able to see it continue to grow! If you would like to read the article, here is the link.  I am sure you remember Steve because I have spoken about him several times on my blog.  The first one is found right here on this link.  He is the reason that I had to get the Wii for Christmas!!

Congratulations Steve!!

By the way, I LOVE the embroidered Turtleneck!  I hope it is keeping Steve's Neck Warm!!  Where did you have that done. . . Kristie's Kreations?

Labels: Accomplishment, blog, Embroidery, Fishers, Indiana, indianapolis, Kristie's Kreations, Logo, Newsletter, Steve Gray Renovations, Website

Well, back to the limits of embroidery. . .  . One of the problems that I come across frequently is a previously developed logo that is just not embroiderable as is.  This can be for multiple reasons but for this post the reason will be the fonts in the logo.

When we are setting up (digitizing) a logo that will be embroidered on a shirt, we have many things to remember and take into account.  These factors include, but are not limited to, the size of the person who will be wearing the shirt, what material it will be going on, the look of the logo and then its overall size.

Some logos given to us are perfectly fine as they are and look great when we embroider it.  Others have to have changes made to them.  Have you ever noticed that a logo someone is wearing on the left chest of their shirt may be different than the logo displayed on their website or on their business card?

The reason for this is probably because of the font.  Maybe there was a lot of little words below the main part of the logo.  Was the font was too small even to read on the business card?  Or could it be because there was shading in the logo?

We find that typically the reason is simply because the font is very small.  When this happens we have to speak with our customer about how their logo will look.  We have to find out if they are willing to change their logo a little bit.  This usually means taking some parts of the logo/wording off.  Is there a part that is not really that important that it be with the logo?  Can it be placed in another location on the shirt such as the sleeve or the back?

You may say, "But that is my logo, why can't it be included when you embroider it?"  The thing that you have to think about is that we have a certain area in which we have to put the stitches for the logo.  There are just certain physical limitations when you are dealing with material, needle and thread.  A stitch requires that the needle, with the embroidery thread in the eye of the needle, penetrate the material twice to develop the stitch.  There is only so much physical space for the needle to go into on the material where we want the logo to be placed.

With the fonts we try not to make a font less than 6mm tall or 1/4".  For the reason above as well as it just will not look good.  We do not want to make the logo too large on the shirt.  we try to make them look good on the average size of a shirt.  Have you ever seen a small women with a logo that looks like it takes over her shoulder?  That logo is just too big and does not look right on her!  Why didn't they think about this when they developed the logo or is this the way she wants to look?

Have you ever seen me wear my logo?  The wording at the bottom of the K's is really the maximum width that you want a logo to be.  I do this for two reasons.  One being that it is small lettering so it does not look that bad at that size.  The second reason is so that I have an example of the maximum width of a logo.

So, did you learn a little bit more about fonts and the limits to embroidery?  Now you know why a logo might look a little different on their shirt than their business card they are handing to you.

If you see that lady with her logo taking over her shirt or shoulder, and are confortable saying it, tell her how it looks and that you know someone that can make it look better on her!:)

Labels: digitizing, Embroidery, font, Kristie's Kreations, Logo, logos

I know that I have been talking a lot lately about making your logo not shout out at others.  This is great for some but others really want their logo to stand out.  Still others do not change the look of their logo in any way.  In fact, they make sure that the clothing or item that their logo is going on will not clash with their logo or that it is not the same color as their logo.  They are very particular in deciding which item to purchase because they want the logo to stand out. Either of these choices are fine.  My job is to not only help you decide what to put your logo on and how to do it but to also make sure that it looks GREAT either way you decide.

The way that this is done has to do with the digitizing.  You may be saying "the what?" and if you do not know what digitizing is that is OK.  An easy description that you might have heard me say before is creating the stitches for your logo.  This is a detailed process and can be a very time consuming.  It may take us an hour to create a logo or days to create a logo.  I am very particular about the way that a logo looks when it is sewn out.  This has taken us years to accomplish the look and desire that we want.

When we first started Kristie's Kreations in 2001 we began digitizing and have continued to do it ourselves ever since.  I have to admit, Mark is really the one that does the digitizing.  It is very similar to Auto Cad and since Mark has an engineering degree, he has experience with it.  The digitizing did not come easy but it was much easier for him than myself.  We have both had the training but it has been much more difficult for me to pick up.

The set-up of a logo consists of spending time on the computer with the embroidery program as well as sewing out samples on the embroidery machine.  We may sew out a sample of a logo two times or 10 times before we show it to our customer.  I make sure that I am happy with the logo before I show it to you.  Even if I am happy with it does not mean that you will be happy with it.  If you are not happy, that is OK.  We will change it until you are happy!

The digitizing is just another limit to embroidery like I mentioned last week.  There are many factors to remember when setting up a logo.

Another thing that I hear often is how unhappy a customer is with their logo.  They had another company embroider their logo for them and they are just not happy.  Ninety-nine percent of the time this is because of the way that the logo was digitized.  A pure example of this is on our Testimonials Page as well as shown here.

[caption id="attachment_155" align="alignleft" width="231" caption="Competition sample"][/caption]

This particular customer called us on a Thursday.  They were very unhappy with the logo that someone else had done for them.  They asked if I could do a better job.  The problem was that they needed the shirts Friday for a walk that weekend.  We were able to digitize the logo so that it popped and then embroider it on the shirts for them so that they could wear them to the walk!  They were very happy so we were happy!  Can you tell a difference?

Do you ever hear how unhappy someone is with their embroidered apparel?  Is so, please give them my name.  I am more than happy to help make them happy with their logoed apparel!

Labels: digitizing, Embroidery, Kristie's Kreations, Logo, logos

Yesterday I mentioned that mistakes can happen to anyone. We are only human! One pure example happened the other night. We were working on an order for one of our best customers! We had a few items that were purchased from us and a few others that our customer purchased elsewhere and gave to us to embroider the logo on. This ended up being a two day order. We were embroidering the exact same logo as the night before. but for some reason this time the machine decided to change the black to sew out as green. I could not believe it!

Looking at the label, I recognized the manufacture as well as the store that sells it. After going to two different locations I came to the realization that I would not be able to replace the same shirt for my customer.

I called her and explained what happened. She gratefully accepted my dearest apology as well as a replacement shirt from one of our suppliers. We strive for the best and try not to have this happen but unfortunately it does. If we are honest and explain to our customers what happened then they are understanding! Thank you by the way for understanding!!

Labels: Embroidery, Logo, logos, mistake