Embroidery is a great way to show off your brand. It shows professionalism, adds a touch of class to your garment, and keeps your brand visible. For over twenty years, we’ve embroidered thousands of logos onto thousands of polo shirts, dress shirts, jackets, and bags…so we’ve learned a thing or two. For a company’s logo to look its best on embroidered products, it’s best to keep a few things in mind.
Keep it simple.
Embroidery is is best when tasteful and clean. Stitching creates a thicker line than ink, so a design that looks great on your tote bags and tumblers can become a messy blob with no detail when embroidered. Think of some of the most recognizable apparel you see in the consumer world: Polo, Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger, etc. All these brands have simple logos that are instantly recognizable and make a lasting impact. When it comes to embroidery, less is more!
Think about your material.
Embroidery is ideal for heavier fabrics that can take the weight of all the threads and stitches. Outerwear, denim, and knits are perfect examples. When you use lightweight fabrics, such as cotton or especially performance wear, it can cause the material to bunch up around the embroidery making it look permanently wrinkled. We often suggest screenprinting to customers for these types of materials.
Sizing and placement is everything.
No one wants a giant heavy logo embroidered across their chest. Aside from looking clunky, it can be itchy and annoying for the person wearing it too. Threads are a lot heavier than ink and can make the garment feel weighed down or distorted if the imprint is too large. Large imprints like full-front and full-back should be screenprinted. Embroidery works best as a small front left chest or sleeve imprint.
In general you want to keep your logo around a 3.5” square or smaller when possible. In addition to being clunky, larger logos are also more expensive to embroider. This is due to stitch count – when embroidering, pricing is determined by the total number of stitches the embroiderer must use. A good rule of thumb is that 1 square inch = 2,000 stitches, and every letter that you embroider is around 100 stitches (depending on font size, of course). So keep this in mind when thinking about the size you want your logo and how much text you’d like. Again, keep it simple!
Don’t go crazy with colors.
Just because you are not charged by the color (you are charged by the stitch count) does not mean you should go crazy with a design full of color. When you embroider multiple colors that are right next to each other, they usually end up having to overlap the stitching. This can cause a very thick, heavy imprint that can distort your garment or make it wrinkle around the logo. This is especially true if you try to embroider a gradient. You should never try to embroider a gradient, it’s a bad idea! It will never be a smooth transition between colors due to the fact that you are not using ink, but thread. Your embroidered logo will look best using a clean, simple color palette that consists of 1-2 colors. Once more, keep it simple!
So the takeaway here is when it comes to embroidery….keep it simple! Heavier fabrics are better then lighter weight ones. No one wants a giant heavy logo embroidered across their chest. A tasteful front left chest or sleeve imprint will look the best. Gradients will not embroider well, 1-2 colors work best.
Christina Ellis 