Does your club crest need a re-draw?

Something we get asked a lot at 24/7 HQ is whether the logos that have provided to us are good enough for use in production. The answer isn’t necessarily a simple yes or no either, so we’re going to look at some of the typical pain points when it comes to logo submission for embellishment projects, as well as some handy tips to consider before your next order.

There might be several reasons why your logo needs a re-draw. For instance, if your logo or club crest is a small ‘jpeg’ file, we'll have trouble printing it as the image quality won’t be good enough. If it’s a high-resolution jpeg image then we’ll likely be able to use it for some print orders, but not all. This is typically where we see pain points arise as business because the only way we’ll know whether we’ll 100% be able to use your artwork is if it’s supplied in vector artwork format.

Let’s take a close look at file types and what we can do with certain ones…

Vector artwork files

Typically, Adobe Illustrator .ai files or .eps, .svg or even .pdf if it’s been created using vector drawing software. The holy grail of production quality artwork that we need.

• Suitable for: Everything (embroidery .dst files can be easily created from vector formats)

Flat (rasterised) artwork files

.jpeg images are generally ‘flattened’ ie. The image file contains no editable information and will be ‘locked’ onto a white or coloured background. This is not suitable for print projects where a transparent background is required (ie. anything that isn’t white). We can use .jpeg images providing the quality is good enough and a transparent background isn’t required, but it will depend largely on the quality.

• Suitable for: Some print projects on white backgrounds
• Not suitable for: Screen printing or printing on coloured backgrounds, embossing

Transparent background artwork files

.tiff and .png files may be usable providing the image quality in the file is good enough. If so, we can use these types of file to print on anything that is coloured.

• Suitable for: Most print projects
• Not suitable for: Embossing

Embroidery files

These are unique files that can only be opened using specific embroidery software. We create a .dst file from a vector artwork file or high resolution .jpeg. The .dst is then used for telling our embroidery machines where to produce stitches.

• Suitable for: Embroidery projects only

Ideally, your logo should be provided in vector format. What this means is that it will have already been drawn out with crisp edges, accurate colours and can be scaled to any size without losing quality. We can of course help you with this to ensure you won’t run into any problems when using your logo for printing, embossing or other embellishment we offer.

Now we’ve looked at some of the file types, let’s look at some key questions and how maybe we can help…

Is your logo up to date?
If you can’t remember the last time you used your club logo or crest for anything, then the chances are it’s probably not up to date. This means that next time you want to do a print or embroidery project, it may be held up by spending time to correct the image quality or re-draw it entirely.

Has your branding got lost over the years?
Quite literally. We get lots of enquiries which end up being that the source file has been lost or has been produced by someone who no longer has access to it.

This is genuinely quite common, and none times out of ten results in us having to re-draw (sometimes with little reference to work from) a new logo that is appropriate for production. Therefore, make sure your branding assets are up to date and still relevant, otherwise it might cost you time and money the next time you come to doing your next print project.

Have you got a special anniversary or milestone coming up?
Lots of golf clubs established in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s will have special anniversaries coming up as they look to celebrate 100 or 125 years in existence. If you’d like to adapt your logo or crest for this purpose then we’re on hand to help bring your ideas to life. Here's a great example we did for Windlesham who were proudly celebrating their 25 years in existence.

Get in touch today if you’d like to discuss your next project or have any queries regarding image file quality or type and we’ll be happy to help.