Another topic that baffles our customers is the imprinting process. Our industry has dozens of ways to "make your mark" on a bottle or coffee cup. However you'll find that 95% of the stuff we sell uses the pad printing process. Review the main methods we use to decorate swag and learn which is right for you.
The pad printing process is the most common way to add your logo to a swag item. Our customers find it easier to understand our pricing structure and set up fees once they view this video.
Despite a huge uptick in digital printing, our customers are often asked to make compromises when adding their logo to swag items. Pad printing remains the defacto way to add your logo to most pens, cups and journals.
It's a process that allows for one imprint colour at a time to be applied. For this reason our customers will see a set up charge for every colour in the logo. If you spend any time on our suppliers website you'll notice that the pricing is geared heavily towards ONE COLOUR IMPRINTS.
It's best to avoid multi-colour imprints if you can. The reason is the majority of our orders are for the minimum quantity. You are probably looking at anywhere from $60-150 in set up fees for your order even before you have bought the product.
The way we often get around this is to turn your logo into a one colour imrpint. Most logos are designed for use on white paper. Most swag items are dark colours so in most cases we make it work.
Full colour imprinting processes often carry a high minimum order quantity and in some cases, expensive set up fees and longer lead times. Almost all of our suppliers offer some version full colour printing . We find that it works great as long as you are not in a hurry and have the budget.
You'll notice on sites like Vistaprint, that all their swag items have a white background. They use a technology similar to an inkjet printer to add logos to products but you are limited to using a white background. For the majority of our customers, this lower quality imprint method doesn't offer the "wow"factor they are looking for.
Now that we have broken down the methods we use to decorate promotional products, let's examine the Imprint Area. Each product we sell has a pre-defined imprint area. Our new customers often overlook this detail and send us a logo that is 5" wide to fit in an imprint area 2" x .75". Each company will list the available imprint areas and sizes on their website. Unfortunately our industry loves codes, symbols and jargon so make sure to ask us if you have any questions about adding your logo to any given product.