tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26668642494210776392024-03-12T21:59:51.632-06:00All Things Embroidery by NeedleUpA COMMERCIAL MACHINE EMBROIDERY BLOG FOR THE INDUSTRY. If you really want to know how digitizing and machine embroidery works, (and not just see an advertisement) you're in the right place! Let's talk about production, digitizing and all things embroidery!NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-27456742079858513442019-10-28T16:49:00.000-06:002019-10-28T16:49:52.021-06:00The Path Best TakenPathing is one of the most important elements to master in the
process of digitizing. Quite simply, pathing means the order in which
the design sews; what sews first and what sews second plus the
progression of the design from first stitch to last. Efficient pathing
is a design with the fewest trims possible and minimal color breaks. An
optimal one color design would have only one trim which is at the end.
This would mean that everything was planned or pathed so that all parts
of the design were sewn without stopping. To do this, all stitches
traveling between elements of the design are covered by the later parts
of the stitching. The best way to start digitizing a logo, is to plan
out the design in your head before you begin. <br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid-sBN1Ko_DpFpMiLh2BSHjpD2fldjy-7MAq_qG5S0O4wjGrQQya2ATI7rBCXKOKJ7VK0No-PzinYyx5sj4GHnOD3_9lqOc1vW4CjXvn2ia-pUrAqQU36WWCz_SNZ7MvfdwabiqxHzy-M/s1600/colorway.jpg" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" nea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid-sBN1Ko_DpFpMiLh2BSHjpD2fldjy-7MAq_qG5S0O4wjGrQQya2ATI7rBCXKOKJ7VK0No-PzinYyx5sj4GHnOD3_9lqOc1vW4CjXvn2ia-pUrAqQU36WWCz_SNZ7MvfdwabiqxHzy-M/s200/colorway.jpg" width="109" /></a></div>
Along
with pathing, color breaks go hand in hand. Generally, the design will
need to be digitized from the background to the foreground so that
elements of the design on top fall in front of parts that should be
behind. The idea is to only visit each color of the design once if you
can. (Some designs may require you to revisit colors later in the logo).
A 3 color design that has 52 trims is a very poorly pathed design. Each
trim is another possible thread break or pull out and slows the machine
down. As an old boss of mine used to say, “We aren’t making money if
the machine’s not running .”<br />
<br />
The efficiency of an
embroidery design is most apparent at the machine. If you are an
embroiderer, it will be the first thing you notice and the first thing
that will make you crazy if it’s not right. If the machine keeps
stopping throughout an order making the job take longer, you may need to
charge more for production. A poor design can make the job take 2 to 3
times longer.<br />
<br />
If you’re a promotional products
salesperson, the first thing that you’ll notice is how much hair your
embroiderer is losing. This is where a quality digitizer breaks out
front of the “cheap” pack. It’s great to pay only $25.00 for digitizing
until your embroiderer has to charge you for editing and longer
production times. Your embroiderer may even refuse to sew a design
that’s really bad. If your embroiderer cringes every time you walk in
the door, you may be using the wrong digitizer. <br />
<br />
NeedleUp
Digitizing is the “right digitizer”. We have the experience and
knowledge to create consistently great designs that are beautiful and
efficient at the machine making your run times minimal! <br />
<br />
*****NeedleUp
Digitizing is owned by Donna Lehmann. You can contact Donna by email:
donna@needleup.com or call us at 303-287-6633 M-F. Visit our website for
pictures of some of our recent work: www.needleup.com *****<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-67424339317445618252017-05-02T11:00:00.002-06:002017-05-02T11:02:04.548-06:00Embroidery Digitizing - Customers - Changing Their Minds (Like changing their underwear)<!--[if !mso]>
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<br />
We’ve all been there: Customer calls multiple times, either changing their
order, adding to it or just altering the design or placement. You can’t
seem to get to “Final Answer” but they still want their job by the original
deadline. Only that’s getting closer and closer….or worse, you’ve already
started the job. Now what?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2VfyHo-XGJ9TdoDb95hebSAmpBcgfoWkcgj8EgW_m1YGSQcowgvmVSz2lqp4UVvsz-fpzb1G2UM-eWpn_Y15x3OUsJAsDMP4OA1OhWrfbsDO7uAvvXFNQAmiPziTnCIHQfRtVgcxLed8/s1600/underwear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2VfyHo-XGJ9TdoDb95hebSAmpBcgfoWkcgj8EgW_m1YGSQcowgvmVSz2lqp4UVvsz-fpzb1G2UM-eWpn_Y15x3OUsJAsDMP4OA1OhWrfbsDO7uAvvXFNQAmiPziTnCIHQfRtVgcxLed8/s320/underwear.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
You must draw the line in the sand. Small hurdle or huge ordeal? Take
a minute to access the situation. Is this latest change something you can
reasonably do? Can you keep them happy and still meet your
deadline? Will you need to charge more for this addition? Of course, you
want to keep the customer and you should absolutely do anything that you can to
make them happy in the name of customer service, right? Right!
...... sort of.<br />
<br />
<br />
Resist the urge to tell them that anything can be done for a price. While
true at times remember that you cannot buy more time, so it’s up to you whether
you’d like to place your sleeping bag in front of the machine or pay for
overtime to get the job finished. Then there’s the fees that may be required
for the change including the possible editing of the design, more garments,
more supplies (thread, backing toppings), rush fees, more shipping or pick up
fees, etc. In the case of design changes, you need to go through the
approval process again so there are no surprises or issues on what the customer
expects. Failing to get the new version of the design pre-approved before
production can bite you in the butt, even if it’s just for a slightly different
size or color. All these things eat up time, time you don’t really have if you
are to meet the deadline.<br />
<br />
Specifically, with regard to the digitizing, as always, get as much
information as possible about what the customer now wants, what’s been changed
and get an idea of how much time it will take to edit the design and if there
are fees involved. If the change is size related, have an idea of what
size they now want. Telling the digitizer, “I don’t know, just smaller”
doesn’t help either of you to be timely. Be specific and you can get back on
track to the deadline faster.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrV01W05DKlch9i9KT4wHaTqXd4emyNyx7Yfl5_7UMGRLtwRepSpaxTsfAwmllURlJFjYIRxbpFVvxxVB5XKubx-gq4n-MI62eSX41Qe9PocY7zon_Nw7cHrLHViL74AZeK7kxEfSWyaI/s1600/finish+line2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrV01W05DKlch9i9KT4wHaTqXd4emyNyx7Yfl5_7UMGRLtwRepSpaxTsfAwmllURlJFjYIRxbpFVvxxVB5XKubx-gq4n-MI62eSX41Qe9PocY7zon_Nw7cHrLHViL74AZeK7kxEfSWyaI/s320/finish+line2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpg0jOhry3dHmCZVkWcseGUzISlG91X7bTz07WMcKXPBPOYuuSH2VhmJwn4Y01VM8nTZXqQtD_3tlvJfZQCqcDsE0Mn3EFRGZPKa9EwAnADSGliIgIYTzdUVDIII1ROPDPGkbnnBPcV6E/s1600/finish+line2.jpg" style="float: right;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; text-decoration: none;"><span style="mso-ignore: vglayout;"></span></span></a><br />
Finally, be up front with your customer and let them know as soon as
possible if there will be any costs because of the changes they’re
making. Give them a choice so they are not surprised when the bill
comes. Be honest and realistic about what you can get done in the time
you have and whether you can still meet the deadline. If you say you can, then
you definitely need to! Maybe your customer can take a partial order at
deadline and receive the rest after; let the customer decide.
That’s how you cross the finish line!<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "" "calibri" "" , "serif";">***For more information on
NeedleUp’s digitizing services, visit our website at </span><a href="http://www.needleup.com/"><span style="font-family: "" "calibri" "" , "serif";">http://www.needleup.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "" "calibri" "" , "serif";"> or contact Donna Lehmann by email:
<span style="color: blue;">donna@needleup.com</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-72218624822472303822017-04-01T14:16:00.000-06:002017-04-01T14:16:05.517-06:00Embroidery Digitizing - Hats - New Placements, Old Problems<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: small;">Hats are a very popular item to embroider but a stinker on
the production: Not all designs are created equal when the customer decides
they want hats. For a little while now, I’ve seen more of a trend towards
different placements that I want to address.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLTYuLHA26uxt6enSXr04O-Obkn7mGCPYvisNv5SMmieq7dhU6R8EhkfE6iKZ4qXlN0sSjfzZ5v-PdQrBLHh7xQSa2xWqDHqjZCb1chkcwsfnkG3CcmxlnJ82_7y-YPBOCUazQBBAXgZU/s1600/hat+front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLTYuLHA26uxt6enSXr04O-Obkn7mGCPYvisNv5SMmieq7dhU6R8EhkfE6iKZ4qXlN0sSjfzZ5v-PdQrBLHh7xQSa2xWqDHqjZCb1chkcwsfnkG3CcmxlnJ82_7y-YPBOCUazQBBAXgZU/s200/hat+front.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: small;">Most hat jobs are the usual front design with maybe a back
design arced over the keyhole or straight for flex flit type styles. Customers
are trying to come up with new spots to embroider that stray from this by
embroidering a design on the side of the hat or placing a design on the front
panel to <u>one side</u> within the two seams. I’ve even seen a “bug” style
logo squished down into the bottom right side of the left side panel.
Limitations include the kind of hat frame used for the job but for the most
part, you have approx. 3” of sewing space between seams (on a six-panel baseball
type cap) and around 2” tall for height on the front two panels and 1.5” height
on side panels.<span> </span>These are very small
areas and not every design will be able to shrink to those dimensions. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">You’ll need a simpler design with minimal or no text to fit
those spots effectively.<span> </span>Font style and
size are very important, not too fancy and not too small.<span> </span>Even ¼” text, which is normally considered
minimum for flats, is too small for hats without a fill of some kind for
support underneath it. Of course, there’s a gray area depending on the brand
and fabric of the hats as usual.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR-_CMl1aXbDIDpUTd_KEsxzZkR5ceLMLzHcptwdndPF93Inc8m8g15q8KD7kzcre2xYt9sG6fzZwTyQp76rYoHd3gsKnPZy_Mv_5RABOF75i1T89tpgREUudqdc48d3DXqZDErvXIgYY/s1600/hat+panel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR-_CMl1aXbDIDpUTd_KEsxzZkR5ceLMLzHcptwdndPF93Inc8m8g15q8KD7kzcre2xYt9sG6fzZwTyQp76rYoHd3gsKnPZy_Mv_5RABOF75i1T89tpgREUudqdc48d3DXqZDErvXIgYY/s200/hat+panel.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">While I understand the appeal of doing an alternate
placement to make the hat different than the mainstream, you must understand
the limitations of embroidery and your customer’s logo and be able to explain
it to them and come up with an option that works for both of you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">Know your hat frame and sewing fields/available area so that
you have that information for the digitizer.<span>
</span>That way, the design can be created at the correct size and without
secondary editing and resizing to get it to fit.<span> </span>Educate your customer to be flexible and
realistic about what will fit the area to be embroidered.<span> </span>Kno<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">w that the same issues with registration
on hats still exist and be mindful that you are sewing up and away from the
center seam whether you will be crossing the seam or not.<span> </span>This means that the design is not interchangeable
s</span>hould the customer change their mind and decide to sew it center front after
all. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">If you talk to your customer and spend a moment
to describe the issues and get to final answer <u>before</u> the digitizing,
you may avoid costly edits and restarts to get to the finished order.<span> </span>Hats are one of the most challenging garments
that we embroider on but spend the time to understand the issues at hand and
what your hat frame is capable of doing and you’ll be on your way to more hat
jobs with happy clients!</span></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">**For more
information on NeedleUp’s digitizing services, visit our website at </span></span><a href="http://www.needleup.com/"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.needleup.com</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> or contact Donna Lehmann by
email:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><a href="mailto:donna@needleup.com"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">donna@needleup.com</span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-86319895715521259792016-01-10T17:33:00.000-07:002016-01-10T17:38:21.003-07:00New Year’s Business Resolution <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNZxpZr2y9K48rHPJxh0ljp4Z2Oc7RwPdT5Ycq0ANwFux1XjYc-qUpY2cyDXb1skqgOdBM8V0edICFJTRb066ZpFV-WMkMFRikgpS2q4alvWOTF4aR4dn6wRoJiapEn16D5QArfm05D38/s1600/soap+box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNZxpZr2y9K48rHPJxh0ljp4Z2Oc7RwPdT5Ycq0ANwFux1XjYc-qUpY2cyDXb1skqgOdBM8V0edICFJTRb066ZpFV-WMkMFRikgpS2q4alvWOTF4aR4dn6wRoJiapEn16D5QArfm05D38/s200/soap+box.jpg" width="167" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes, in the course of doing business, you have those days
(or customers) that make you want to grab you keys, lock the door, get in the car
and drive til the gas runs out without looking back. Of course you don’t but it
isn’t because the fantasy doesn’t occur to you.<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our business is creative and technical and wonderful and
hectic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this new year, I’ve made a
few business resolutions that are intended to preserve my sanity while dealing
with customers, deadlines and being pulled in different directions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have a tendency to skip over my own rules and procedures
that I have in place sometimes causing issues that are the reason I created
them in the first place. You know…. When you trust a customer<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(or employee) and they disappoint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This makes me my own worst enemy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I also sometimes allow people to talk me into (or out of)
things I know better than to do… either a heavily discounted price for a sob
story or including multiple versions of a design without charging an editing
fee for my time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can be a bit “lax”
about invoice collections, late fees or allowing customers to go past their
terms. All this does is teach customers that your time is not valuable and,
believe me, they rarely appreciate it and expect it from then on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lastly, I sometimes
let customers dictate things I KNOW won’t work in the name of service to
appease them and prove it. Customer asking for lettering that’s too small for
the application or fabric type or trying to cram WAY too much text into a tiny
area of the design will demand that I try it any way and then say, “Oh yea,
that’s too small” or ‘That doesn’t work”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>*eye roll*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course they expect
me to redo it at no charge that way it should have been from the beginning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYLN5UB6bhiwaNqkOOgmRV-VcV3pOtjTnxGs6ZsJRXtc2-Yz4bTOUDguaK1sM3Er-vsw1KCl6JOj5GJy4qdLpH1TEf4w88BxasMpMXutp8KqLtvKvhGnDRqUa32zock9uaRgGQ1dsjn4U/s1600/stair+climb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYLN5UB6bhiwaNqkOOgmRV-VcV3pOtjTnxGs6ZsJRXtc2-Yz4bTOUDguaK1sM3Er-vsw1KCl6JOj5GJy4qdLpH1TEf4w88BxasMpMXutp8KqLtvKvhGnDRqUa32zock9uaRgGQ1dsjn4U/s200/stair+climb.jpg" width="128" /></a>You know, I’ve been digitizing commercially for over 22
years and I can tell by looking at a design what will work and what will
not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know better than to let customers
run me, but we all want to please our customers so we deal with it and call it
service. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This year, my resolution is to follow my own rules and stand
firm on the procedures I’ve set in place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Work smarter, stick with my pricing schedule and stop being a pushover
with my time. If I have to “fire” a few customers, then so be it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">After
all, It’s not personal, It’s business.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rant over!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Off the
soapbox now! Onward and Upward!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Any of these issues sound familiar?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you need to organize better?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stick to your prices?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stand by your procedures or create some? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What are your business resolutions for 2016?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do share!</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-80092430981572488942015-08-08T09:00:00.000-06:002015-08-08T09:00:00.690-06:00Sometimes you just have to say “No” - Embroidery Digitizing
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgktGVo0XyHGKvEE-i9ojM2gR8oYtFUkl2t56nr9a4gj-G8UXqydR8DUrx8R3ZAF1UVYttxFQ-N4r_QRbYFJJEUOvN2h0u4bwcuX_lCIxvt0XuMdk0ayNXPbVCBSZX0ggQ5L92tOHLsvj0/s1600/its+a+no.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgktGVo0XyHGKvEE-i9ojM2gR8oYtFUkl2t56nr9a4gj-G8UXqydR8DUrx8R3ZAF1UVYttxFQ-N4r_QRbYFJJEUOvN2h0u4bwcuX_lCIxvt0XuMdk0ayNXPbVCBSZX0ggQ5L92tOHLsvj0/s200/its+a+no.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">All kidding aside, nobody wants to turn a customer away or tell them “No” but there
are times when being honest about what they’re asking for is better than not
being able to deliver a promised product.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Those of us who have been in the industry for a while realize that
customers really have no idea what is possible and what is not when it comes to
embroidery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As a digitizer, I work with promotional sales people that I
hope, have at least a running knowledge of embroidery, how it works and what is
unreasonable to expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are really
the ones who should begin the conversation with their customers about things
like lettering getting too small and logos getting too big, gradients in areas
too small to do them and 3 or more borders/outlines that simply are too small
and/or won’t register properly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">All too often, they say nothing to their client except “yes”
and then leave it up to me to be the “bad guy” and tell them their design won’t
work for embroidery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s worse, they
tell me, “I already told them it was fine” or “this is the way they have to
have it, no changes”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which sometimes
results in less than optimal designs, high stitch counts and bullet-proof
embroidery with too much detail, too small lettering or bigger designs than
they should be for the area they’re being sewn on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Once the customer has brought their art in and had their
initial consult with the promotional person, unless they are told at that time that
there could be an issue, they have their hopes up and leave that meeting
thinking that’s what they will get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anything
after that is a frustration to them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlsvovXr0q9LsZa4btGg7B9hAEjugA23XuudSqNClqSK74-DRuaPLDry233kshzMmboEdXvV-Tn_qO44YwdMUt4LF5l2q3FN45AUezXMXAsQ-uirALEEnNv-GcVNG_J4zonuOPN6ZSjr4/s1600/hands+tied.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlsvovXr0q9LsZa4btGg7B9hAEjugA23XuudSqNClqSK74-DRuaPLDry233kshzMmboEdXvV-Tn_qO44YwdMUt4LF5l2q3FN45AUezXMXAsQ-uirALEEnNv-GcVNG_J4zonuOPN6ZSjr4/s1600/hands+tied.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you’re selling embroidery, always be aware of what can be
done and what cannot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask questions of
the digitizer if you’re not sure and then get back to your customer. Be
proactive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the customer is buying
royal shirts and their design is royal, talk to them about what they plan to do
about the colors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most times they haven’t
even thought of that. It will make a difference in the digitizing and it will
save the customer an edit fee most likely.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lastly, help your customer be flexible and suggest other
options that <u>will</u> work. If the customer is steadfast, suggest other
decorating options for those designs that are simply too small and detailed for
embroidery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Help me out with what your customer
wants instead of tying my hands and leaving me no other choice than to say “No”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-81857569091708999302015-05-14T11:06:00.000-06:002015-05-14T11:06:07.256-06:00Formats, Formats everywhere! - Coded files vs Stitch files
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here’s how
digitizing works with regard to formats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Embroidery software manufacturers are very proprietary so every software
has a native format that can only be opened by someone with that same
software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These native format files
carry the program codes that define densities, trims, color breaks and a
multitude of other functions that tell the machine how and where to sew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the master digitizing file or coded
file that is created when a new design is digitized. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz1pNT8zJwHuw6BrvXwVMe2rSkJZQc80YRrAk0-0vaTetVMXlLM60cmQ7OKYBCq-f23oIpngiACB6hyl8-GcZ2OYGr8hwKiDeslenLfd03CjeqqclpbT4U6eF3VmnCIQYWVdQh4V9DmtY/s1600/emb+formats.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz1pNT8zJwHuw6BrvXwVMe2rSkJZQc80YRrAk0-0vaTetVMXlLM60cmQ7OKYBCq-f23oIpngiACB6hyl8-GcZ2OYGr8hwKiDeslenLfd03CjeqqclpbT4U6eF3VmnCIQYWVdQh4V9DmtY/s320/emb+formats.png" width="196" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Embroidery
machines run stitch files, created from the coded files, but with different
formats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The difference is, stitch files
are really just a list of mathematical points on a grid that tell the machine
where to put the stitches. Commercial stitch files carry no color information
or codes of any kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Home stitch file
formats usually carry thread color information.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For this
reason, the master coded copy of a design is always saved. Whether you digitize
yourself or have an outside digitizer, editing should always be done from that
original to keep the integrity of the coding and to be able to edit the
original wireframe of the design.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">These days,
most high end embroidery softwares have stitch processing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What this means is that you can open a stitch
file in the program and it will analyze and detect densities, stitch lengths
and other properties. It re-assigns codes and tries to rebuild wireframe pieces
so you can edit and resave the design in your native format. This process is
automatic. So basically you’re able to open a non-coded file and edit, enlarge
or shrink and the software will (for the most part) retain the densities
intended in the design. It does an OK job. In the past, if you enlarged or
shrunk a stitch file, the stitch count didn’t change, so larger files didn’t
have enough density while smaller files got too dense.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Stitch
processing is handy but not perfect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Since the software is essentially choosing a density that is close to
the original, it can be off slightly. It tries to detect where the trims are
and does rebuild wireframes however, they are in pieces. It also cannot
recreate complex fills and will break them into straight flat areas of fill
losing any patterns and sometimes travel stitches.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You wouldn’t
notice it the first or maybe the second time, but if you keep opening and
processing the same uncoded stitch files for editing, each time the file will
deteriorate further.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your design will
have missing stitches or broken and crooked letters and the quality goes down
due to re-processing the file multiple times. This is why you always return to
the master coded file to edit designs or create new versions from them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another
benefit to editing only the coded files is that you can save multiple elements
of different versions of a design such as taglines or phone numbers, and the
art the design was created from, all in the master file.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of deleting the previous tagline, for
instance, you are able to simply turn it off within the file before you save
your stitch file. If you need it at a later date, it’s still there and you can
simply turn it back on. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Once you
understand the difference between coded files and stitch files, you can see the
reason for keeping both formats of your designs, what the formatting does in each
file and why you need to go back to the original to do the editing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">**For more
information on NeedleUp’s digitizing services, visit our website at </span></span><a href="http://www.needleup.com/"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.needleup.com</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> or contact Donna Lehmann by
email:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><a href="mailto:donna@needleup.com"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">donna@needleup.com</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-80984118400999450362015-02-28T14:15:00.000-07:002015-02-28T14:15:32.246-07:00Punch Drunk - Embroidery Edition
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Have you
ever heard the term “punching” in regards to machine embroidery?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you’ve
been in this crazy business for a long while, you know exactly what this refers
to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’ve only been in it for even
10 or 15 years, you may have heard the term but aren’t sure what it means. Less
than 10 years, you might not have even come across the term.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjno6AZ8TNf6TkhdHycPqNjpLT6iSWZSG4ukcLGshxmCEg-EAO3jEjJP_BzV1fq0tz4VoKkFUCebqKrkKiFmG_SIvXDer6NmMG7o0pH1DR1Le7cuvZOKlMmKlqmXj3pSyRb8ZrLu-iUU48/s1600/PaperTapes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjno6AZ8TNf6TkhdHycPqNjpLT6iSWZSG4ukcLGshxmCEg-EAO3jEjJP_BzV1fq0tz4VoKkFUCebqKrkKiFmG_SIvXDer6NmMG7o0pH1DR1Le7cuvZOKlMmKlqmXj3pSyRb8ZrLu-iUU48/s1600/PaperTapes.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I started
digitizing over 22 years ago. Back then we called it punching because designs
were saved on paper tapes much like the old tele-type tapes (you may even have
to look that up </span></span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These tapes were
created on a reel to reel machine that punched holes into the tape which
corresponded to stitches in the embroidery software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each tape held a design and some designs that
were really big, like jacket backs would consist of multiple tapes. When you
wanted to load a design, you had to run the tape through the reader and the
software would read the holes and bring the design up on the screen, stitch by
stitch. Hence, the act of programming embroidery designs was called punching
and the people who did it, punchers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
was nothing to tell customers they’d have their design in 2 or 3 weeks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Later when technology
came forward a bit, we became digitizers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Design were plotted out on a tablet or large board resembling an
architect table and stitches were input directly into the computer. You had to
path the design out before you even started because input began with the first stitch
and ended with the last, in the exact order it was to sew. If a mistake was
made or something was left out, you had to erase everything back to the point
where the error or omission was and do it over again. Editing afterwards was
limited, at best, and it was confined mostly to moving stitches one at a time.
Seems archaic now, right? It kinda was…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn1EdzFITZrSfFxFmD8WHIulnHWxZa1wKiu3zzYziqxKPotghpFRvQxIj2sNzOwRG_vFzoKGoF_PlHQi0dce-y1_Zi_GlsmGykgR6lpDLAKFCsDqcQE5TUC0L0lRjHhudm0nCmH51yLUY/s1600/digitizing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn1EdzFITZrSfFxFmD8WHIulnHWxZa1wKiu3zzYziqxKPotghpFRvQxIj2sNzOwRG_vFzoKGoF_PlHQi0dce-y1_Zi_GlsmGykgR6lpDLAKFCsDqcQE5TUC0L0lRjHhudm0nCmH51yLUY/s1600/digitizing.jpg" height="138" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We were
still a few years away from being able to bring the artwork up into the
software to digitize over it. Now of course, everything is done on screen, full
editing capabilities and many automated features like complex fills and
keyboard lettering that the software does for you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We’ve come a
long way in this industry. I’ve seen all the changes but I’m really glad the
process has gotten easier with the advances in embroidery technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even after all this time, I still catch
myself using the term punching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
customer may not know what I’m talking about but it always makes me smile.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-6068220728379457112014-11-11T07:00:00.000-07:002014-11-11T07:00:04.781-07:00What the Font are we talking about? - Embroidery Machine Text
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIh06_joq77-yX_Fqyk6wCOvrfYveCdJJDnuyhwn2AFQQf1VDLiLSVuIvMLDBjXUTHAZkrqZ_w8op_kB7GALeIw8g12ZbRa1-hdWOVU2VHouKgyr9vu7dIyZry28cI60d2FTmf4hru_dQ/s1600/fonts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIh06_joq77-yX_Fqyk6wCOvrfYveCdJJDnuyhwn2AFQQf1VDLiLSVuIvMLDBjXUTHAZkrqZ_w8op_kB7GALeIw8g12ZbRa1-hdWOVU2VHouKgyr9vu7dIyZry28cI60d2FTmf4hru_dQ/s320/fonts.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">People ask about lettering all the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Minimum sizing, font styles, keyboard vs.
digitized, are all valid questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s
a quick primer on machine embroidered text.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most embroidery designs with lettering are company logos of
some sort, which is mostly what commercial embroiders do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lettering is important because it carries the
pertinent information the client wants people to see, marketing the company
name and other business information.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I only use keyboard lettering if it is an exact match to the
design (or in the case of multiple names for personalizations) and even when I
do, I always have to edit or “clean” it to ensure that it will sew properly and
have correct pull compensation.* The rest of the time, it’s more effective to
digitize the lettering by hand. It almost takes more time to edit the “canned”*
text and the customer gets lettering that exactly matches their art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That being said, customers will sometimes tell you what font
they want on their designs naming a print font they like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You should know that some embroidery fonts
are named the same as their print counterparts but many are not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Likewise, different embroidery softwares may
have different names for the same font.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Certainly, not all print fonts make good embroidery styles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9-OtjsGV-l9Y0PP2A7yqdlfa94zOefo93IiiXG8Mj0M6x6A75RFqzdmVDRbfOTKD7-OJZ2ooxq42whjmYqaPTDX_V1BmYlwK88SUHxkT16rUsBN9pTvs9rJQL2SQyQNDs1eFn0EdUN1M/s1600/fonts2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9-OtjsGV-l9Y0PP2A7yqdlfa94zOefo93IiiXG8Mj0M6x6A75RFqzdmVDRbfOTKD7-OJZ2ooxq42whjmYqaPTDX_V1BmYlwK88SUHxkT16rUsBN9pTvs9rJQL2SQyQNDs1eFn0EdUN1M/s320/fonts2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You should also know that not all embroidery softwares do a
great job on keyboard lettering. Many do not, therefore, you should understand
what good lettering looks like and how proper characters are pathed and formed
to determine if your software is creating letters correctly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No software is perfect which is why there
will always be things you will and should adjust. This is one place where it
becomes apparent that all embroidery softwares are not created equal and the
cream rises to the top. (IMHO Wilcom has dedicated more time and years of
experience in creating their algorithms for lettering and consequently has some
of the best keyboard lettering results on the market; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Melco a close second. ) (and yes, I used the W
word and the M word in the same sentence)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">You can purchased additional coded fonts to add to your keyboard
lettering from the manufacturer of your software. These have a specific
extension and are created to work with your software program. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(You can also purchase stylized “fonts” online
which are really just separately digitized letters that can be used for monograms
or to spell words and names. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each letter
is a separate file and you must paste them together to do so)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When using keyboard fonts, follow the software creator’s
parameters for each font including size range and join method.* There is a
reason they give you that information; you’ll get much better results. Not all
fonts can sew effectively at a minimum size of ¼”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Remember, much about the way lettering sews has to do with
the fabric also. Nylons and twills can handle smaller text better than knits
and denims, sewing the exact same size and font. Be sure to use the correct
densities, underlay and traveling stitches for crisp letters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the end, “canned” fonts can save you time if you get
familiar with the ones in your software and understand their limitations. Oh,
and one last thing. Many softwares have a true type font conversion which
sounds great in theory but don’t bother. I haven’t seen one yet that didn't suck.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Canned” fonts – slang for keyboard created,
pre-digitized coded text<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Pull compensation – a setting related to
stitching that increases width to compensate for the pull of the fabric which
draws inward due to thread tension.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Join Method – how the software configures the
path of the letters and where the crossover stitch between letters will be.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Donna Lehmann has been in the commercial side of the
industry for 22 years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For more
information on NeedleUp’s Digitizing services, email Donna at <a href="mailto:donna@needleup.com"><span style="color: blue;">donna@needleup.com</span></a> or call 303-287-6633
for info and pricing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Visit <a href="http://www.needleup.com/gallery"><span style="color: blue;">www.needleup.com/gallery</span></a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to see some of our most recent work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>
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<o:p></o:p> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-2485997787585694742014-08-11T09:00:00.000-06:002014-08-11T09:00:02.149-06:00Is Embroidery Digitizing part of Colorado’s new moral dilemma?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->Recently, Colorado passed some laws legalizing medical and recreational marijuana and we’re still figuring out, as a state, what it all means to local trade and living. Whether you are “for it” or “against it”, it affects everyone in some way or another and as a business owner, I’ve had to make some decisions myself. <br /><br />Dispensaries in the metro area have popped up all over and, as businesses themselves, they are looking to market their shops and goods. This means that I’m getting calls asking whether I will do business with them to digitize their logos and help them find embroiderers. <br /><br />You see, some embroidery companies refuse to do embroidery for or do business with, anyone selling marijuana, running dispensaries and/or paraphernalia shops, much like some of the banks and loans in town. Since they didn’t vote for the law and don’t agree with it, they turn those potential customers away even if it means losing a job. This is, of course, their prerogative… it IS their business. <br /><br />For me, I’ve made my decision. (Just so you know, I’ve never smoked pot and I certainly didn’t vote for this law.) My business is embroidery, nothing more, nothing less. 95% of my jobs are corporate logos and I’ve very good at what I do. This issue has nothing to do with my feelings about the marijuana industry. I sell embroidery designs to customers that own businesses….period. <br /><br />I’ve done designs for churches I wasn’t affiliated with, restaurants I haven’t (or wouldn’t) eat at, and political logos for people running for different offices on both sides. To me, refusing to digitize a customer’s logo because it’s for a pot dispensary is as stupid as refusing to digitize a logo for a bar because people shouldn’t drink. After all, they are both legal. For my business, that’s where the line is. You have to make the decision for yourself. <br /><br />As far as embroidery, will you turn down a biker group because you don’t like them? A bar with a logo of a half naked woman? How about a meat packing plant because you’re a vegetarian? <br /><br />It’s not my job to pass moral judgment. I do embroidery. That’s my job.<br />
<br />
What do you think about this issue? Have you turned down jobs because of your beliefs?<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-19069005673120184492013-10-15T07:30:00.000-06:002013-10-15T07:30:03.886-06:00Embroidery: Customer purchased vs customer supplied garments
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Many embroiderers struggle with their pricing policies on
several levels. What should my margins be? What is my competition charging?
What garments/brands will I offer and what’s the most cost efficient way to get
them in and turned around for my customer?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVMRY7aJD7tMwuz88c0H5j5eD3aExMQx7FWwU73KzWfox3c64L4kdJx5tRhG2sv4RWvxfQhjMS5z92qL4GqGZrcB-rz5pqkq3u-Rg1F1mkb4Vb00-xDq-RicGUqpGAke9Z413uHR3UzS0/s1600/box+shirts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVMRY7aJD7tMwuz88c0H5j5eD3aExMQx7FWwU73KzWfox3c64L4kdJx5tRhG2sv4RWvxfQhjMS5z92qL4GqGZrcB-rz5pqkq3u-Rg1F1mkb4Vb00-xDq-RicGUqpGAke9Z413uHR3UzS0/s200/box+shirts.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another often pondered dilemma is whether to accept garments
supplied by the customer for embroidery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many embroiderers struggle with this question and go back and forth,
especially when they hit a snag.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Many larger embroiderers simply won’t do this. The reasons
are many but the basics are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Can’t make a profit on the garments if they are
supplied<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Can’t control the quality (many customers buy
the cheapest they can find, which then effects the quality of the finished
embroidery)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Can’t replace a garment if the machine tears a
hole or otherwise damages it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Wreaks havoc with production - Many times
customers will bring a “laundry basket” of different garments in for a design
(or worse, many garments, all with different designs). Every garment sews
differently and consistent placement can be a struggle on multiple garments.
Production suffers and profit goes down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRRIio3Qobxnxd5_MEQ3tHMJpE2uPmE8yAZKbwxYsOkZlX7JKZlIG5NAooYIBbH2KwnXXB8BfXZduDI-Xe6V6VdYEY6CJyrsvT0Sdi0rBS7cBTCst0SBaDz6qV-4jk1tUXoH3tjJovrsI/s1600/stack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRRIio3Qobxnxd5_MEQ3tHMJpE2uPmE8yAZKbwxYsOkZlX7JKZlIG5NAooYIBbH2KwnXXB8BfXZduDI-Xe6V6VdYEY6CJyrsvT0Sdi0rBS7cBTCst0SBaDz6qV-4jk1tUXoH3tjJovrsI/s320/stack.jpg" width="212" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Smaller embroider companies seem to be more willing to deal
with these issues and will charge more on the embroidery side to make up for
it. It’s up to you whether you want to accept customer supplied garments in your
business but if you do, here are a few things (in addition to the ones above)
that you want to consider making a few rules about in your shop:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Only accept clean, new garments….yes, customers
will try to bring you old (smelly) sweatshirts that haven’t been laundered or
team shirts that have already been worn (stained) for a few games. This makes
your equipment dirty, can pound dirt into your needle plates and leave residue
for your next orders making it difficult to keep other garments clean. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Make the customer sign a waiver acknowledging
that they understand that you cannot be held responsible for garment damages
and will not replace items.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some
embroiderers state a 2% or 3% waste policy on larger quantities. Make sure your
customer understands your policy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Believe me, it will not be profitable in any
way to spend time and money driving around town (away from your business) to
replace a customer’s garment at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">retail </i>prices
just so they can save a few bucks by providing them to you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most embroiderers will refuse items that are irreplaceable
such as grandma’s quilt or heirloom handkerchiefs or baby christening gowns.
Also, items that are extremely expensive or leather items. Not many
embroiderers will sew a leather jacket back and punch hundreds of thousands of
holes into a good leather jacket that costs way more than the embroidery. All
it takes is one to tear a hole and all the profit from the job goes down the
drain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Make sure you’re charging for your time to go
over multiple garment jobs with the customer about where the design location
will fall on the different garments and thread color differences between the
garment colors. Multiple garments usually means the design will need alternate
colorways on certain ones to insure the design shows well. Also go over the
garments with your customer and point out any flaws/stains so you aren’t blamed
for them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you want to allow customer supplied garments, try it for
a while and see how it goes for you. You may decide to re-evaluate your stance
at a later time. At any rate, make sure it’s profitable the way you’ve set it
up. We’ve all been there in one way or another, which is usually what
formulates the policy in your shop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="color: #323232; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 8.5pt; line-height: 115%;">***********************<br />
NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned and operated by Donna Lehmann, a 20yr veteran
of the embroidery/digitizing industry. She can be reached at NeedleUp, <a href="mailto:donna@needleup.com"><span style="color: blue;">donna@needleup.com</span></a> or<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>303-287-6633 for digitizing, consultation and
private classes M-F.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-79156239829105066252013-07-08T09:00:00.000-06:002013-07-08T09:00:00.287-06:00Embroidery Digitizing - Educating the Customer<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A few months
ago, a promotional sales customer of mine (We’ll call her Sally) sent over a
design to digitize for her customer for an event they were having. If you’re in
the industry, you know the minute they say the word “event”, you have a rock
solid deadline.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Artwork was
sent over and discussed and digitizing began since we had limited time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The design involved a main event logo and two
sponsor logos and pricing had been quoted for such.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpvCLDJafZ3-_mT-NFUx67oFS6fPx8MdOSO74pJw_H9-Zs7NFcVvCMJeh_d4I2rd-TEgIhPymA9iSKIxofjIQoPK_0Xu0Z9rx6rsM0QcsZ1k4DYN_XggB5bE2Y8Qg230mBh3zRaTNI3iE/s1600/emb+books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpvCLDJafZ3-_mT-NFUx67oFS6fPx8MdOSO74pJw_H9-Zs7NFcVvCMJeh_d4I2rd-TEgIhPymA9iSKIxofjIQoPK_0Xu0Z9rx6rsM0QcsZ1k4DYN_XggB5bE2Y8Qg230mBh3zRaTNI3iE/s200/emb+books.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We had less
than a week to complete the digitizing, get approval, send the stitch file to
the embroiderer and complete the production. The problem was, Sally’s customer
kept changing the design; major graphic changes. Every time the design was completed,
it was sent for approval and came back with new art and changes. Sometimes
there would be two or three in a day. On the third day there was another issue with
one of the sponsors and they had been replaced so we had to add another design
into the fray. Each time a change was made, the stitch count would go up (of
course) and consequently the price of not only the digitizing but the
production estimate the embroiderer had given them….and the clock was ticking!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, we were
happy to make the changes but the customer was unhappy that editing fees were
incurred and the embroiderer no longer wanted to stick with the quote they had
given them for production…..understandable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sally just said, “Hey, that’s what they said they wanted.” But she never
took the time in the beginning to explain the process and that changing the
original art causes delays and editing fees. She didn’t even ask if this was
the final art before starting the digitizing. Sally’s customer just figured they’d
pay for whatever final design they ended up with and they expected the
embroiderer to stick with the quote they were given regardless of the changes
and final stitch count.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQnAUrXy0s0rfhS4OXVLhrKsiCdggZFPgWBecnmKT70BD0CLjb6T5s9HVS-479g9-MUcI1zuDTZftbNNts7oEXfdJbsae7Z5UGFAt046nDBZZUrOEfQmSlT5KKyDCjxMi6Bu2SxZ2mA0/s1600/educate+the+cust.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJQnAUrXy0s0rfhS4OXVLhrKsiCdggZFPgWBecnmKT70BD0CLjb6T5s9HVS-479g9-MUcI1zuDTZftbNNts7oEXfdJbsae7Z5UGFAt046nDBZZUrOEfQmSlT5KKyDCjxMi6Bu2SxZ2mA0/s400/educate+the+cust.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Had Sally
explained the process to her customer better, we could have avoided the confusion,
had no surprises and actually been more efficient getting her customer what
they wanted. Things worked out in the end, we comped some edits and Sally paid
for some also. We also worked to get the stitch count down on the design as
much as possible so the production wasn’t too high and working with the
embroiderer, we hit their event date. The customer was thrilled with their
shirts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All was successful.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s our job
as professionals to make the customer happy and we do it every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But communication is essential to making
things go smoothly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spend some time educating
your customer about the process so they’re not surprised by the costs of their
embroidery. If they’re still in the planning stages, explain to them that
making major graphic changes to the design after digitizing only makes their
costs go up. Changes they are making to the art need to happen at the graphic
stage before digitizing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After all,
if you educate your customer, their order goes smoother, they understand what
to expect and they’ll likely return because you made it work!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course,
sometimes these things happen and can’t be helped. This is why a relationship
with a good digitizing firm makes all the difference. Someone who is readily
available to you and can roll with the changes so you can still meet your
deadline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>NeedleUp Digitizing is that company.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It should
also be noted that like most good digitizers, NeedleUp includes small edits and
changes in the design process. Things like trims, color breaks, small text
& coding changes and adjustments for sew-ability are all part of getting
the customer a design they will love. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-67694134412720026702013-06-03T09:30:00.000-06:002013-06-03T09:30:03.157-06:00Embroidery Digitizing - The Learning Curve<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2iAjKOHkA8RsY1Yi7BcIiQdj-v1UQdhc9e17rdcecu4jpHMXT6z9p_Of6s1yBHc4KqXDAVExeR-uwhZm5nlQjnCjq23hzonhCy4EESFKl_TMq6PZc85h12eaBNH-_tO4CMpmPTizB5fQ/s1600/multihead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2iAjKOHkA8RsY1Yi7BcIiQdj-v1UQdhc9e17rdcecu4jpHMXT6z9p_Of6s1yBHc4KqXDAVExeR-uwhZm5nlQjnCjq23hzonhCy4EESFKl_TMq6PZc85h12eaBNH-_tO4CMpmPTizB5fQ/s200/multihead.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Think back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re at
the embroidery show or in the sales office looking at purchasing your first
embroidery machine and software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve
done your homework on the internet checking different software capabilities and
machine options.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sales person is
telling you how profitable and easy the embroidery business is and you’re
nervous because this is a lot of money and you don’t know much about the
industry. Even if you have some experience with the embroidery (in one way or
another) you have no idea how to digitize a design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sales people will tell you that you can learn
as you go, but in the meantime, the easy stuff can be auto-digitized in the
software and if you come across something more difficult, there are many places
you can send the design out to and get it digitized.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Any of this sounding familiar? Yea, I thought so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve been there. Not as the sales person or
the customer but standing behind you at the show/in the showroom listening to
what the sales people are telling potential customers. They don’t want to tell
you anything overwhelming and scare you away so they say that it’s a simple
thing of taking the art, running it through the software to create a stitch
file, loading it into the machine, hooping the garment and selecting the thread
colors. Then hit a few buttons and you’re literally “in business”! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
realize they are just doing their job but I’m going to tell you the truth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The learning curve for running a successful embroidery
business is substantial. The learning curve for understanding the process of
purchasing quality digitizing is big. The learning curve for mastering
digitizing yourself is huge! This is why most embroidery companies purchase
their digitizing or hire a digitizer on staff. You have to be pretty big to have
an on staff, full time digitizer, so today I’m just going to talk about
purchasing your designs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, there is a
learning curve to purchasing your custom embroidery designs: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Your objective is to get the best quality at the most cost
effective price in order to maximize your profit margin. Does that mean, just
getting the digitizing as cheap as possible?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The short answer is “NO”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCkMljnD5fF8ed_Px7erbpwKFdP0LIIR6CNDyCB0zW4U4ZghR5d7oe1xIp79-R4a3qpWtYgoEgAaO1vUiFj_BG4bvYdEUcTIVdEBJyT1Vhdc9YpKHrBXSRR9_J9BWUN9_lRAQJ-nCw1m0/s1600/money+in+thread.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCkMljnD5fF8ed_Px7erbpwKFdP0LIIR6CNDyCB0zW4U4ZghR5d7oe1xIp79-R4a3qpWtYgoEgAaO1vUiFj_BG4bvYdEUcTIVdEBJyT1Vhdc9YpKHrBXSRR9_J9BWUN9_lRAQJ-nCw1m0/s200/money+in+thread.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Whatever your reason for getting into the embroidery
business is, you must provide your customers with consistent service and quality
they will come back for or, quite simply, they won’t come back, and you won’t <u>have</u>
a profit margin to worry about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Remember, you’re going to pass the digitizing cost along to
your customer so this is not a production cost to you. However, if you’re
simply buying your digitizing based on the lowest price, you’ll find there <u>ARE</u>
hidden costs to <u>you</u> associated with this practice that will compromise
your quality and service to your customers. Those include:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Delivery time problems - when you have to have
the design either redone or reedited multiple times to get it right pushing
your job finish time back<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">More fees later - Paying another digitizer to
fix the design so it’s usable or companies that a-la-carte you to death on
edits and second version sizes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Poor production times – the machine doesn’t sew
the jobs efficiently due to poor pathing, unneeded color breaks and trims on
the digitizing, driving up production time so much that it actually costs you
money to do the job (see also #1)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Customer satisfaction – No matter the machine,
if the digitizing isn’t quality, you can’t turn out quality designs you’re
proud to put your company’s name on. If you can’t get the job to them when
promised, they will lose faith in your abilities. You’re trying to build and
retain customers; do you really want to take chances with crummy, slow results?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Poor communication with the digitizer – If you
cannot talk to a live person about your design (or communicate with them
because of a language barrier or time difference) it’s a waste of your time.
I’ve been doing this a very long time, and when the design elements require
adjusting for “sew-ability” or your customer requests changes to a design (and
this happens all the time), you need to be able to discuss this with the person
doing the punching. You can’t do that with a website.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">6.</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Inconsistent quality – Low/Cut rate digitizing
companies have many digitizers on staff. It’s a draw which one will be given
your design to work on each time and you can’t speak to them directly so one
time the design may be OK and the next horrible. They may be using
auto-digitizing softwares that don’t work well, inexperienced digitizers and many
times they don’t even sew out the designs they’re creating before sending them
on to you. (Caveat: Just because a company says they’ve been in business,
digitizing for 20 yrs, does NOT mean that the <u>actual person</u> doing your
work has been digitizing for that long). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You DO get what you pay for!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I cannot stress enough how important it is to build a
relationship with a reputable digitizer who you can talk to directly. One that
you can trust to give you reasonable pricing, consistent quality from years of
experience, and someone who understands production, pathing and the need to sew
out every design for quality before sending it to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You need a digitizer who offers personal
attention and makes you look good with every job you do for your customers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">*****************</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: red; font-size: small;">NeedleUp Digitizing</span> is owned and operated by Donna Lehmann, a 20yr veteran of the embroidery/digitizing industry. She can be reached at <a href="http://www.needleup.com/">www.NeedleUp.com</a>, donna@needleup.com or<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: red;">303-287-6633</span> for <span style="color: blue;">DIGITIZING</span>, consultation and classes M-F.</span></span></o:p></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-19124429863600862832013-04-22T10:00:00.000-06:002013-04-22T10:00:07.651-06:00Embroidery Digitizing - Let’s Talk Lettering – Part II
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Part I of Let’s Talk Lettering, we talked about keyboard
lettering, when we use it and some of its limitations. In part II we’re
discussing how we charge and talking about text with your customers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Charging for Lettering
Jobs:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6nyuFBpyh1wDvbFojSBOeZ8lxPvoI2ka3iXzjvuCm_VvTU9wvbvHorLCNyjsNFcVOyUJv4UmVNXsDSvTPARTzhJD1Wlo76_t0iuliFgyq6q2eANJNQIjkTxA0Yy1wOPEgTVM5TQ4x2oA/s1600/green+valley+dental.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6nyuFBpyh1wDvbFojSBOeZ8lxPvoI2ka3iXzjvuCm_VvTU9wvbvHorLCNyjsNFcVOyUJv4UmVNXsDSvTPARTzhJD1Wlo76_t0iuliFgyq6q2eANJNQIjkTxA0Yy1wOPEgTVM5TQ4x2oA/s200/green+valley+dental.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Many shops charge per name when doing a list of
personalizations such as right chest names or even name drops into stock
designs or under company logos. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some may
even charge per letter. The major softwares have a “team name” function built
in to make the long lists of names and the application of doing these one at a
time, go smoother and faster. This is when you’ll use your keyboard text most.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">However you decide to charge for your services, take into
consideration the time it takes to hoop each shirt individually for the names
in addition to the application of any design on the opposite side, since this
is a separate hooping.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if you’re
using the “team name” function under a logo, you will have to stop the machine
once the design is finished to load the individual names. If you have a long
list of names, it can be time consuming so make sure you’re charging for your
time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn7Y0oS1VgNRdGyNsrRAtnqAXtJNoUbK7dAauF9EaNNKFNNfUWFJEn3McAKc1K_QTSq3JjpFLr0Cy53vEF57GzbpegYcDQxOyaoWPjR1H9_G-N08TQvhmgsUahLinanMVTG3nwL4udPD8/s1600/keystone+culinary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn7Y0oS1VgNRdGyNsrRAtnqAXtJNoUbK7dAauF9EaNNKFNNfUWFJEn3McAKc1K_QTSq3JjpFLr0Cy53vEF57GzbpegYcDQxOyaoWPjR1H9_G-N08TQvhmgsUahLinanMVTG3nwL4udPD8/s200/keystone+culinary.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If I am adding lettering or a tagline to a customer’s
existing logo, usually I will just charge an edit fee, even if I’m digitizing
the letters manually. If I can use keyboard lettering and it matches what the
customer is asking for, I will use that and “clean” up the letters, adjusting
them for fabric pull and usually tweaking the corners and joints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once you get into more than just a tagline or
the whole logo is basically lettering or a design or icon is included, then I’m
charging for a full logo by stitch count and almost always digitizing the
lettering by hand. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As you get better at digitizing your lettering, you’ll find
you use the keyboard text less because it’s easier and more time efficient to
digitize the letters correctly from the start rather than edit keyboard text
more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For the customer’s
benefit:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Convenience and organization dictates that you have a
printed list of sample text in the fonts you offer customers in your shop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be familiar with your regular fonts and
insure that they are the ones that sew well in every day practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There will be many fonts in your software and
not all of them will be winners. Also be aware that the more fonts you offer,
the longer it will take the customer to make a decision, so handing them a 3”
thick binder of fonts, may not be what you want to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Displaying a list including 4-5 scripts, 4-5
blocks and 4-5 serifed font styles should be your basics. When a customer asks
about other styles, you have a chance to talk to them and provide a more custom
experience and more fonts to look at.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuVVcMUNyfpgns_i6jbP_Sldll2jysSjjIZ_xAY86IFa0LXxAIzXleyXhlwdjccbVWRT0YkQ0BGKoCt8iMQRyXjL6XuVUXQ6MgTiBTN1ANeCwfpp-RnP1v0q2ofO4rAyhvJThZNoKs7W4/s1600/Austria+Haus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuVVcMUNyfpgns_i6jbP_Sldll2jysSjjIZ_xAY86IFa0LXxAIzXleyXhlwdjccbVWRT0YkQ0BGKoCt8iMQRyXjL6XuVUXQ6MgTiBTN1ANeCwfpp-RnP1v0q2ofO4rAyhvJThZNoKs7W4/s200/Austria+Haus.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Be sure to also know approximately how many characters per
inch you can sew in each font. The customer will appreciate your expertise and
you’ll be able to quickly help them find a lettering style that will work for
their job. An easy way to display your basic fonts is to sew them and frame
them for the wall or counter. This way the customer can actually see the
letters in thread. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For full logos, the lettering is usually a part of a
customer’s company design and the lettering should look exactly like their
logo. They’re paying for a custom job so if the keyboard font doesn’t look
exactly like their art, and many times it won’t, don’t use it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I get jobs sometimes that have very tiny lettering under
them for a tagline (way under minimum standard) and the customer wants me to
recreate the design at the same size. They’ll tell me they want the same
lettering but make it look better. This is when educating the customer comes
into play. You have to discuss the design with the customer and tell them why
the lettering looks bad on their original. If the text is too small to sew well
on their fabric, give them options like enlarging and stacking or moving the
text to a better location. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lettering is probably one of the biggest challenges to
master that embroiderers’ face. There’s no match for practice and experience. Keep
notes of what works, sizes and settings. It’s never a waste of time. Almost all
company logos have lettering, unless you’re the owner of the “swish” or “the
little man playing polo on a horse”. </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"></span></span><o:p><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned and operated by Donna Lehmann, a 20yr veteran of the embroidery/digitizing industry. She can be reached at NeedleUp, donna@needleup.com or<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>303-287-6633 for digitizing, consultation and classes M-F</span></span></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-50536307857806333342013-03-25T08:30:00.000-06:002013-03-25T08:30:03.279-06:00Embroidery Digitizing - Let's Talk Lettering - Part I
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s talk lettering – Part I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9C53m5SIKLcHIg-f4Zg7KNlBtIdHUjN9NAACXX2Q2PSXmt10SgourKfvzsDKl1Qu4HurkXxC0L86Ujzbn44I_EOmPQ1lVetGkH3KAPcgRqgATYtZopHGLdCvwAuCaVvf_v74hTTLmLh4/s1600/luigis+pasta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9C53m5SIKLcHIg-f4Zg7KNlBtIdHUjN9NAACXX2Q2PSXmt10SgourKfvzsDKl1Qu4HurkXxC0L86Ujzbn44I_EOmPQ1lVetGkH3KAPcgRqgATYtZopHGLdCvwAuCaVvf_v74hTTLmLh4/s200/luigis+pasta.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Every embroidery software, from the simplest home software
to the most expensive commercial software, has a lettering function of some
kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the past, the quality of the
keyboard embroidered letters has varied amongst these as has the functionality
of the softwares to manipulate and edit them. These days, the user friendliness
has gotten much better even in the lower cost softwares and the differences
from brand to brand are blurring more and more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But I don’t want to talk about specific brands of embroidery
software or their keyboard fonts. I mention this to say that there is a time
and a place for using keyboard lettering and a time when custom lettering
should be used. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A good digitizer knows which is called for on
each job.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since I am a custom digitizer working in the commercial
industry, I use the keyboard lettering maybe $30% to 40% of the time. The rest
of the time, my lettering is custom digitized by hand, specifically for the customer’s
logo. Even when using keyboard lettering, the individual letters still needed
to be edited for the fabric and for pull compensation.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>Never do I use keyboard lettering straight “out of the can” and my
software creates great lettering, however, no keyboard font can automatically
adjust for every fabric or design situation. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDS6tEPtATvMi6XFW9TutlI7VeaCKvPn6Tztbuo5TMUZKJ_XmF4usHgdvYaUwxUmQ6DPDA_jfiqxq7px6-NJIkw22b0FPmCL68XJPnJ6iuYiq9BEmZN3GceTqBOq6g7WZ7Sk7HHqMP-3I/s1600/HIBACHI+sew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="77" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDS6tEPtATvMi6XFW9TutlI7VeaCKvPn6Tztbuo5TMUZKJ_XmF4usHgdvYaUwxUmQ6DPDA_jfiqxq7px6-NJIkw22b0FPmCL68XJPnJ6iuYiq9BEmZN3GceTqBOq6g7WZ7Sk7HHqMP-3I/s200/HIBACHI+sew.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you’re new to digitizing, you may tend to crutch on the
font lettering but avoid doing this too much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Watch designs with lettering that sews well to see how the letters join
and corner for a better understanding of how lettering should look and path.
What you learn you will apply to your hand digitized lettering.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As for keyboard lettering itself, familiarize yourself with
what your lettering can do and recommended sizes for each font, understanding
that some lettering styles do better at smaller sizes than others. If you are extensively
editing the keyboard font you’re using, you are better off digitizing the letters
by hand. There’s a “gray area” once you get down to ¼” letters and below.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are some fonts that will do fine at a
slightly smaller size (Usually these are block type fonts with no serifs) but
fabric strongly comes into play at that point as to whether they will sew
cleanly. There’s no way to insure the design will do well as the customer sews
the design on multiple fabrics, but staying above the ¼” standard font size for
basic lettering will help. With wildly different fabrics, like fleece and
terry, you will need an alternate version of your design to accommodate those
incorporating more underlay and density.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Certain fabrics or designs will allow block lettering as
small as .16” tall to sew fairly descent, especially nylons and twill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fabrics such as knits and some piques are
rather unforgiving even with ¼” lettering and will “sawtooth” much more. Generally,
the smaller the letters, the lower the density but you have to hit the “sweet
spot”. Dense enough for coverage and smooth edges but not so much as to cause crowded
spacing, knots and bunching at the joints and bulging of the letters
themselves. This is the reason that it’s preferable to know the fabric the design
is intended for right up front.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLkAqmzfRtNFlm0Oobn4yy5rE8BFXfcj-P0VIv4U4gvkN0fin38Zf0n1NwwXeUhao8_mImilIcHN8F4N513W7LgTHhPg-fkUMQcFgIecR2jyikaw8J_u7WtuBn0XkUKPFqw2Gmln9_EqE/s1600/rio+grande+scenic+ski+sew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLkAqmzfRtNFlm0Oobn4yy5rE8BFXfcj-P0VIv4U4gvkN0fin38Zf0n1NwwXeUhao8_mImilIcHN8F4N513W7LgTHhPg-fkUMQcFgIecR2jyikaw8J_u7WtuBn0XkUKPFqw2Gmln9_EqE/s320/rio+grande+scenic+ski+sew.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I want to take a moment here to mention True Type font
conversions. Keyboard embroidered lettering created from TT fonts on your
software. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few of these do, just, OK. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most suck. None of them compare to digitizing
lettering by hand. I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and I just don’t go
there, nuf said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Understanding the dynamics of embroidered lettering,
densities, underlays, column widths and pull compensation and how each of these
relate to different fabric biases and types will take you farther down the road
than just always using keyboard fonts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Part II, we’ll cover the customer side and charging for
your time with lettering.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">*****************************</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned and operated by Donna Lehmann, a 20yr veteran of the embroidery/digitizing industry. She can be reached at NeedleUp, donna@needleup.com or<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>303-287-6633 for digitizing, consultation and classes M-F.</span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-71678982800259320412013-02-18T09:00:00.000-07:002013-02-18T09:00:03.340-07:00Embroidery Digitizing: The incredible shrinking (or enlarging) design
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There will
be times when a customer decides they want a left chest size version of the
jacket back they just had digitized (or vice versa) and you will have to
explain to them why it will have to be redigitized. It’s hard for a customer to
understand since to them, we’re just pushing computer buttons and all the magic
happens in the program, right?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you’re
enlarging a design from a 4” chest size to 10” or 12” jacket size you will
likely have to have portions (or all) of the design repunched or satin stitches
converted to fills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once a satin or
column stitch gets above a certain width, a fill stitch needs to be used
instead so that the machine is not making huge movements and stitches are not
too wide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a satin stitch is wide
enough for a pencil to be inserted on the open end of the column, it is much
more likely that the stitching will snag and ruin the embroidery, especially on
jacket backs since the wearer will lean up against seat backs, etc. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There’s also
the issue of detail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What seems very
detailed at 3-4” wide looks elementary when enlarged to 10” and gaps appear
between joints and other elements that were not an issue in the smaller compact
version of the design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any flaws that
might have been virtually unnoticeable at chest size now appear. Remember, as
you’re enlarging the design 250%, you’re also enlarging the spaces and gaps
between elements 250%.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Conversely,
if your intention is to shrink a design from jacket size, you are going to have
the opposite issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fill areas will
become too small or narrow to use fill stitches efficiently and must be
converted to satin stitches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Satin
stitches, such as outlines, that get even smaller must normally be repunched
with running stitches once they get below about 1.5mm wide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some design details get too small to even
include in the final design and must be eliminated. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">These things are important to talk to your customer about,
especially if they will be ordering both chest and jacket sized versions of
their design. If there is an element that cannot be included once the design is
small enough for chest applications, sometimes the customer will opt to leave
it off the larger version so the two designs will still look exactly the same.
Either way, you are giving your customer the information they need to make an
informed decision when they order their digitizing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>For more
information about NeedleUp's digitizing services, please visit our website at </em></span><a href="http://www.needleup.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.needleup.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <em>where you can view
some of our most recent work and get pricing and more information on contacting
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Donna Lehmann is owner of NeedleUp
Digitizing and she can be reached at 303-287-6633<o:p></o:p></em></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-42419257810971190462013-01-07T09:30:00.000-07:002013-01-07T09:30:02.886-07:00Embroidery Digitizing: Right Way VS Customers WayWe all know there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things, however relative that may be, but what happens when a customer brings in a previously embroidered garment which frankly, was clearly digitized incorrectly?<br />
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This is fairly common and frequently the customer doesn’t realize and is unaware of how much better their logo <em>could</em> be. I’m speaking about aesthetics here since the customer is only seeing the final design, however, if the design is poor, the production quality will undoubtedly be bad also.<br />
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But, what if the customer loves the logo on the garment and wants it duplicated? What if they think it’s the “cat’s pajamas” and they just don’t have access to the stitch file?<br />
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Now is the time to discuss with the customer what they want, what you see and their expectations for the job. Find out what they like and don’t like about the original design so you can determine whether you’ll be able to make improvements they will love. Communicate with them about how you would do the design, pointing out things you might change if they seem open to them. Never criticize the original design out-right or the person who did the digitizing; it just makes you seem petty and unprofessional. I don’t comment to the quality unless they ask, point blank…then I’m honest but tactful, speaking more to how I can make it better and cleaner.<br />
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I try to avoid duplicating cruddy embroidery at all costs, but, if after all this, the customer is adamant that the design look<em> exactly</em> like the original, then you’re obligated to recreate the design exactly. Believe me, it’s a shot to the heart but it’s what the customer wants. Visually, you should strive to make the logo look the same, using the same stitch types and angles, but there are always improvements you can make to the way it paths and sews at the machine that will help in production.<br />
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The bottom line is, you’ve made your customer happy and next time, you won’t be duplicating someone else’s design, you’ll be digitizing their latest original!<br />
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Donna Lehmann ownes NeedleUp Digitizing LLC and has been commercially digitizing for 21 years. Donna also writes, teaches and consults about the industry and can be reached at NeedleUp 303-287-6633.<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-2009306683047876952012-12-03T09:30:00.000-07:002012-12-03T09:30:00.749-07:00Copyrights: What’s the real deal? Part II of II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiji7hw30dHN0KB-NH0m5wweMzkXbU7CsxEkihoVx-jlRMErfMVTYuLlSf2GuGG5UVmB1k9aI8eYxwVQ2YQLjanAWObcM8Q9f3IZTy_b1fChpiM_4ZUJmWC45L8DlE6EjUvEJaiZZpcCjY/s1600/law+books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiji7hw30dHN0KB-NH0m5wweMzkXbU7CsxEkihoVx-jlRMErfMVTYuLlSf2GuGG5UVmB1k9aI8eYxwVQ2YQLjanAWObcM8Q9f3IZTy_b1fChpiM_4ZUJmWC45L8DlE6EjUvEJaiZZpcCjY/s200/law+books.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
So we’ve talked about customers coming in with designs not belonging to them but what about the issue of who owns the designs, the actual stitch files, which were digitized legally?<br />
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<br />
Large stock design companies have designs you can purchase online, such as Dakota Collectibles, to use to embroider goods. When you purchase a design from them, it’s understood (and written in their use agreement) that you’re purchasing the license to use the design, not the rights to the design itself. Therefore you may not give, share or sell these designs to anyone else. <br />
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With regard to the legality of a design you (embroiderer) are producing garments with, if you digitized the design, it belongs to you. You may decide to transfer the copyright to the company or person you digitized the design for. If the design is given without that protection, the recipient runs the risk that minds will be changed and their right to use it later will be challenged.<br />
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When the design is provided to you (embroiderer) by an outside digitizer, unless and until the rights to the design are transferred in writing to you (or anyone), they remain the property of the creator (digitizer). This is why you cannot give or sell the design later to someone else, since it does not belong to you. You are only being given the license to use the design to produce garments for your customer.<br />
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If you’ve been in the embroidery business for a while, you’ve probably unwittingly reproduced a copyrighted work. Since you can’t know every design out there but need to cover yourself and your business, a copyright indemnification clause, added to your company’s order forms, will in most cases establish your policy, protect you and set your customer straight. Check your state’s copyright and trademark statutes or a copyright lawyer to be certain your copyright clause covers you. <br />
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I’ve turned down many jobs of people wanting me to digitize Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Betty Boop or the Pink Panther. People actually get really pissed when I tell them no, especially when they’ve (illegally) incorporated them into their company logos…yes, it happens. You have to do the right thing. Protect yourself and your business.<br />
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****************************************************************<br />
<br />
Information contained in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as professional legal advice. Companies mentioned in this article are used only as examples. Contact a copyright lawyer in your area for specific legal determinations and issues.<br />
<br />
For more information about NeedleUp's digitizing services, please visit our website at www.needleup.com where you can view some of our most recent work and get pricing and more information on contacting us. Donna Lehmann is owner of NeedleUp Digitizing and she can be reached at 303-287-6633<br />
<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-83715975934084068622012-11-12T09:00:00.000-07:002012-11-12T09:00:08.692-07:00Copyrights: What’s the real deal? – Part I of IIEvery digitizer and embroiderer faces this from time to time. Let’s talk about copyright. Do we or don’t we digitize or produce a design we know doesn’t belong to the person asking for it? The correct answer is “no”.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiji7hw30dHN0KB-NH0m5wweMzkXbU7CsxEkihoVx-jlRMErfMVTYuLlSf2GuGG5UVmB1k9aI8eYxwVQ2YQLjanAWObcM8Q9f3IZTy_b1fChpiM_4ZUJmWC45L8DlE6EjUvEJaiZZpcCjY/s1600/law+books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiji7hw30dHN0KB-NH0m5wweMzkXbU7CsxEkihoVx-jlRMErfMVTYuLlSf2GuGG5UVmB1k9aI8eYxwVQ2YQLjanAWObcM8Q9f3IZTy_b1fChpiM_4ZUJmWC45L8DlE6EjUvEJaiZZpcCjY/s1600/law+books.jpg" /></a>Webster’s defines copyright as: the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something (as a literary, musical, or artistic work). </div>
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Simply put, if your customer isn’t either the owner or a rep for the company or a promotional products rep slated to procure swag for them, the design they’re bringing you falls under copyright law and you shouldn’t be doing it. There are a few exceptions, but the bottom line is; if they don’t own the design, they have no right to use it and it is illegal for you to recreate it or produce it. <br />
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This comes up frequently with regard to sports teams, car and motorcycle manufacturers and cartoon characters, but is just as illegal with smaller logos of more unrecognizable designs. You can’t know every design out there but with access to the internet, you can sometimes search a logo graphically and find it. Know who you’re doing business with. Even if you unknowingly infringe and sew a design without authorization, you are every bit as liable as the person who asked you to reproduce it, should the copyright holder decide to make an issue of it legally.<br />
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In the industry, there’s a running joke about the “Disney Police”, but it’s no laughing matter. They exists in the form of whole divisions of corporations that do nothing other than to uphold the company’s copyrights and prosecute people, Disney and Harley Davidson being the ones that first come to mind.<br />
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As I said, there are some exceptions. Companies, franchisers and organizations like Girl/Boy Scout troops and car dealerships who sell particular makes have the right to use those logos however the company/organization stipulates that they must get their logoed items from them (the company) directly or through channels set up by them in order to insure the quality and integrity of their logos. The exception comes in if you get written permission from them to recreate/use the logo or get set up as a preferred vendor. <br />
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With professional sports teams, permission/licensing is applied and paid for and is very expensive and rigorous. The other thing you’ll run up against is car enthusiasts and collector clubs. Just because they are a Coca-Cola Collector Club or the Corvette Club (or own a corvette) doesn’t give them the right to use the logo.<br />
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Along with trademarked designs comes a thing called trade dress. Trade dress creates a visual impression which functions like a word trademark. Basically, a design doesn’t have to even have the name of the company on it to be covered by their copyright. That means, a picture of a Volkswagen Beetle is essentially the same as the Volkswagen logo for our purposes. This is why stock design companies have removed car designs from their offerings for the most part unless the car is so generic as not to be relatable to a specific make or model. <br />
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And one other thing, there’s a common misconception that if you change a logo or design by 10%, it is a new design and as such is no longer covered by the copyright. Not true. Don’t fall for it.<br />
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In Part II, we’ll discuss the copyrights of designs created legally. <br />
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<br />
Information contained in this article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as professional legal advice. Companies mentioned in this article are used only as examples. Contact a copyright lawyer in your area for specific legal determinations and issues.<br />
<br />
For more information about NeedleUp's digitizing services, please visit our website at www.needleup.com where you can view some of our most recent work and get pricing and more information on contacting us. Donna Lehmann is owner of NeedleUp Digitizing and she can be reached at 303-287-6633<br />
<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-69273371937161389852012-10-13T13:12:00.000-06:002012-10-13T13:12:00.069-06:00Pathing and the Colorway to SuccessPathing is one of the most important elements to master in the process of digitizing. Quite simply, pathing means the order in which the design sews; what sews first and what sews second plus the progression of the design from first stitch to last. Efficient pathing is a design with the fewest trims possible and minimal color breaks. An optimal one color design would have only one trim which is at the end. This would mean that everything was planned or pathed so that all parts of the design were sewn without stopping. To do this, all stitches traveling between elements of the design are covered by the later parts of the stitching. The best way to start digitizing a logo, is to plan out the design in your head before you begin. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid-sBN1Ko_DpFpMiLh2BSHjpD2fldjy-7MAq_qG5S0O4wjGrQQya2ATI7rBCXKOKJ7VK0No-PzinYyx5sj4GHnOD3_9lqOc1vW4CjXvn2ia-pUrAqQU36WWCz_SNZ7MvfdwabiqxHzy-M/s1600/colorway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" nea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid-sBN1Ko_DpFpMiLh2BSHjpD2fldjy-7MAq_qG5S0O4wjGrQQya2ATI7rBCXKOKJ7VK0No-PzinYyx5sj4GHnOD3_9lqOc1vW4CjXvn2ia-pUrAqQU36WWCz_SNZ7MvfdwabiqxHzy-M/s200/colorway.jpg" width="109" /></a></div>
Along with pathing, color breaks go hand in hand. Generally, the design will need to be digitized from the background to the foreground so that elements of the design on top fall in front of parts that should be behind. The idea is to only visit each color of the design once if you can. (Some designs may require you to revisit colors later in the logo). A 3 color design that has 52 trims is a very poorly pathed design. Each trim is another possible thread break or pull out and slows the machine down. As an old boss of mine used to say, “We aren’t making money if the machine’s not running .”<br />
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The efficiency of an embroidery design is most apparent at the machine. If you are an embroiderer, it will be the first thing you notice and the first thing that will make you crazy if it’s not right. If the machine keeps stopping throughout an order making the job take longer, you may need to charge more for production. A poor design can make the job take 2 to 3 times longer.<br />
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If you’re a promotional products salesperson, the first thing that you’ll notice is how much hair your embroiderer is losing. This is where a quality digitizer breaks out front of the “cheap” pack. It’s great to pay only $25.00 for digitizing until your embroiderer has to charge you for editing and longer production times. Your embroiderer may even refuse to sew a design that’s really bad. If your embroiderer cringes every time you walk in the door, you may be using the wrong digitizer. <br />
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NeedleUp Digitizing is the “right digitizer”. We have the experience and knowledge to create consistently great designs that are beautiful and efficient at the machine making your run times minimal! <br />
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*****NeedleUp Digitizing is owned by Donna Lehmann. You can contact Donna by email: donna@needleup.com or call us at 303-287-6633 M-F. Visit our website for pictures of some of our recent work: www.needleup.com *****<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-76734531370553288222012-08-20T09:00:00.000-06:002012-09-16T18:01:59.039-06:00The Design Part of Embroidery DesignsOften, I get company logos that very clearly weren’t originally intended for embroidery, to digitize. When a company designs their logo, they rarely think the design through for all the mediums it will be used with and focus completely on what the design looks like in print. This is detrimental later, once all their letterhead and signage is finished and they begin to think about doing shirts for employees and promotional give-aways. Then, they have an issue with consistency between all their different marketing efforts and their chosen logo.<br />
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Here are a few things to keep in mind when designing your company logo with regard to embroidery:<br />
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If you choose a design with too small or too much lettering, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to sew in thread. You may have to resort to screenprinting since the size of the text can be printed smaller rather than sewn. Of course, screenprinting doesn’t look nearly as nice ;)<br />
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Don’t use cool gradient color effects or multiple borders around anything unless you plan to make the embroidery very large. Gradients only work in larger areas of fill and with colors that will blend smoothly like several shades of the same color. For instance, there is no natural color blend from purple to green so this isn’t a good idea. Two and three (or more) borders/shadows around letters look great in print but cause embroidery problems; everything from too thin to sew and distorted letters to registration problems and most likely you’ll have to drop all but one. If the letters are minimum size, the border won’t work at all.<br />
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Remember, when designing your logo, simple is better. Choose cleaner text that is readable at a distance of about 3 feet. A normal sized embroidery logo for left chest is about 2.5” to 4” wide. Leave the phone numbers for your business card; no one is going to rush up with a notepad to scribble down the number from your shirts. Have the graphic artist set up your design on light and dark backgrounds so you can see what it looks like against different colors and be sure to tell him/her that your design will be used for embroidery also. If you stick to design elements that translate well to embroidery, you’ll be proud to wear your logo on all your garments.<br />
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NeedleUp has the experience to consult with you on the embroidery side and digitize your design, translating it to embroidery while keeping the integrity of your logo within your marketing vision. Visit our website: <a href="http://www.needleup.com/">http://www.needleup.com</a> or call us at 303-287-6633 for impressive results!<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-33970659694288704442012-07-16T08:30:00.000-06:002012-07-16T08:30:02.300-06:00Digitizing an Embroidery Design…..Sans Artwork<br />
Customers come to me from time to time with a shirt from an old embroidery to digitize from. They either have lost the stitch file or can’t get the file from the previous embroiderer and their customer says they don’t have any art….so they’re giving us an old shirt. Now depending on the customer and the quality of the embroidery on the shirt, this could be a problem. Here’s why:<br />
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Remember, the customer doesn’t know how all this works. They just know they want more shirts and while they seem nonchalant about the design details at the beginning, rest assured they will closely scrutinize the design once you’ve done it. Save yourself some time, sweat and trouble by addressing the issues of the design before you begin. <br />
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The first thing I find out in this situation, is what they liked and disliked about the design on the garment….size, detail, colors, placement, everything. There’s no point in recreating the design exactly only to have them say they would like the font different or the shape of something changed. If they say they hated the whole thing (oh yes, it’s happened) press for artwork so you can start fresh.<br />
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You also should press for artwork if the shirt is distorted or warped in some way (like from multiple washings) and the design or lettering is crooked and puckered. It will take much more work to get everything straight without something straight to work from. Obviously, there had to be artwork somewhere, at some point, for the design to be done originally. Without artwork, the very fine details of the design are difficult to see and duplicate, especially from a poorly digitized design. 75% of the time, if you say you’re going to need artwork to move forward, they’ll magically be able to find it.<br />
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Conversely, I usually ask if the customer has had their logo digitized before. I’ve digitized designs from artwork only to have the customer tell me that it doesn’t look like the shirts they had previously done. Turns out the last design was either done from different artwork or was altered for the embroidery process in some way. Since I can’t recreate a design I haven’t seen, we have to start fresh, which wastes time and money.<br />
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Once you know what the customer really wants the final result to be, you can work accordingly, correcting your design to change the things they hated and recreating what they liked about it.<br />
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Customers still think what we do is somehow magical or that art gets fed into the computer and just squirts out a design on the other side. {Those are the $25 flat rate people :)} They don’t realize the technical knowledge it takes to program quality embroidery designs. It’s your job to guide them through the process and make sure they get what they want. Our job is to be in your corner and provide you with professional digitizing! Contact NeedleUp when you need stellar embroidery designs that enhance your efficiency.<br />
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NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned and operated by Donna Lehmann, a 20yr veteran of the embroidery/digitizing industry. She can be reached at NeedleUp, donna@needleup.com or 303-287-6633 for digitizing, consultation and classes M-F.<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-57695959553100321182012-06-18T08:00:00.000-06:002012-06-18T08:00:11.951-06:00The Cost of Creativity<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0CBV8c3yaUXbBjazN1adYpqB0sRNd4HOVdIXOvkBrulF72GSfAQmc81lLx-_CKF4FkplrMb6UtA__aCyV07iyUvD6TuYezZp6wCgT78TFjuqC5-7FcBgFGlv4FgGbjr7mJm7vElSlpBQ/s1600/money+from+machine.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" pca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0CBV8c3yaUXbBjazN1adYpqB0sRNd4HOVdIXOvkBrulF72GSfAQmc81lLx-_CKF4FkplrMb6UtA__aCyV07iyUvD6TuYezZp6wCgT78TFjuqC5-7FcBgFGlv4FgGbjr7mJm7vElSlpBQ/s200/money+from+machine.JPG" style="cursor: move;" unselectable="on" width="161" /></a>It’s no big news that the embroidery industry is a very creative place, but realize from a business standpoint, it’s a highly technical place too.</div>
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If you’re a hobbyist, the creative side is most important to you and you probably have never gone too far down the road to figuring your business expenses and the cost of doing business.</div>
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If you’re a commercial embroiderer, you better have, because without this information you are flying blind and can easily go into the red. Red is bad. Black is good. Even just the basics will give you a picture in your head to help you make decisions that are best for your bottom line. After all, for you, you’re in it for the profit and the love of the embroidery.<br />
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First, list all your expenses for a year’s time. Everything from turning on the lights (if you have a shop) to yearly fees and subscriptions/memberships, supplies, office expenses, web cost (if you have a website) and any help (bookkeeping, accountant, web designer) everything…if you spend money on it, related to your business, count it.<br />
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Divide this total, breaking it into a monthly expense by dividing by 12 or a weekly expense dividing by 52 (weeks/year). This way you can see exactly how much work and money you need to bring in each week to break even. This is not profit, just cost to do business. If you want to know your daily “break even”, divide that weekly total by how many days you work per week. This can be scary and make you feel a bit pressured but it’s good to know.<br />
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Now, whatever this daily total is, you know that you have to exceed this to be “in the black”. You need to start pricing jobs by how long it will take you to do them, start to finish. How much do you need to make per hour? If an extra step is added, such as re-bagging the garments, the price needs to go up. To figure running time for a design: stitch count divided by machine running speed SPM (stitches per minute) = # of minutes to run. In this way, you can figure how many hours you will need to complete your order whether you have a multi head or a single head.<br />
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If you are a one person shop, it gets more difficult because you wear all the hats, i.e.: receptionist, production manager and machine operator. You can go a long way to being efficient if you schedule and organize your time. Don’t let the phone interrupt your production 50 times a day. If you have to, schedule call backs for a certain time each day and tell your customers exactly what you’re doing. If they understand that you will call them back and that you’re not letting other customers interrupt you while doing their orders, they will feel special and appreciate your attention to their jobs. Doing this will make you more efficient at the machine.<br />
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If you are a multi person shop, these figures can help you keep up with whether you can afford that new machine, an extra person to help or get another machine operator. Just so you know, a good machine operator averages around 35,000 stitches per hour.<br />
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This industry is a wonderful and creative way to make a living; you just have to be smart about your business costs and pricing. Cut expenses where you can to raise your profit margin and compete not only on pricing but quality and customer service. <br />
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Focus your time on the production and your customers and let NeedleUp take care of the digitizing for you! You’ll get professional designs that will run efficiently every time which will get you through your order faster and grow your profits exponentially.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned and operated by Donna Lehmann, a 20yr veteran of the embroidery/digitizing industry. She can be reached at NeedleUp, 303-287-6633 for digitizing, consultation and classes M-F.</span><br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-76922846008830810492012-04-28T14:52:00.000-06:002012-04-28T14:54:34.132-06:00Machine Issues VS Design ProblemsEmbroidery problems are a pain in the…. BUT, learning to diagnose whether the problem is with the machine or the design will take you a long way past the frustration.<br />
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We’ve all been there; you just want to get the job finished and out the door and move on to the next one waiting, deadlines and all. That, of course, is when the gremlins visit and slow down the whole bit. Being able to discern where the problem is gets you quickly back into production.<br />
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Let’s start with registration problems. We can determine whether the problem is machine or design as long as we’ve taken care of a few pre-production things:<br />
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<u>Hooping</u>: On flats, always check that the design is hooped properly, meaning using the <em>correct</em> stabilizer and insuring that it is <em>completely</em> captured in the hoop all the way around and the fabric is taut but not stretched. Some cases may require an extra piece of backing and that can be tested quickly by adding it on the next run to see if it makes a difference.<br />
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On hats: registration is even a touchier point and some hat frames will fight you to be able to get the hat tight in the frame and it may take a few clips on the frame to help hold the hat. Always use your needle plate designed specially for hats to limit the amount of flagging under the needle. <br />
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Once you’ve assured these initial steps, the problem is either the design itself or the machine. <br />
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<u>Design</u>: Digitizing issues will be fairly consistent. If the design doesn’t line up, say a border around a fill, by just a bit, it’s probably the design and it just needs to be adjusted. If it is way, WAY off, check your hooping. Designs are created with compensation for the fabric push and pull in mind. If the fabric is moving way more than the digitizer expected, the result will be poor. (This is why we ask what type of fabric the design will be used for) For hats, the design needs to be digitized specifically for hat application and should sew center out and bottom up. Without the proper pathing, a design may bubble or ripple against the center seam and cause puckering.<br />
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<u>Machine</u>: Check the frame arms to be sure they’re tight and that the hoop arms are seated tightly in the frame. Cap frame bands should be tight across the hat with no movement possible once the frame is clasped shut. Assure that the pantograph is moving freely and not catching or bumping anything while sewing. Distortion such as a line of text that “smiles” or “frowns” means the hat is moving and pulling in when sewn. <br />
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<u>Thread breakage</u> is the other usual obvious problem. These are a bit easier to diagnose. If the thread breaks in the same spot of the design every time, it’s a digitizing problem. There may be stitches that are too close together. If it seems to happen virtually anywhere in the design, you have a machine problem, could be tension issues or needle burs (snapping or fraying). One exception is a “false thread break” where the machine will unthread after a trim. Even though this may happen in the same spot, it’s not the design. It could be the machine’s trimmers are acting up or the tension is way too tight. <br />
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Use your deductive reasoning. One thing to think about is if you’ve used this design before successfully, what has changed? If the design sewed well previous, is it a different fabric/application? Different brand of hat? Different weight or brand of thread? If it’s a new design, was it digitized for the fabric/application you are trying to sew? Are you hooping it properly? Checked needles?<br />
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Talk to the digitizer and get some input. If it’s a design issue, the best way is to show the digitizer exactly what the design is doing is by scanning the resulting embroidery and let the digitizer see exactly what needs to be edited and by how much. A good digitizer will recheck their design and adjust the stitch file to fix the issues. (There’s that customer service thing again!) <br />
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Once you get good at diagnosing problems, you’ll be able to get sewing again much faster with less hair loss!<br />
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NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned and operated by Donna Lehmann, a 20yr veteran of the embroidery/digitizing industry. She can be reached at NeedleUp, 303-287-6633 for digitizing, consultation and classes M-F.<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-37797267043894179692012-03-07T12:59:00.000-07:002012-03-07T12:59:14.993-07:00Editing your Embroidery Machine Designs ProperlyWith regard to digitizing, ever wonder how stitch files work? The original file holding the digital information for the design is actually a master coded file with all sorts of info about everything from how close the stitches are (density) to color breaks, stitch angles, trim commands, pull compensation and many other codes that tell the embroidery machine what to do. This file is a condensed (wire-frame) master file in a format native to the software and can only be read by someone else with the same software. This file is not the file that is read by the embroidery machine.<br />
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The stitch file that sews the design on the machine is saved from that master file and is in an expanded format the machine can read. It carries no coded information and is merely a list of stitch points telling the needle where to sew.<br />
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For this reason, changes to the design should be made to the original master so the integrity of the design stays intact. Once the changes are made, the stitch file version of the design is rewritten.<br />
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All this explanation is to tell you that each time you make changes to a stitch file without going back to the master, the design deteriorates a bit when the embroidery software tries to recreate the codes upon opening the design up in the software. Some coding is invariably lost, even if you open the stitch file up in the same software it was created in. Over time, this results in poor embroidery. It’s always better to return to the original master file format to make changes or go back to the person who created the master for changes.<br />
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This is not to say that editing expanded stitch files is not possible, however, there will most likely be more editing and recoding needed to get quality results. As always, turn to a trusted digitizer with the skills to help you properly.<br />
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Do you have customers that would like to change/edit their embroidery files and you don't have the original? We do that! When you’re looking for a digitizer, call NeedleUp. We have over 20 years in the commercial embroidery business! 303-287-6633 NeedleUp Digitizing ©2002 A USA company<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666864249421077639.post-91973841443866963462012-01-25T17:44:00.000-07:002012-01-25T17:44:52.863-07:00Why graphics artists don’t necessarily make good embroidery digitizersNumerous times, I’ve either read or hear about some graphic artist who decides to hang out their “digitizing shingle” since they know Corel Draw so well. To me, that’s like deciding to open a hair salon since they’ve used scissors before.<br />
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True, the creative side of digitizing benefits from someone who can be artistic but the digitizing process serves the technical side of embroidery and without the knowledge of how the machines work, production, pathing, fabrics, hooping and the mechanics of needles, thread, bobbin and tension, being able to create or manipulate a graphic is only a very small portion of prerequisite knowledge. <br />
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More painfully obvious are the graphics I usually get from customers who paid a large sum to their graphic artist to create a logo for their company, only to find out that it is all but unusable for the medium of embroidery. That’s because the graphic people don’t take the time to learn at least a cursory amount of information on the requirements of embroidery. They are selling a graphic after all and not concerned about their customers need or use of other mediums for marketing.<br />
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Digitizing is an art that is mastered over time and has a large learning curve. You can’t buy experience and there’s no “national school of digitizing”. In order to understand embroidery and punching designs, you’d have to have had some experience running an embroidery machine, dealing with production and some kind of guidance actually learning to digitize. If they’re expecting to use an “auto-digitizing” software (or digital to embroidery converter) that creates professional grade designs, there is no such animal. (And, truthfully, if they don’t understand digitizing, they wouldn’t know what buttons to push and settings to use in the “auto-digitizer” anyway).<br />
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Graphics people are great at what they do…. Graphics. <b>NeedleUp Digitizing is great at what we do….embroidery digitizing! Leave the digitizing to the experienced. Call us: 303-287-6633<br />
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NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned and operated by Donna Lehmann, a 20yr veteran of the digitizing world. She can be reached at the above number for digitizing, consultation and classes M-F.<div class="blogger-post-footer">NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned by Donna Lehmann, a 20 year veteran of the commercial embroidery/digitizing field. Donna can be reached at donna@needleup.com. Visit the website at http://www.needleup.com for more information</div>NeedleUp Digitizinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13604642558013571384noreply@blogger.com0