Embroidery is the art of creating a design with a piece of material, a needle and thread. Most promotional items artwork has a 2-dimensional look to it. With embroidery the final product has a beautiful, clean, glossy finish due to the individual threads being hit by light at slightly different angles. There are 3 major types of stitches used in the embroidery process that help give variation and details.
Satin stitch gives a glossy, flat texture like satin fabric. This is the most common kind of stitch because it allows the artwork to lie flush and neat against most fabrics. Fill stitches are used as foundation to create a stable surface. Fabrics like silk are slippery and textured or plush fabrics like fleece are a bit more difficult to work with. With the fill stitch it makes these fabrics easier to handle and for the satin stitch to have a more flawless look. The most detailed stitches are called walking stitches. Walking (also referred to running) stitches look like long dashes and may look hand sewn. This stitch goes on last for fine line details. Artwork that combines these kinds of stitches can make your artwork look simple and sophisticated. An option to make your logo look more 3-dimensional is Puff (3D) Embroidery. This process has larger minimums than normal embroidery but does offer a wow factor to go with it.
Here at Brand & Design Co. we can work magic but even our touch has limits to what embroidery machines can do. Anything that is too small will not embroider well, especially tiny text. Other super fine details maybe be eliminated, or they may be increased depending on what looks best. Thread is a fixed width and fabrics add an element of compromise and create knots that may wreck a piece. The other thing we suggest staying away from are gradients. Although they print and look great on screen, gradients don’t look like that via threads and fabric. Stitches of different colors do not blend and will appear like blocks of colors versus the smooth color transitions you are hoping for. If you have questions about your artwork, send them our way and we can show you what we can do with it, or we can send options if there are adjustments that need to be made. Just let us know what works best for your brand. It’s our expertise.