Here in the last week of the year, many of our customers who visit the showroom at Black Duck are raring to get an order underway so it can count as a purchase made on the [...]]]>

Coordinating shirts now come in a range of styles, colors, and fits - perfect for your logo and staff.

Here in the last week of the year, many of our customers who visit the showroom at Black Duck are raring to get an order underway so it can count as a purchase made on the current year’s budget. While we’re not here to debate the merits of fixed-budget spending, we are here to help you make your purchase more than just a way to round out your figures. Here are three ways that you can make that last bit of budget surplus money work for your department in the coming year.

1. Start the new year with a new professional look. Nothing says ‘team spirit’ like coordinated, custom logowear. Buy your key staff new embroidered button-up and polo shirts, complete with your logo, and they’ll start the new year looking and feeling ready for business. Black Duck has selections that combine professional unisex choices with coordinating and flattering women’s styles to make every day a perfect day to wear your logo (and there are at least 3 good reasons why).

2. Stock up on some essentials, with a promotional twist. You know you’ll need office supplies in the coming year- everyone wants new pencils and pens, notepads, and even incidentals like coffee mugs and flash drives, but rather than simply buying up blank goods from your office supply warehouse, why not turn every one of those frequently used and often seen items into a promotional opportunity by adding a custom print with your logo and company information?  Not only is it a great corporate identity builder for your staff, each of these items can be used as a promotional giveaway for customers and friends of your company. Useful, quality items tend to stay around, meaning that every time your customer picks up that favorite pen, they’ll have your logo and info at hand, and on the top of their mind.

The classic Bic Click-Stick is dependable and can easily produced with your company colors and logos

3. Plan for early for your next event. You know that there’s that one tradeshow, that big meeting, that presentation that you always end up scrambling to get ready at the last minute. Why not get your promotional products set up now? Logo-printed tablecloths, banners, and feather flags, giveaway items like t-shirts, hats, water bottles and the like, printed goody bags, and even business cards can all be created and coordinated here at Black Duck! Why scramble at the last minute and pay rush fees for production? Get those things that you won’t have to change up for every event done now, and have them in reserve all year long.

Three short tips aren’t all we have in store for you when it comes to making the most of your budget, but we know that you’ve got no time to waste if you’re looking to place that order- so stop reading and start calling or coming in to our showroom! We’re here to help you get the best value out of your every expenditure. Whether you need company uniforms, custom promotional products, or even a company identity plan built from scratch, we’re ready to help you put your best foot forward. Contact us, and we’ll make it easy.

The fine folks at Stitches Magazine have decided to feature us and a photo of our owners, Doug and Dana Bird before one of the walls in our famously crimson conference room in their latest issue. We were selected due to our bold use of color in the decoration of [...]]]>

Doug and Dana in Stitches

The fine folks at Stitches Magazine have decided to feature us and a photo of our owners, Doug and Dana Bird before one of the walls in our famously crimson conference room in their latest issue. We were selected due to our bold use of color in the decoration of our fully-stocked showroom and conference room spaces as Stitches discussed the psychological uses of color in business spaces.

Our red showroom was meant to get our customers revved up! Just ask Doug if you see him stepping out of his awesome red Corvette, or even when he drives the classic Ford truck, complete with Black Duck tailgate, that graces illustrations on our main website- red gets your pulse going! Admittedly, red is supposed to increase sales, and while you might feel like we’re trying to brainwash you, we’re not all that bad. We haven’t started using subliminal messages or tried to hypnotize anyone, we just want to give you the energy to be as fired up as we are about your customized apparel and accessories!

If you’d like to get a snapshot view about color theory and how it affects sales, we recommend checking out this interesting and attractive infographic from the folks at KISSMetrics. It breaks down both the importance of image and the effects various colors could have on your customers, and is well worth a look. There’s a great deal of information out there, but this simple chart should whet your interest to take up a further search if you’re so inclined.

If, after you’ve checked out our mention in Stitches or read up on color with the folks at KISSMetrics, you feel the need to retool your color scheme, Black Duck is here to help you with your apparel, accessories, signage and more. After all, if we paid this much attention to the color and art on our walls, imagine what we’ll do with your gear!

What is a visual style guide?

A mock-up of how our visual style guide might look.

Simply put, a visual style guide is a document that contains the details you need to give anyone who will be decorating anything with your logo/brand in order to create a consistent rendition of your [...]]]>

What is a visual style guide?

A mock-up of how our visual style guide might look.

Simply put, a visual style guide is a document that contains the details you need to give anyone who will be decorating anything with your logo/brand in order to create a consistent rendition of your art. It lays out the look of your logo, the fonts that you’ve selected, and the colors you use in a way that’s easy for printers and art departments to understand so that no matter what you are having made, your logo looks the way you want it to look, every time. They can be as simple a single page containing only an image of your logo with some approved color numbers from a standard system like Pantone and a list of the font names used. If you are producing more complicated items, you may want a more detailed style guide, with several color examples made to show the proper way to render your logo when it appears on different backgrounds, multiple versions of your logo for larger and smaller areas to be decorated, or for horizontal and vertical decoration areas, even spacing to be used when adding other logos and text to your logo, font choices for documents on which your logo appears, and sample layouts of documents, apparel, or promotional products.

Why do I need one?

The easy answer is that it allows you to be in control of the way your logo is presented, but there are more benefits than the obvious control over your image. Having a prepared style guide saves you time and money on art preparation. One of the most time-consuming processes undertaken by most artists is the search for fonts used in a logotype. A style guide not only eliminates this search, it can provide a host of answers about proper color usage and sizing that would otherwise cost you more preparation time and might require an artist or decorator to contact you repeatedly. Having a style guide means never having to repeat yourself when describing the look you want to achieve.  Moreover, you will likely find that your entire production time is reduced, seeing that many printers and apparel decorators will favor by necessity a job with complete information over one that requires several rounds of interaction with a customer to set up. The decorator has to keep machines moving to insure profitability, and if you have your designs in order, you may end up with your design approved and slotted into an empty production line while an artist waits for details from a less prepared customer.

How do I create a style guide?

Generally, you would have this created by the artist that designed your logo. If you designed the logo yourself, you may find that your printer or apparel decorator’s art department can help you not only to redraw clean, vector-based art that you will be able to use for all your printing and decorating needs, but to create a professional-looking and information-packed style guide. Most decorators will have access to professional color-matching systems and can help you to pick out the proper color codes to include in the guide. Moreover, if they have already done the work of searching out your fonts and redrawing your logo, they’ll be armed with all of the font names and measurements they need to produce the sample images and font lists.  Common simple logo style guide sheets include at a minimum the full color version of a logo with color numbers, a single-color version of the logo for simple promotional products and paper goods, versions for dark and light backgrounds and/or backgrounds that share a color with the logo, and a list of fonts used. All you’ll have to do is sit down with your decorator’s art department to establish any other information or logo versions you’d like to include. Make sure to get yourself a PDF file, the Adobe document standard for which nearly all computers have a pre-installed viewer, and you’ll be set to send it to anyone who will be reproducing your logo.

What if I don’t think I need a style guide or can’t afford to create one?

No matter if you have a style guide or not, be aware of the basic needs of any printer or decorator, and you’ll still come out ahead. Know your fonts, have a good idea about the colors you want to use, and be prepared to answer questions about what you want. Check out my previous post on saving art and setup costs, and you’ll be prepared.

So, there you have it. Visual style guides are useful tools for keeping your logo’s look consistent and your printing and decorating worry-free. If you need a style guide, the art department at Black Duck is ready to help- either as an additional service on your next decorated apparel or promotional products order, or any time you want to create this logo life-saver, we’ve got the staff to help you tell the world how to handle your brand.

Though there are many trends we’ve seen rise and fall in the garment decoration industry, some of the processes, applications, and types of decoration that came through our doors this year seem destined either to dovetail into the next fashion-forward craze on the [...]]]>

This multimedia print and rough-cut appliqué was a hit for Sandia Prep

Though there are many trends we’ve seen rise and fall in the garment decoration industry, some of the processes, applications, and types of decoration that came through our doors this year seem destined either to dovetail into the next fashion-forward craze on the horizon or to stubbornly buck the popular wave due to the large number of fans that have stayed true to their favorite gear. The first trend that seems to cut across the new movement toward minimalism in Spring 2011 fashion is Distressed Applique. Though it is rough, high-contrast, and everything that the current movement towards smooth, neutral fashion, this technique has become a major part of decoration for schools, teams, and resortwear and doesn’t show any sign of dropping off just yet. The next style of embroidery that we saw become more and more popular this was Tonal Embroidery. Though we’ve seen tone-on-tone embroidery (think a black or dark gray logo on a black shirt) in high-end corporate decoration before, this year it seemed to be the choice of many designers and even businesses who wanted to achieve a retail, designer look. It was most popular in our shop as a treatment for caps, and often came with 3D Puff Foam to create a tail, relief version of the tone on tone logos to increase the contrast and visual impact. This style falls right in line with th latest trend toward understated decoration.

This Laser Etched Blanket photo is courtesy of mhaithaca - Beam us up one of those!

The last and most surprising decoration technique that really picked up speed in our shop was Laser-Etched Polar Fleece.  Also a tone-on-tone treatment, laser etching cuts off the fibers of the high nap (think fuzz) on polar fleece jackets, blankets, and the like.  Due to the ability to create impressively large and yet tonally-understated images, it became a favorite treatment for companies that wanted to give logo-emblazoned accessories that didn’t scream ‘giveaway‘.

Everyone knows the classic uses for embroidered patches. Military uniforms are covered in them, police officers almost always have a few, and motorcycle clubs have the biggest, baddest patches around.  Though, as evidenced by the picture on the right, we can indeed [...]]]>

Custom patches are not just for bikers, but they do make great ones!

Everyone knows the classic uses for embroidered patches. Military uniforms are covered in them, police officers almost always have a few, and motorcycle clubs have the biggest, baddest patches around.  Though, as evidenced by the picture on the right, we can indeed and do make all of these patches, not everybody fees like patches can serve their needs.  As much as we love to do direct embroidery and printing on garments, there are several reasons why you may want to consider patches as a useful addition to your decorated apparel arsenal!

First, if you have garments that wear out  faster than the embroidery on them fades, you might want to sew on and reuse logo patches. We’ve done patches for landscapers’ jackets and restaurant workers’ aprons for just those reasons. As much as we would love to make you new garments, sometimes we understand that you may need to make your decoration investment stretch.  The same strategy works for folks whose patches show their age before the garments to which they are attached; just ask the bikers about how long their leather vests last beyond the life of polyester thread. Many’s the time we’ve recreated a frayed patch for a vest with many miles left in it.

Second, if you have a new logo and your uniforms are far from finished, you may want to cover up your old logo with an embroidered patch! Even if you are transitioning to new, direct-embroidered garments, we can use the same digitized logo file to embroider your new gear as we do to create the patches. This way, you can save money on replacing the quality garments you have left, and if it turns out you just want to replace your old stock or replace each piece as it wears, we can find you a great deal on those new uniforms and be ready to start embroidering, all without a second setup fee!

Finally, you may need patches if you want to place an embroidered logo on something that we can’t fit on to an embroidery machine or that we can’t put a needle through. If you have a great golf bag with no pocket access, we can still create a monogrammed leather patch to adhere front and center. We can even make it appear to be sewn to the bag!  No matter the placement, no matter the garment or accessory, we can find a way to attach your patch!

Whether you need to trade out jackets, cover up a dated logo, or take embroidery somewhere it’s never gone before, patches may be the answer. And when your question is “Where do I get custom patches?”,  Black Duck is definitely the answer. From one-off custom-shapes to the old standard insignias, Black Duck has got you covered, even better than that old logo is about to be.

Knowing the way that most of your customers will see your logo makes a big difference in deciding just how you want your logo to look.  To that end, we’re going to let you on a little secret that can really help you [...]]]>

The Handshake Distance tells you how your customer will see your logo.

Knowing the way that most of your customers will see your logo makes a big difference in deciding just how you want your logo to look.  To that end, we’re going to let you on a little secret that can really help you get the most bang for your buck the next time you work with us to decorate your business apparel. We’re going to teach you all about the Handshake Distance.

Something most of us can certainly understand is the concept of personal space.  We all like a little buffer between us and the next person to be comfortable, right?  Well, that’s something that an anthropologist named Edward Hall got really interested in in the mid ’60s.  Mr. Hall studied the idea of personal space in the United States, and he identified four zones of personal space that Americans seemed to like.  For our purposes, we’re just going to talk about one aspect of his studies, what we will call the Handshake Distance.

Mr. Hall stated that a handshake will typically place strangers at least 2 to 4 feet from each other, preserving what he called the personal distance.  Now, why is that important to us, both apparel decorators, and you our customers?  Well, that’s pretty simple.  Now that we know what our personal distance is, and particularly, the distance of a handshake, we know with fair accuracy about how far our customer will be from us when they see our logo on corporate apparel!

So, how can we make good use of our new found knowledge?  Well, knowing that our customer will be between 2 and 4 feet from us will tell us just how far away we should be when we judge how big we want our logo, how much/what information we want included with it in what size text it should be. More importantly it can show us how much is too much or too little to fit into the space we have available.  Now that we have the magic number, we can really see how to get the most impact while maintaining the best look for our corporate apparel.

Though fine up close, viewed at the handshake distance, some small text may be hard to read.

Try this excercise- when deciding what to place on your apparel, print out at the finished size you want, tape it to the wall, and walk three feet away. Does your logo look cramped? Are the details lost at this size? Could something be changed, moved, or eliminated to make it easier to read, or make the logo more identifiable? Let’s say you put your phone number or your web address under your logo and you can’t read it from the handshake distance.  Now you can decide whether or not you want to make the text bigger, or perhaps, in the instance that your customer is already talking to your representative, whether you really need it at all.  Answering these questions and considering your customers’ point of view can make all the difference when preparing your logo for apparel.

Moreover, the handshake distance helps us in evaluating samples of our finished logos. Some customers will all but use a magnifying glass to check infinitesimal details without looking at the garment from the all important Handshake Distance. Though we at Black Duck are highly detail oriented to the point that we’ve probably already had the magnifying glasses out ourselves, it’s best to view a sample in the same way most will see it.  It’s not likely for your customer to stare at your shirt from 2 inches, why evaluate it that way?

With the handshake distance in mind, everything we create can be crafted to make the most impact right where it counts, in the eyes of our customers.

Come to Black Duck’s fully-stocked showroom, and we’ll show you samples of our work so that you can decide just what you need to keep your business on the top of your customers’ minds.  Our knowledgeable sales staff and expert artists can help you decide how to apply your art, whether you have it all drawn out to the last detail or just a thought and a desire to make it real. We live decorated apparel, and we can help you at any stage of the process.

Written by Erich Campbell.

You already know that wearing your organization’s logo is great for identifying you staff and building team spirit, but that’s for office hours and weekdays, right?  Though it’s a must to look professional when you are on the job, with the comfortable, stylish, and functional apparel [...]]]>

Realtors often use logowear to sell 24-7, shouldn't you?

You already know that wearing your organization’s logo is great for identifying you staff and building team spirit, but that’s for office hours and weekdays, right?  Though it’s a must to look professional when you are on the job, with the comfortable, stylish, and functional apparel that’s available to your garment decorator, there’s no reason not to wear your logo out shopping, in the gym, at sporting events, or anywhere!  More to the point, here are 3 reasons why you and your employees can and should wear your logo every day and everywhere.

1. Brand Recognition

We all know how much good traffic and signage can change how well your business is known in your local community, but what if you could walk your sign around town? When you foster team spirit by rewarding your employees with cool and comfortable ways to wear your logo in their off-time, you can do just that!

2. Personal Recognition

If you want to make sure that you are on the top of everyone’s mind, you have to be seen and identified with your company!  When you wear your logo, every errand becomes a chance for your community to see and recognize you as a representative of your business! Start wearing your logo and soon enough you will be the local go-to expert for your field.

3. Starting the Conversation

If someone is interested in your company or group, wearing your logo is an invitation to open up a conversation about what you do.  Carry business cards and make sure you have a solid 30 second pitch for your business, and even the most hurried trip can be a chance for prospecting! Even if the initial contact isn’t promising, the next time your prospect needs your service, or knows someone who does, your face is in mind and your card is in hand!

At Black Duck, we can create any look from the most casual sports and gym-wear to the most formal business attire. We have solutions for any situation. So, whether you want polo shirts for the golf course, embroidered caps and jackets to fight the winter chill, or the time-tested t-shirt for employee giveaways and promotions, we can provide you with the eye-catching design and execution you need to get noticed.  Call us at (505) 884-3656 and mention the blog to get started with one of our experts in sales!