The right mix of fit and vintage finish makes this sport sweatshirt a winner.

We’ve got another gem from the new offerings we’re taking to this year’s Keller Williams Family Reunion that we’d like to show you. We created this show-stopping sweatshirt, complete with extremely distressed applique to get that vintage athletic apparel feeling for all the folks from Keller Williams. Long [...]]]>  

The right mix of fit and vintage finish makes this sport sweatshirt a winner.

We’ve got another gem from the new offerings we’re taking to this year’s Keller Williams Family Reunion that we’d like to show you. We created this show-stopping sweatshirt, complete with extremely distressed applique to get that vintage athletic apparel feeling for all the folks from Keller Williams. Long fans of other athletic-inspired styles on your myredgear.com website, we figure that the people at the show will love this high-end retail look.

We paired the company colors with a frayed twill applique and customized distressed text, digitized to match the piece in style and finish, to create a unique new way for the folks at Keller Williams to brand themselves and promote their business. Place that design on comfortable, softly-shaded crew-neck sweatshirts like these and you’ve got a combination that’s sure to keep their team in high spirits.

With more and more materials and decoration options on the market, you needn’t settle for simple polo-shirts and caps with the same old standard embroidery.  Just ask the people who’ve been shopping at myredgear.com- they’ll tell you: from rhinestone bling to vintage-inspired sweatshirts, to sparkly-printed yoga pants, there’s a new world of corporate identity out there, and we’re here to bring it to you. They’ll be easy to find in their eye-catching custom gear, and you can be too.

Impressions Magazine posted their latest gallery of inspirational decorated apparel today, and in this latest MULTIMEDIA and Digitizing Artistry gallery, Black Duck was prominently featured through our one-of-a-kind apron for local favorite, Dion’s Pizza!  Created from a design once used for company reward jackets, this beatiful, but work-sturdy apron features a detailed rendition [...]]]>

Impressions Magazine posted their latest gallery of inspirational decorated apparel today, and in this latest MULTIMEDIA and Digitizing Artistry gallery, Black Duck was prominently featured through our one-of-a-kind apron for local favorite, Dion’s Pizza!  Created from a design once used for company reward jackets, this beatiful, but work-sturdy apron features a detailed rendition of the famous Dion’s logo, complete with all of the wood-cut inspired lines you would expect from this classic piece of logo artistry.

Thanks to the good people of Impressions, and thanks to Dion’s for all the awesome pizza, subs, and salads over the years! (we paid for them all, don’t feel bad, folks! ) We’re happy we’ve been able to help you promote your great products and outfitting your employees with identifiable and professional uniforms and apparel has been a pleasure!

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‘.

The Range [...]]]> [By popular request, we're re-running edited versions of some of our "success stories" from an e-mail ad campaign that we did in recent years.  Here's the first of a few of these fun thumbnail sketches of our apparel solutions that just might help you see what Black Duck can do for you. -ed]

The Range Cafe staff looks great with gear from Black Duck

When it came time for the Range Café to pack up their wagons and move their Wyoming location to the new homestead across the street, they knew it was time for their old logos and signage to get out of Dodge. They came to us with a picture from the sign shop and ordered the whole enchilada; tees, polos, and aprons!

Custom Screen Printed Tee

Waist Apron with Pockets

Good for them, the skilled staff at Black Duck knew just how to make their sign come alive in stitches and ink. In no time they had the finest embroidery and screen-printing on a herd of top-shelf garments in every color under the sun.

When we were finished, the Range Café had new embroidered polos and aprons for their employees and the best silk-screened promotional tees in the great Southwest!

When it comes time to circle the wagons and take a stand against the competition, remember that Black Duck can ride for your brand. No matter what you need to set up shop, we’ve got you covered, partner.

Whenever we try to illustrate the power of promotional products, car flags always come up in the conversation. These unassuming little flags that temporarily mount in the rolled-up window of your car seem like such small canvases to show a logo, but their action-packed movement and prominent [...]]]>

Proudly fly your logo everywhere you go!

Whenever we try to illustrate the power of promotional products, car flags always come up in the conversation. These unassuming little flags that temporarily mount in the rolled-up window of your car seem like such small canvases to show a logo, but their action-packed movement and prominent position above the car’s roof make car flags very effective attention-getters!

We first discovered the awesome benefits of car flags when we were contacted by a large real-estate company looking for a promotional product that would maximize the advertising impact of their weekly house tours. It seemed simple to us, if the Realtors wanted a semi-permanent solution, we could make vinyl window graphics, and failing that, we could go to the old standard of magnetic signs for the doors. Project completed, right?

Wrong! The Realtors not only didn’t want anything adhered to their window, but many of them (several driving rather expensive luxury automobiles) had no desire to find out if a magnetic sign would scuff their paint job. So, what did we suggest? Car flags! Car flags are completely temporary and don’t come into contact with the paint whatsoever! As it turns out there are further benefits to car flags for this specific use.

Imagine this scene; fifteen shining cars pull into your neighborhood, flying brightly colored flags like a presidential motorcade, pulling up to that house that just so recently went on the market. Out step twenty sharply-dressed Realtors with clipboards in hand, ready to inspect the residence. Now, what is your estimation of that house? Looks more important, doesn’t it? Even better, what would you think of the real estate company’s service? I’d certainly like to think I had 20 Realtors at the ready to move my house on the market. Suddenly the neighborhood is abuzz with talk of the house and the Realtors’ visit. Sounds like a dream, right? It’s entirely true! By our customer’s report, this happens once a week in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We made it happen for them, and now offices around the country use the self-same car flags for their home tours, courtesy of Black Duck Embroidery and Screen Printing.

If you think your company could benefit from a little mobile advertising, come see us! We can create a complete promotional products solution to help your business be the talk of your neighborhood!

Here at Black Duck we pride ourselves on producing quality garments for every client, no matter if their designs are simple or complex.  That said, we were pleasantly surprised to see that one of our entries into 2009′s Impressions Magazine contest was featured prominently on their cover, and throughout [...]]]>

February 2010 Cover of Impressions Magazine

Here at Black Duck we pride ourselves on producing quality garments for every client, no matter if their designs are simple or complex.  That said, we were pleasantly surprised to see that one of our entries into 2009′s Impressions Magazine contest was featured prominently on their cover, and throughout February’s issue.

Though this design is simple, we are proud of this garment. It was made as an entry into the eco-friendly category and features a bamboo fiber shirt from Ash City and Hilos Iris thread from EnMart.  The design is a logo redrawn and digitized by our own Erich Campbell on behalf of LGI Algae International, a group studying algae for use in producing biofuels.

When this logo appeared at Black Duck, the customer had an the text and a  couple of rough sketches. We took that brilliant concept, drew clean vector art, and digitized a simple but striking embroidered logo that was both eye-catching and meaningful. Combining that logo with the eco-friendly garments and threads meant that not only was the shirt-color green, but we’d really created a product that embodied the green ethos for which LGI stands.

Our shirt at work!

We’re proud to see all of our work out there in the wide world, but we couldn’t be happier that Impressions shared our love of this awesome shirt.

Would you like your logo to have that cover-shot quality? All it takes is a trip to Black Duck! From concept to completion, we can help you make a statement that gets attention.  From apparel to accessories, we’re here to make your logo look its best.