? Did you know...
Artwork and time are the two major factors that derail a successful promotional product campaign.
First, artwork. All suppliers/manufacturers of promotional products are going to need your logo in what is called "vectored art." Usually this is your logo created in Illustrator and saved with an 'eps' file extension.
So what is vectored art? Probably the best thing is to compare it to an image format we're all pretty much familiar with, a jpg image. A jpg image is a low resolution image suitable for the web or for e-mailing. If you enlarge it enough you'll see the edges become jagged or "pixilated." That happens because the image is made up of many little squares, or pixels. What you're seeing are the edges of these squares when you enlarge the image.
Vectored art is created with a graphics program that has curves instead of pixels. When you enlarge an 'eps' image the edges will remain smooth. You can enlarge, shrink, whatever and the image remains intact and in proportion. It is a high resolution image that can be used to decorate your items. (Note, you can't take a 'jpg' image and save it as an 'eps' image...that doesn't take away the pixels.)
So, have your logo created as vectored art. If you don't have a graphics person you can find them on the web. We like
LogoCleanup.
Another hint, if your logo is very long (horizontal) have an alternate version ready. There will be products where the imprint area won't be long enough to accommodate a long logo. It's better to have this discussion and create an alternate version of your logo sooner rather than when you're confronted with the problem.
Time. Albert Einstein said that the only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen all at once. It seems that time often disappears when you're working on a promotional product project.
A good rule of thumb is to submit your order a month before you actually need it. Allow 2-4 working days to get back your proof (always ask for a proof), then allow 10-15 working days for production. Add to that the shipping. It's a 6 day ship from the west coast where many of the suppliers are located.
Most suppliers can do a Rush Order, but you'll pay more.
Now, don't you feel smarter?