DesignFix Design Studio
Artwork for embroidery
Thread cannot do what ink does. Fine lines fill in, small text becomes a smudge, gradients do not exist, and a logo that looks crisp on a screen can be unreadable at two inches on a cap. Most embroidery problems are decided in the artwork long before anyone reaches a machine.
What this covers
What we work on in embroidery design
Simplifying for stitch
Detail reduced, lines thickened and shapes consolidated so the design holds together in thread.
Adapting logos and marks
An existing logo reworked into a version that survives being small, bold and stitched.
Small-size legibility
Left chest, cap fronts and cuffs, where the size decides what can stay in the design.
Clean vector source artwork
Artwork rebuilt as clean shapes, which is what a digitiser needs to work from.
Projects that fit here
Examples of the kind of thing people send us. If yours isn’t on the list, describe it anyway.
- A detailed logo reduced to a version readable at two inches
- Thin lettering thickened so it does not disappear into the fabric
- A gradient replaced with a limited set of solid thread-friendly colours
- A mark redrawn as clean vector before it goes to a digitiser
- A cap-front version of a logo built for a wider, shorter area
- A design simplified for a textured or knitted garment
Who this tends to be for
Businesses branding workwear
Where a logo drawn for print now has to be stitched onto shirts, caps or jackets.
Embroiderers receiving customer artwork
When what arrived cannot sensibly be digitised as-is.
Anyone whose logo came back unreadable
Usually a detail problem in the artwork rather than a fault in the stitching.
What we do here, and what we do not
We prepare ARTWORK for embroidery. That means simplifying a design so it can be stitched, thickening what would otherwise disappear, reducing colours to a workable set, adapting a mark for a small or awkward area, and supplying clean vector artwork a digitiser can work from.
We do not produce machine-ready digitised stitch files. Digitising — the stitch-by-stitch programming that produces a DST, EMB, PES or similar file, with stitch types, densities, pull compensation and underlay chosen for a specific machine and fabric — is a separate discipline, and it is not something this studio does. Saying otherwise would be easy and would waste your money.
In practice that means we sit one step before your embroiderer. Most embroiderers digitise in-house or have someone they use, and what they want from you is artwork that is actually stitchable: clean shapes, sensible detail, defined colours, and a design that has already made the decisions thread is going to force anyway. Sending that, rather than a print-ready logo, is usually the difference between a good first sample and three rounds of corrections.
If digitising is the thing you actually need, say so early and we will tell you plainly that it is not us — that is more useful than taking the artwork job and leaving you to discover the gap.
How it works
From a sentence to a finished design
- Step 1
Tell us what you need
One or two sentences is enough to start. You don't have to know what the work is called or which category it belongs in.
- Step 2
We discuss the project
We ask what we need to know — where it will be used, what size, what it has to work on — and tell you honestly what is and isn't possible.
- Step 3
Share files or references
Send the artwork you already have, a photo, a sketch, or examples of the look you're after. Files go straight into private storage.
- Step 4
You get a custom offer
A written scope and a fixed price for your project specifically. Nothing is charged and nothing is started until you accept it.
- Step 5
Approve and pay
Accepting the offer creates the order and takes you to payment. Decline it or ignore it and nothing happens.
- Step 6
We complete the design
The work runs through the same production and delivery process as every other DesignFix order, with revisions included in the scope.
What to send us
You don't need to know what to ask for
None of this is required, and a single sentence is enough to start. It's simply what tends to be useful, so a first message doesn't turn into three.
Whatever artwork you have
The file itself, however rough — an export, a screenshot, a photo of something printed, or the version a supplier rejected.
A reference or a sketch
Something you like the look of, a rough drawing, or an existing design you want the new work to sit alongside.
Where it's going
The product, the size, and the process if you know it. Print, garment, screen or sign changes what the artwork has to be.
Any specification you were given
A printer's requirements, a supplier's template, or the rejection message you received — that usually says exactly what needs fixing.
Colours and brand material
Existing brand colours, fonts or guidelines, so new work matches what you already have.
What you want changed
A sentence is enough. "Make this printable", "this needs to work on a dark shirt", "I want something like this but ours".
Questions
Common questions
Tell us what you need
Describe the project in a sentence or two. We’ll ask what we need to know, then send a written scope and a fixed price before anything is charged.