DesignFix Design Studio
Illustration and creative artwork
Illustration is where a project needs something that doesn't exist yet and can't be found. The useful question is rarely just what it should look like — it's what it has to survive: being printed one colour, embroidered, shrunk to an icon, or cut from vinyl.
What this covers
What we work on in illustration
Custom illustration
Original artwork drawn to brief, in a style suited to where it will be used.
Vector illustration
Artwork built as shapes rather than pixels, so it scales to any size and separates cleanly for print.
Line art
Clean outline work for engraving, embroidery, single-colour printing, colouring pages and technical use.
Characters and mascots
A recognisable figure, usually with the variations needed to use it in more than one situation.
Projects that fit here
Examples of the kind of thing people send us. If yours isn’t on the list, describe it anyway.
- A mascot for a team, business or product, with a few poses or expressions
- An illustration built to print in a single colour without losing its detail
- A photograph turned into clean line art for engraving or embroidery
- A decorative illustration for packaging or a label
- A set of illustrations sharing one visual style across a range
- Existing artwork redrawn as vector so it can finally be used at size
Who this tends to be for
Brands wanting something of their own
Artwork nobody else can license, made to fit the brand rather than approximately match it.
Anyone printing on an awkward process
Embroidery, engraving, vinyl and single-colour printing all reward artwork drawn with them in mind.
People with an idea and no way to draw it
A description, a reference, or a rough sketch is a perfectly good starting point.
Drawing for the process, not just for the page
The same illustration can be easy or impossible to produce depending on how it was drawn. Fine hatching looks beautiful on screen and fills in solid when embroidered. Soft gradients work in digital print and cannot be screen printed without being redesigned into flat colours. Delicate outlines vanish when cut from vinyl.
This is why it's worth saying early where the artwork is going. Illustration made for embroidery keeps shapes bold and detail deliberately limited. Artwork for single-colour print is built so it reads without relying on colour to separate its parts. Vinyl and engraving need shapes that stay connected rather than floating.
Vector matters here for the same reason it does in branding. Artwork built as shapes can be scaled to a wall or an icon, recoloured, separated into print colours, or cut, all from the one file. Artwork built as pixels is fixed at the size it was made.
None of this limits what can be drawn. It shapes how it's drawn, and knowing the destination before starting is the difference between artwork you can use everywhere and artwork that only works in the file it was made in.
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.