Embroidery can be more than a decoration technique. It can be a work of art. However many people shy away from it due to the misconception it is expensive. Embroidery really is no more than screen printing, and actually less when multiple colors are involved.
The best thing about embroidery though is that once it is set-up, you will not pay set-up fees again. The only exception would be if you wanted to change the size of it drastically. You can change the colors and still not need to pay set-up fees again. You can run different colors at the same time (for instance you want white on a blue shirt and blue on a white shirt at same time) and it still does not increase the cost.
Here's some helpful embroidery info:
· You do not have to any professional art files to have it set-up. Most imprinting requires specific type of art files. With embroidery, since they actually re-trace your logo anyway (plodding where the needle stops, etc.), a simple jpeg file will work.
· Typical set-up for embroidery is going to be around $50
· Standard sizes for embroidery on shirts, jackets and apparel is going to be no more than 3.5” – 4” wide. 4” wide is kind of large. Height would be proportional.
· Embroidery for caps, due to the curvature, is a little different, but costs no more.
· You can have up to about 10 thread colors in the same design many times and there’s no extra cost.
· Gradients are tricky with embroidery.
· Embroidery is priced based on the number of stitches in your logo. Most logos are 6,000 stitches or less. If yours has a big background it would likely be more.
· Big backgrounds can make the embroidery affect the material. For instance, if you put it on a sleeve it may not lay properly.
· Some of today’s performance material items, like performance shirts and performance pull-overs, can pose embroidery issues due to how thin the material is.
· An applique falls under the scope of embroidery. A good example of appliques would be like the letters and numbers you see on pro sports uniforms, biker jackets and such.
· Finally, we are seeing a noticeable trend of using patches on caps, beanies and other headwear. This typically involves ordering the patches from a patch supplier (since most embroidery shops do not produce patches) and sending them to the embroidery shop to be applied to the headwear.
So that ought to clear up some misconceptions regarding embroidery. It is a great decoration technique which can produce some beautiful logos and such.