ARE YOU ORGANISING A CONFERENCE OR EVENT FOR THE FIRST TIME ?

WE have all done it but please read below and we may be able to save you a lot of time and money and avoid many nasty surprises.

What is the process for deciding which product I may like to purchase?

Many of our customers just browse our website and request a quote on any products that meet their requirements. Our unique Quote cart allows you to click through many products and enter the quantities you may need by submitting it to the cart
– don’t forget to finish off your request by adding your contact details so that we know who to email the quote to .
Many regular clients, pick up the phone and give us a briefing of what they are looking for and when they need it, we will get a quote out to you as quickly as possible.

When you have examined the quote and made a choice between a few possibilities, ask us to send you out a sample. At the earliest possible time you should ask us to put your preferred bag ‘on hold’
– this doesn’t commit you to these bags, but it will make sure that the bags are there when your group has made up their mind. We will be happy to keep your bags on hold while you are confirming your decision.
As the conference grows closer you should be able to firm up your delegate numbers. During this time you should be ensuring that your artwork has been finalised and is in the suitable format. If there are numerous conference sponsors, make sure that they all supply their logos at the earliest possible time in the correct format.

What format do I need to supply my logos in ?

For most decorating methods described below, The required graphic format is a vector graphic;
Adobe illustrator (ai files ) and EPS (Encapsulated Post Script). These are drawing files and are made up of lines in relation to each other, not just a series of dots. They are preferred because they can be scaled up and down and are always smooth lines that look perfect. If you can zoom right in on your logo and see a series of dots, then it is not a vector graphic , it is a bitmap or raster image.
EPS files are platform independent. It is most likely that you will not be able to open or see a vector graphic that your graphic designer sends you. It is designed to be read only by another drawing program. Please dont send us logos taken from your and your sponsors websites- they will be low resolution and not suitable for printing.

What is Indent?

Indent is the term the industry uses for Customer Factory Orders, developed and produced especially for you in our offshore factories. Using Indent for the production of stock items gives you huge savings, particularly if you plan ahead as all the printing and decorating happens in the factory at the time of manufacture also you have a huge variety of fabrics and decoration options available to create your own unique style! Perhaps you like a particular bag style – but would like it in your corporate colours , with custom zip pullers and rubberized badges – anything is possible when we indent a bag
However.. You must remember to place your order usually 12 weeks out from the delivery date, as these are bulky orders and they must be ship freighted into the country. Some smaller items and lighter items like hats, tote bags and lanyards can be express indented and flown into the country for shorter timeframes, please talk to us about this. Most of the larger conferences that we supply indent their bags up to 6 months in advance.

Screen Printing
Used to print spot colour on clothing & bags and most FLAT objects. It is a cost effective way of printing larger objects like T-shirts and bags. smaller objects will be pad printed. Screen printing uses a different silk screen for each colour used and usually only one colour can be printed at a time before printing the next colour over the top . Consequently there are considerable set up costs for each additional colour used.

Plastisol Printing
Plastisol transfers are used when fine detail is required on printing to material such as caps, clothing or bags. Plastisol is printed onto a transfer paper and then heat set onto a surface which may be curved like caps or stubbie holders.

Why use Plastisol Transfer?
With plastisol, because you can print onto paper you can actually save your transfers for later use. Say you have an annual event that you need shirts for, it is possible to print 300 transfers onto the paper and transfer 100 for this years event and save the rest for next years event. Also, because you are not printing directly on the product you can apply your transfer to any product later that is suitable. This can be an economical way to print low quantities, we can hold your plastisol transfers for your next event.

Embroidery
Here the Logo or message is woven onto the cap, clothing or bag. Branding cost is determined by the ‘stitch count’ or the size of Logo. Usually we will ask to see the logo that is being used so that we can do a stitch count to determine how many stitches are required , to determine the cost of decoration. The miniumum text height for embroidery is 5mm. Embroidery is a good way to produce multicoloured logos, but is size limited

Decal Printing
Used on coffee mugs and glassware. A spot colour or 4 colour process decal is pre-printed, then fired onto the coffee mug or glass. Costs are specified for one side or two sides (full wrap ). decal printing is a lot more durable than sublimated printing methods on mugs

Offset Printing
1-4 colour process printing on mouse mats, plus traditional printing of brochures and point of sale.

Pad Printing
Utilses a custom made pad to print spot colours on hard products such as golf balls and plastic or metal products such as clocks. With soft products such as stress shapes, only one colour is possible because of the difficulty to register the printing. multiple colours are usually printed offshore

Laser Engraving
Fine engraving of Logos into metal, timber, glass and some plastic products is done with laser engraving. This requires a very good Vector graphic.

Blind Embossing and Foil Stamping
is used to decorate leather and Koskin style products. Blind embossing pushes a heavy heated stamp into the leather , this can be with or without gold or silver foil .

PMS Colours

Pantone Matching System. Universally recognised colour guide used for defining colours in printing solid Logo colours (spot colours). Your company or sponsors can specify which PMS colours your logo should be reproduced in . Ask your graphic designer to confirm your PMS colours when they provide the logo.