Artwork Setup for Custom Corporate Uniforms

Send vector artwork wherever you have it, because it scales to any garment position without softening. If you only hold a raster file, send the largest original you can find rather than a version pulled from a website. Artwork approval is what starts the 10 to 15 working day production window, so the file is the first thing to sort out.

What file should you send?

Vector formats are the ideal: the logo is described as shapes rather than pixels, so it can be scaled to a back panel or reduced to a sleeve without losing an edge. Where only a raster file exists, resolution at final print size is what matters, not the number in the filename.

The files that cause trouble are predictable. A logo lifted from a website, a screenshot of a PDF, a photograph of a printed sign, or an image generated without a print-ready output. All of them can usually be rebuilt, but rebuilding takes time that sits before the production clock starts. The specifics are covered in preparing artwork files for custom clothing printing.

How big should a uniform logo be?

A chest mark on a shirt or polo typically sits around eight to ten centimetres wide, positioned so it clears the placket and sits above where an apron bib would cover it. Bigger is not better here: an oversized chest logo reads as promotional rather than professional, which is the opposite of what a uniform is for.

Back marks are the place for scale, and the constraint there is legibility at distance rather than physical space. Sleeve and nape positions are small by nature and want simplified artwork, often a monogram or a single element from the full logo rather than the whole lockup.

What happens to your file before it prints?

It gets prepared for the method chosen. For screen printing, colours are separated so each gets its own screen, which is why colour count drives cost. For embroidery, the artwork is converted into a stitch file, with paths and densities set so the mark holds its shape in thread. For DTF and sublimation, the file is prepared at final size against the garment colour.

Each of those preparations is specific to the approved version. That is the reason a change after approval restarts the clock for that design rather than slotting in quietly — the setup already exists and has to be redone. Choosing between the methods is covered in print or embroider wholesale uniforms.

Who checks the proof?

Name one approver before the proof is issued, and make sure they have authority to say yes. Proofs that circulate through a committee gather opinions rather than decisions, and every day of that sits in front of production. Give the approver a date and tell them what moves if it passes.

Check three things on the proof specifically: spelling of every word including the ones nobody reads, the colour reference against your brand standard, and the position measurements against the garment. Then approve it and leave it alone. The uniforms range shows what can be decorated across a programme, and the pricing page sets out how colour count and positions affect the per-piece figure.

It helps to treat the proof as the last moment the design is cheap to change. Everything before it is a conversation; everything after it is a production setup that physically exists. Buyers who wave the proof through and then review the design properly when the delivery arrives are the ones who spend the next two years looking at a logo sitting two centimetres lower than they wanted. Give the proof a genuine ten minutes, with a ruler and your brand standard open in front of you. Read the wording aloud while you are at it, because that is how the typo nobody spotted finally gets caught.