Art & Design

Vector or line art, Illustrator 8 or 9 preferred, saved as PC file; please call for other options.

Clean art, not bit-mapped, at 400% yields the best mold.

If a font is tweaked, it needs to be outlined.

If we receive a “placed image” saved as an Illustrator file our artist needs to re-draw the piece. This costs $$ - not a lot, but it does add to the cost of the set-up.

You can tell the difference between a placed image file and a vector file by the number of little blue, you guessed it – vectors, in the piece when it is highlighted in Illustrator. If only the perimeter is outlined, the design is a placed image and will have to be re-drawn. If the piece is obscured with blue lines and dots, it is exactly what we need – or more to the point, exactly what our artist needs. In order to do the art for the plates we have to separate the colors, hence the need for vector art. Have I confused you – I’ve confused myself, but that’s why we have our artist standing by.

This comes from a list Esteban made for Kerry early on. He called it “Kerry's Dumb List”. Maybe it will help you too!

We generally incorporate a 2.5 point border for cutting-die placement. If the piece is straight-edged and square-cornered, it can be border-less. Well, actually it can be die cut inside the border too, but you are paying for the border we are cutting off. Sexy, isn't it?

Your sew contractor can tell you what they need. If they can't, maybe you need a new one!

You tell us what you want and we’ll let you know if you can have it!

Usually just one; talk to us.

With our normal acid-etched plates, you don't. The broader an area is, the more the acid eats, and the higher it will be in the finished piece. If you are a control freak, you can specify heights and pay extra for a pantographed, or computer-etched plate. For even more control, you can combine acid etching and pantographing in the same piece. However, as with all good things, control costs. Probably add at least $250 or so to our normal set-up fees of $350. The plate needs to be quoted from artwork and the pantographing takes close to a week. Our regular plates turn in 24 hours. So, you can get exactly what your engineering department requested, but you pay and you wait - life is like that isn't it?

Because we start with a liquid, each raised color needs to be separated from its neighbor by a 'wall' in the design. This 'wall' is a .5 point line, and it will show in the final piece as the color of the background. Otherwise, your carefully chosen white and lovely PMS red will be a dandy pink, but you probably didn't want pink! And we want you to be happy, so all raised colors will be separated by a .5 point line. Look closely at anybody's plastic label and you will see this. Doesn't matter where it came from, we all do it! If you see something without a dividing wall, let us know & we'd be interested! Yes, we know, sometimes on a pantographed plate you can have colors on top of each other without a line, but any colors NEXT to each other are separated. Picky, picky! Of course Esteban had to edit that in for the purists!

We color match to Pantone colors. We have a formula based system that works pretty well most of the time. When you specify a color we use the formula. If you don't like what you get, we will tweak it. However, when we tweak, we then have to match future batches by eye and that isn't quite as accurate as the formula with its little gram scale. We can also match shoelaces, fabric and all manner of things. If your color doesn't look exactly like the Pantone chart, please bear in mind your Identity Plus labels are plastic and the chart is paper. Light reflects differently, is absorbed differently, ya de ya de ya. Bottom line; when you paint your drywall and your trim with the same color, it looks slightly different - same principle! Little areas and small fonts will look different than big areas of the same color. The little areas allow more of the background to transfer through. Yes, we concentrate the color and go to the wall, and back things with white, and sometimes, they still look like a slightly different shade! Sorry! Fading and yup, just like your bright red 1976 Honda Civic faded over time, very intense colors will fade some. If the piece is going to be used and abused, let us know, and we will double the amount of pigment; this is a better UV protector than the highly touted UV protector itself. The highly touted UV protectors 'die' after a year, and then where are you?

This is your call. We generally pour 4 ounce labels (that means a lot to you, doesn't it?) and 15 ounce key chains. You can tell us what you need and we'll do our best!

Esteban is pretty good at getting this to happen. Our well-trained staff helps a lot! Also, he has some tricks up his sleeve that we'll tell you about if we know you REALLY well. So, don't pretend to be somebody and pump us, and turn out to be the competition.