Answering your questions before you ask them....

Showline Promotional Products
YourNameEverywhere.com
Frequently Asked Questions

In any business requiring personalization there are techniques and requirements that vary greatly from simple word processing and basic artwork. We want to answer the questions we are asked most. Just CLICK on a question and the answer should appear at the top of the page:
1. How do I get started?
2. What comes next?
3. How do I supply artwork?
4. What is Camera-Ready Artwork?
5. How complicated is it to have some simple imprinted stock lettering?
6. I have a drawing of a design I want to get embroidered. So, where do I start?
7. I have a the scan of a design I want to have embroidered. It's already on disk. Why are there additional art charges?
8. I found a shirt with a manufacturer's logo on it. I want MY logo on it. What do I do?
9. Okay, just what ARE setup charges?
10. Why are there "RUSH CHARGES"?
11. What about shipping?
12. This isn't complicated, is it?

In any business requiring personalization there are techniques and requirements that vary greatly from simple word processing and basic artwork. We want to answer the questions we are asked most. Just CLICK on a question and the answer should appear at the top of the page:
1. How do I get started? 2. What comes next? 3. How do I supply artwork? 4. What is Camera-Ready Artwork? 5. How complicated is it to have some simple imprinted stock lettering? 6. I have a drawing of a design I want to get embroidered. So, where do I start? 7. I have a the scan of a design I want to have embroidered. It's already on disk. Why are there additional art charges? 8. I found a shirt with a manufacturer's logo on it. I want MY logo on it. What do I do? 9. Okay, just what ARE setup charges? 10. Why are there "RUSH CHARGES"? 11. What about shipping? 12. This isn't complicated, is it?

1. How do I get started?
            CONTACT US, and we will work with you one-on-one to HELP you get started. When we have an idea of your unique needs, we can make educated suggestions. Then, you have to decide what you want, in what color. Then what color(s) do you want to use for an imprint or a logo. Finally, how many of the item do you want.

           Look at the "break points." These are the points at which the per piece price will go down. It may play a part in how many items you want to buy. Break points may be at something like 250 items, 500 items, 1,000 items, 2,500 items; and there may be a minimum of 250 pieces. If you were planning on buying, say, 400 pieces, and there is a break point at 500, you might be doing better by purchasing 500 pieces. The price per piece could go from 87 cents for 400 to 78 cents for 500. We're trying to help you save a buck or two. [BACK to the TOP]

2. What comes next?
            You will have to supply us with the design you want on your items. (See the next two boxes below.) Your design may be something as simple as straight text or as complicated as a four-color logo or illustration. Digital camera-ready artwork is preferable. We can take something as simple as a sketch, however the less sophisticated the materials we receive, the more work our artists will have to do, and there are art charges to create or recreate your design.

           There may be set up charges or charges for very specific ink colors (PMS colors). Screens and film for imprinting may be free, or there may be a charge for those. And you'll see that there may be charges for dyes or other items depending upon what product you are purchasing. [BACK to the TOP]

3. How do I supply artwork?
            We can help you with that. We don't originate designs, but in many cases we may be able to fix a design.

            I'll give you the technical language first, just to scare you. This is repeated elsewhere, and I emphasize that if you don't know what it means, it doesn't matter! Just tell your artist this (and notice the quotes around it, so say it exactly in these words):

            "Showline Promotional Products requires vector artwork in an editable EPS format, created in Adobe Illustrator or readable by Adobe Illustrator V8, with all text converted to CURVES (or PATHS or OUTLINES). We also need an accompanying hard copy (fax will do) indicating what colors go where, a listing of PANTONE equivalents if your colors are critical and preferably a color JPEG of what the design should look like." Those words, just that way. Easy.

            Artwork is not really as big a deal as we sometimes make it seem. For monochrome (single color) straightline lettering on a pen or a keychain, we can do that with no charge. For logos and artwork of more than one color, the manufacturers almost universally prefer "camera-ready" digital artwork.

           If you have an artist who creates your designs digitally, they use very specialized graphics software. They can email the results to you, but it is always in a format which you can read without the use of that software, like in Word or in a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. This doesn't help us or the manufacturer. Your artist can email digital art files directly to us, but read the next box below.

            Conversely if you have a drawing or a photo of your proposed artwork, we have artists who can turn your dreams into digital reality. The charge is around $60 per hour. Your artwork will be emailed to you for approval, and you can get out of the graphics business. [BACK to the TOP]

4. What is Camera-Ready Artwork?
           It is easier to say what camera-ready artwork is NOT.

          Camera-ready art is NOT your logo on your website. It is not photographs, slides, transparencies, negative stats or films which need to be reversed to positive, halftone art which requires resizing, low resolution laser-printed artwork of less than 1,200 dpi, photocopies, faxed art, letterheads, business cards, or any other art which requires touch-up, color separation, or which must be made monochrome. Computer scans, PMTs or photostats are NOT camera-ready art.

          Unless you want a promotional product with a four-color process (full color) imprint, the following is what is required. You don't have to understand what it means; your artist will (rememebr I said above you would see this again):
                    vector artwork in an editable EPS format;
                    created in Adobe Illustrator or readable by Adobe Illustrator V8;
                    all text converted to CURVES (or PATHS or OUTLINES);
                    accompanying hard copy (a fax will do) indicating what colors go where, so we can be sure of what it looks like;
                    a listing of PANTONE equivalents if your colors are critical;
                    a color JPEG of what the design should look like.

          This is important only if you want to understand the difference between what you see on your computer screen and what you see imprinted on whatever you order.
          A computer screen or a television gives you "projected color". It is light projected by three "guns" of red, green and blue. This light or mixtures thereof illuminates itty bitty dots on the back of your picture tube. These are called pixels, and normal screen resolution is 72 dots or pixels per linear inch. This is not, has never been nor will ever be suitable for imprinting anything. Your screen image is: A low resolution RGB raster image.
          Imprinted images in ANY color is CMYK; i.e. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. With the precise mixing ratio of these colors, millions of individual colors are created. Your TV or computer screen shows 256 colors (no matter how much you paid for it) and it tries to extrapolate the colors in between. (THAT'S what you pay all that money for.)

          So if you do want four-color process, a Photoshop image of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch) origination is required by MOST companies. This is a HUGE file and is best sent on a CD (cheap). Call us first!

          Here's a hot piece of news: within the last year, many manufacturers have taken to imprinting DIGITAL color. Oh, it still requires a crisp high-resolution image, but now, color separation charges and running charges no longer exist. All the colors are imprinted in ONE PASS!

[BACK to the TOP]

5. How complicated is it to have some simple imprinted stock lettering?            Lettering is the EASIEST thing to apply to ANYTHING. Imprinted text on many specialty items is done with minimal charge or no charge at all! Embroidered lettering (called "keyboarding") is a simple matter of choosing a size, position and available font and determining the suitability of the items to be embroidered. Also, in some cases a "setup" charge may also be waived. [BACK to the TOP]

6. I have a drawing of a design I want to get embroidered. So, where do I start?
           You start by telling us you have a design you want to have embroidered. If you have detailed artwork on paper, we can give that to our artist to have digitized for embroidery. We work out the cost of digitizing, and we tell you before the work is begun. In any case, remember that embroidery puts a needle through some kind of material. Any lines in the design have to be wide enough to sew and be seen. Tiny little letters put many tiny little holes in the same place and my actually tear a hole in ANY fabric.

          We will always advise you of any modifications which must be made within a design in order to make it more "sewable." [BACK to the TOP]

7. I have a the scan of a design I want to have embroidered. It's already on disk. Why are there additional art charges?
           What a client usually has on disk is printable artwork. It may be an EPS rendering for color printing, it may be a JPEG or GIF file such as you find on the internet, it may be a TIFF or a Bitmap, or it could be any of more than a score of other graphic formats.

          Embroidery files are actually a series of mathmatical points which instruct the embroidery machines where to place each stitch, the direction of stitch series, the length of each stitch, the type of stitch and where and when there are to be color changes. (The facinating fact is that each and every embroidery equipment manufacturer has his own proprietary design software. So a design prepared on software to fit a Barudan embroidery machine won't work in a HAPPY embroidery machine nor in a MELCO embroidery machine.)

          The embroidery digitizing artist -- sometimes called a "puncher" because embroidery coding used to be done by punching holes into a paper tape -- instructs the equipment how a design is to be sewn. Through a series of codes he specifies all the necessary information for the embroidery machines to do their work. It is the creation of these embroidery files which is shown as an Art Charge.

By the way, if you have an embroidery design on a floppy -- it is almost ALL for PC -- don't even think about opening it. It is possible to corrupt it. Extensions will be something like .cnd, .exp, .dst, or several others. You CAN send these files to us attached to email, and we can read them. If you are unsure of what the artwork looks like, we can send you a screen output of your files. [BACK to the TOP]

  8. I found a shirt with a manufacturer's logo on it. I want MY logo on it. What do I do?
            There actually are people who want to wear a manufacturer's logo on their clothes. Tiger Woods, for one. But he is getting big bucks to do that. Since there is no earthly reason for you to advertise some other person's business -- what has he done for YOU, lately -- you want either anonymity (not good for us) or you want your own information on the items.

          We can duplicate ANY imprintable product if you can send a picture to us (a photo, a GIF or JPEG, even a drawing or a detailed description) along with information as to what YOU want -- color of the item and imprint design.

          This is true even if the item is something called "BRAND NEW" or "HOT". We have access to hundreds of new and hot items each month, and many are available at manufacturer's discounts just so someone can buy them and gloat because it is "BRAND NEW" or "HOT".

          As for embroidered apparel, if you see a shirt (for instance) that you really like, but it has someone else's logo on it, read the manufacturer's label and send us the manufacturer's NAME with a description of the the shirt. Such things as material, texture, and design colors.

          If the shirt has a "private label", it has been manufactured by one company and had a special (second party) label sewn into it. All is not lost:

On the private label or on a secondary label in the colar, look for a short series of numbers preceded by the letters "RN". Using the RN number, we can track the original manufacturer and buy THAT VERY SHIRT! [BACK to the TOP]

9. Okay, just what ARE setup charges?
           A setup charge reflects the expense of preparing to run a job, any job. Of course, a setup charge -- or almost ANY charge -- could be built in to the per-item price, but that is something which is usually done in retail. In wholersale custom work, every expense is broken down. The column price (that is, how much per item based upon the number of items you want to buy) relfects the finished price of each item.

          To that is added the setup charge, an art charge if it applies, and the engraving, plate, screen or die charge. This group of charges does not change. Whatever you pay, you would pay the same whether you were buying one item or 10,000. This is why you might see a screen-printed T-shirt you really like, and you ask your friendly neighborhood screen printer how much it would cost for you to have some made up. He asks, "How many?" and you say, "Oh, two... or three." You drop over when he says the shirts with three colors will cost you about $37 each. Why so much? (It isn't "much" really.)

          The screen printer has to make up three screens (films), one for each color, and he has to load his press with the three colors of ink you want. That entire setup may cost about $75. Then he runs your three shirts for which he has to charge you, let's say, $12 each just because of the time involved. Then he has to tear down the ink and clean the press for the next job.

          If, however, you were to purchase a gross of shirts, your setup goes down from $37 per shirt for three shirts to .52 per shirt for 144. Further, the actual cost of labor per shirt goes down appreciably. You are spreading the cost out over more items, and because you are buying so many items, you are getting a break on the per item cost and the labor to print each item. [BACK to the TOP]

10. Why are there "RUSH CHARGES"?
          Planning an item to have personalized with your imprint takes time. But producing those items also takes time.

          Every manufacturer works with certain published time contraints, and every manufacturer has DIFFERENT ones. Some items may have a three-day turnaround while others may require two or three weeks. This is time required "in process." That means, this is time required from the day they receive approved artwork and design information until the day it is packed, ready to be shipped.

          If a product is required to be completed and shipped in LESS than the published minimum time, the manufacturer imposes RUSH CHARGES. These may vary from 10% to as much as 50%; a charge of 20% is usual.

          Sending design materials TO the manufacturer takes time, and receiving the finished product FROM the manufacturer takes time. If a product requires RUSH CHARGES, it will most probably have to be shipped overnight. That can become pretty pricey.

          To avoid rush charges and overnight shipping, we suggest that an item's design be finalized -- that all required materials and information be in our hands -- at LEAST three weeks before it is absolutely needed in house. That is only a very GENERAL rule. Large shipments (2,500 imprinted lunchboxes or 10,000 rain slickers) may be coming to the USA from across the sea, and ships are slow. And if you remember the movie "The Perfect Storm", sometimes those containers don't make the entire trip. [BACK to the TOP]

11. What about shipping?
            I'll give you "Worst Case" first. If you need an item produced in a week and that item's manufacturer notes that normal production time is 21 working days, you are going to get rocked three or four times: you will first have to get the order to us as quickly as possible, probably overnight; you will have to pay a bunch to get all the materials shipped to the manufacturer, probably overnight; the manufacturer will add some pretty severe RUSH CHARGES; and you will pay large dollars to have the final product sent to you, also probably overnight. DHL, FedEx and UPS don't earn all that money for GIVING the overnight services away.

            If it seems that I am beating this into you, you are correct. You don't EVER want to pay RUSH CHARGES.

           Email works very well, especially if you have camera ready artwork files (probably EPS files). We can zap that anywhere and production gets underway almost immediately. But if artwork has to be "originated", that, too, takes precious time.

           "Lead Time" is your friend. A special event, a trade show or a convention doesn't sneak up on you. The earlier you begin planning for an event, the better. It gives everyone time to plan an item (or several different items) and get the necessary materials together. If modifications are to be made, THIS is the time to do it, NOT after the package has gone to the manufacturer and the process has begun. (Check in the various materials; most manufacturers will let you make changes, but it ain't FREE!) When you have lead time, most things can be done regular mail, and shipping can be UPS or FedEx surface. [BACK to the TOP]

12. This isn't complicated, is it?
            There is an old saying which I made up that goes: "Like a tattoo, imprinting and embroidery is forever."

           We are natural born worry worts. We may make it SEEM complicated, but it's NOT. You may want to order a simple item with a one-color imprint. However, before it is personalized, made uniquely yours, we must make very certain that what you have ordered is what you expect to receive.

           Which model of the item do you want? (An errant letter in a model number may mean you receive a different color than you expect.) What color do you really want the item to be? What color is the imprint, and what size? Where is it to be positioned? How will you supply the artwork, or will you want simple type-set? How many items do you want? Did you know that by ordering, for example, 50 more of a particular item, you may be getting a price discount that is so much better that the additional cost is nominal or nil? And since we get listings of manufacturers' discounts, we might actually be able to get a BETTER price for you than is in a printed or online catalog.

           We check and verify every order. We want you to be so happy with the items we supply that you will tell your friends about us. [BACK to the TOP]

1. How do I get started?	CONTACT US, and we will work with you one-on-one to HELP you get started. When we have an idea of your unique needs, we can make educated suggestions. Then, you have to decide what you want, in what color. Then what color(s) do you want to use for an imprint or a logo. Finally, how many of the item do you want. Look at the "break points." These are the points at which the per piece price will go down. It may play a part in how many items you want to buy. Break points may be at something like 250 items, 500 items, 1,000 items, 2,500 items; and there may be a minimum of 250 pieces. If you were planning on buying, say, 400 pieces, and there is a break point at 500, you might be doing better by purchasing 500 pieces. The price per piece could go from 87 cents for 400 to 78 cents for 500. We're trying to help you save a buck or two. [BACK to the TOP]
2. What comes next?	You will have to supply us with the design you want on your items. (See the next two boxes below.) Your design may be something as simple as straight text or as complicated as a four-color logo or illustration. Digital camera-ready artwork is preferable. We can take something as simple as a sketch, however the less sophisticated the materials we receive, the more work our artists will have to do, and there are art charges to create or recreate your design. There may be set up charges or charges for very specific ink colors (PMS colors). Screens and film for imprinting may be free, or there may be a charge for those. And you'll see that there may be charges for dyes or other items depending upon what product you are purchasing. [BACK to the TOP]
3. How do I supply artwork?	We can help you with that. We don't originate designs, but in many cases we may be able to fix a design. I'll give you the technical language first, just to scare you. This is repeated elsewhere, and I emphasize that if you don't know what it means, it doesn't matter! Just tell your artist this (and notice the quotes around it, so say it exactly in these words): "Showline Promotional Products requires vector artwork in an editable EPS format, created in Adobe Illustrator or readable by Adobe Illustrator V8, with all text converted to CURVES (or PATHS or OUTLINES). We also need an accompanying hard copy (fax will do) indicating what colors go where, a listing of PANTONE equivalents if your colors are critical and preferably a color JPEG of what the design should look like." Those words, just that way. Easy. Artwork is not really as big a deal as we sometimes make it seem. For monochrome (single color) straightline lettering on a pen or a keychain, we can do that with no charge. For logos and artwork of more than one color, the manufacturers almost universally prefer "camera-ready" digital artwork. If you have an artist who creates your designs digitally, they use very specialized graphics software. They can email the results to you, but it is always in a format which you can read without the use of that software, like in Word or in a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. This doesn't help us or the manufacturer. Your artist can email digital art files directly to us, but read the next box below. Conversely if you have a drawing or a photo of your proposed artwork, we have artists who can turn your dreams into digital reality. The charge is around $60 per hour. Your artwork will be emailed to you for approval, and you can get out of the graphics business. [BACK to the TOP]
4. What is Camera-Ready Artwork?	It is easier to say what camera-ready artwork is NOT. Camera-ready art is NOT your logo on your website. It is not photographs, slides, transparencies, negative stats or films which need to be reversed to positive, halftone art which requires resizing, low resolution laser-printed artwork of less than 1,200 dpi, photocopies, faxed art, letterheads, business cards, or any other art which requires touch-up, color separation, or which must be made monochrome. Computer scans, PMTs or photostats are NOT camera-ready art. Unless you want a promotional product with a four-color process (full color) imprint, the following is what is required. You don't have to understand what it means; your artist will (rememebr I said above you would see this again): vector artwork in an editable EPS format; created in Adobe Illustrator or readable by Adobe Illustrator V8; all text converted to CURVES (or PATHS or OUTLINES); accompanying hard copy (a fax will do) indicating what colors go where, so we can be sure of what it looks like; a listing of PANTONE equivalents if your colors are critical; a color JPEG of what the design should look like. This is important only if you want to understand the difference between what you see on your computer screen and what you see imprinted on whatever you order. A computer screen or a television gives you "projected color". It is light projected by three "guns" of red, green and blue. This light or mixtures thereof illuminates itty bitty dots on the back of your picture tube. These are called pixels, and normal screen resolution is 72 dots or pixels per linear inch. This is not, has never been nor will ever be suitable for imprinting anything. Your screen image is: A low resolution RGB raster image. Imprinted images in ANY color is CMYK; i.e. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. With the precise mixing ratio of these colors, millions of individual colors are created. Your TV or computer screen shows 256 colors (no matter how much you paid for it) and it tries to extrapolate the colors in between. (THAT'S what you pay all that money for.) So if you do want four-color process, a Photoshop image of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch) origination is required by MOST companies. This is a HUGE file and is best sent on a CD (cheap). Call us first! Here's a hot piece of news: within the last year, many manufacturers have taken to imprinting DIGITAL color. Oh, it still requires a crisp high-resolution image, but now, color separation charges and running charges no longer exist. All the colors are imprinted in ONE PASS! [BACK to the TOP]
5. How complicated is it to have some simple imprinted stock lettering?	Lettering is the EASIEST thing to apply to ANYTHING. Imprinted text on many specialty items is done with minimal charge or no charge at all! Embroidered lettering (called "keyboarding") is a simple matter of choosing a size, position and available font and determining the suitability of the items to be embroidered. Also, in some cases a "setup" charge may also be waived. [BACK to the TOP]
6. I have a drawing of a design I want to get embroidered. So, where do I start?	You start by telling us you have a design you want to have embroidered. If you have detailed artwork on paper, we can give that to our artist to have digitized for embroidery. We work out the cost of digitizing, and we tell you before the work is begun. In any case, remember that embroidery puts a needle through some kind of material. Any lines in the design have to be wide enough to sew and be seen. Tiny little letters put many tiny little holes in the same place and my actually tear a hole in ANY fabric. We will always advise you of any modifications which must be made within a design in order to make it more "sewable." [BACK to the TOP]
7. I have a the scan of a design I want to have embroidered. It's already on disk. Why are there additional art charges?	What a client usually has on disk is printable artwork. It may be an EPS rendering for color printing, it may be a JPEG or GIF file such as you find on the internet, it may be a TIFF or a Bitmap, or it could be any of more than a score of other graphic formats. Embroidery files are actually a series of mathmatical points which instruct the embroidery machines where to place each stitch, the direction of stitch series, the length of each stitch, the type of stitch and where and when there are to be color changes. (The facinating fact is that each and every embroidery equipment manufacturer has his own proprietary design software. So a design prepared on software to fit a Barudan embroidery machine won't work in a HAPPY embroidery machine nor in a MELCO embroidery machine.) The embroidery digitizing artist -- sometimes called a "puncher" because embroidery coding used to be done by punching holes into a paper tape -- instructs the equipment how a design is to be sewn. Through a series of codes he specifies all the necessary information for the embroidery machines to do their work. It is the creation of these embroidery files which is shown as an Art Charge. By the way, if you have an embroidery design on a floppy -- it is almost ALL for PC -- don't even think about opening it. It is possible to corrupt it. Extensions will be something like .cnd, .exp, .dst, or several others. You CAN send these files to us attached to email, and we can read them. If you are unsure of what the artwork looks like, we can send you a screen output of your files. [BACK to the TOP]
8. I found a shirt with a manufacturer's logo on it. I want MY logo on it. What do I do?	There actually are people who want to wear a manufacturer's logo on their clothes. Tiger Woods, for one. But he is getting big bucks to do that. Since there is no earthly reason for you to advertise some other person's business -- what has he done for YOU, lately -- you want either anonymity (not good for us) or you want your own information on the items. We can duplicate ANY imprintable product if you can send a picture to us (a photo, a GIF or JPEG, even a drawing or a detailed description) along with information as to what YOU want -- color of the item and imprint design. This is true even if the item is something called "BRAND NEW" or "HOT". We have access to hundreds of new and hot items each month, and many are available at manufacturer's discounts just so someone can buy them and gloat because it is "BRAND NEW" or "HOT". As for embroidered apparel, if you see a shirt (for instance) that you really like, but it has someone else's logo on it, read the manufacturer's label and send us the manufacturer's NAME with a description of the the shirt. Such things as material, texture, and design colors. If the shirt has a "private label", it has been manufactured by one company and had a special (second party) label sewn into it. All is not lost: On the private label or on a secondary label in the colar, look for a short series of numbers preceded by the letters "RN". Using the RN number, we can track the original manufacturer and buy THAT VERY SHIRT! [BACK to the TOP]
9. Okay, just what ARE setup charges?	A setup charge reflects the expense of preparing to run a job, any job. Of course, a setup charge -- or almost ANY charge -- could be built in to the per-item price, but that is something which is usually done in retail. In wholersale custom work, every expense is broken down. The column price (that is, how much per item based upon the number of items you want to buy) relfects the finished price of each item. To that is added the setup charge, an art charge if it applies, and the engraving, plate, screen or die charge. This group of charges does not change. Whatever you pay, you would pay the same whether you were buying one item or 10,000. This is why you might see a screen-printed T-shirt you really like, and you ask your friendly neighborhood screen printer how much it would cost for you to have some made up. He asks, "How many?" and you say, "Oh, two... or three." You drop over when he says the shirts with three colors will cost you about $37 each. Why so much? (It isn't "much" really.) The screen printer has to make up three screens (films), one for each color, and he has to load his press with the three colors of ink you want. That entire setup may cost about $75. Then he runs your three shirts for which he has to charge you, let's say, $12 each just because of the time involved. Then he has to tear down the ink and clean the press for the next job. If, however, you were to purchase a gross of shirts, your setup goes down from $37 per shirt for three shirts to .52 per shirt for 144. Further, the actual cost of labor per shirt goes down appreciably. You are spreading the cost out over more items, and because you are buying so many items, you are getting a break on the per item cost and the labor to print each item. [BACK to the TOP]
10. Why are there "RUSH CHARGES"?	Planning an item to have personalized with your imprint takes time. But producing those items also takes time. Every manufacturer works with certain published time contraints, and every manufacturer has DIFFERENT ones. Some items may have a three-day turnaround while others may require two or three weeks. This is time required "in process." That means, this is time required from the day they receive approved artwork and design information until the day it is packed, ready to be shipped. If a product is required to be completed and shipped in LESS than the published minimum time, the manufacturer imposes RUSH CHARGES. These may vary from 10% to as much as 50%; a charge of 20% is usual. Sending design materials TO the manufacturer takes time, and receiving the finished product FROM the manufacturer takes time. If a product requires RUSH CHARGES, it will most probably have to be shipped overnight. That can become pretty pricey. To avoid rush charges and overnight shipping, we suggest that an item's design be finalized -- that all required materials and information be in our hands -- at LEAST three weeks before it is absolutely needed in house. That is only a very GENERAL rule. Large shipments (2,500 imprinted lunchboxes or 10,000 rain slickers) may be coming to the USA from across the sea, and ships are slow. And if you remember the movie "The Perfect Storm", sometimes those containers don't make the entire trip. [BACK to the TOP]
11. What about shipping?	I'll give you "Worst Case" first. If you need an item produced in a week and that item's manufacturer notes that normal production time is 21 working days, you are going to get rocked three or four times: you will first have to get the order to us as quickly as possible, probably overnight; you will have to pay a bunch to get all the materials shipped to the manufacturer, probably overnight; the manufacturer will add some pretty severe RUSH CHARGES; and you will pay large dollars to have the final product sent to you, also probably overnight. DHL, FedEx and UPS don't earn all that money for GIVING the overnight services away. If it seems that I am beating this into you, you are correct. You don't EVER want to pay RUSH CHARGES. Email works very well, especially if you have camera ready artwork files (probably EPS files). We can zap that anywhere and production gets underway almost immediately. But if artwork has to be "originated", that, too, takes precious time. "Lead Time" is your friend. A special event, a trade show or a convention doesn't sneak up on you. The earlier you begin planning for an event, the better. It gives everyone time to plan an item (or several different items) and get the necessary materials together. If modifications are to be made, THIS is the time to do it, NOT after the package has gone to the manufacturer and the process has begun. (Check in the various materials; most manufacturers will let you make changes, but it ain't FREE!) When you have lead time, most things can be done regular mail, and shipping can be UPS or FedEx surface. [BACK to the TOP]
12. This isn't complicated, is it?	There is an old saying which I made up that goes: "Like a tattoo, imprinting and embroidery is forever." We are natural born worry worts. We may make it SEEM complicated, but it's NOT. You may want to order a simple item with a one-color imprint. However, before it is personalized, made uniquely yours, we must make very certain that what you have ordered is what you expect to receive. Which model of the item do you want? (An errant letter in a model number may mean you receive a different color than you expect.) What color do you really want the item to be? What color is the imprint, and what size? Where is it to be positioned? How will you supply the artwork, or will you want simple type-set? How many items do you want? Did you know that by ordering, for example, 50 more of a particular item, you may be getting a price discount that is so much better that the additional cost is nominal or nil? And since we get listings of manufacturers' discounts, we might actually be able to get a BETTER price for you than is in a printed or online catalog. We check and verify every order. We want you to be so happy with the items we supply that you will tell your friends about us. [BACK to the TOP]