How to Personalize a Promotional Product — Different Decoration Methods for Your Logo

The imprint methods for your product depend on the promotional item you chose. They include:  

• Screen Printing

  • Screen-printing involves transferring ink through a screen onto the surface of the material, with the help of a stencil or "screen," to create the desired design. Great for large order volumes and logos with simple or minimalist designs on a wide variety of products, like tote bags, t-shirts and apparel, or posters and signs!

• Full-Color Printing

  • Allows for beautiful bold colors on more detailed designs, fast production times, and PMS matching (optional). Works well on many different kinds of products: brochures and flyers, stickers and decals, mugs and drinkware!

• Pad Printing

  • Also known as tampography, pad printing is a versatile printing process that transfers a 2D image onto a 3D object. It’s especially useful for printing on irregular, curved, or textured surfaces where other printing methods may not be effective. Terrific for printing on items rubber ducks, keychains, stress balls, or USB Drives, to name a few.

• Embroidery

  • Embroidery involves stitching patterns, designs, logos, or text onto fabric using needle and thread or yarn. A popular and beautiful method for stadium blankets, picnic blankets, caps, hats, aprons, & nearly any apparel or linen products.

• Laser Engraving

  • A precise and permanent method of etching or marking a design, text, or image onto the surface of a material using a laser beam. Wonderful for personalized jewelry, stainless steel products like bottles, flasks, dog tags, or awards!

• Dye Sublimation

  • A printing process that uses heat to transfer dye onto materials, typically fabrics, ceramics, or specially coated surfaces. Dye Sublimation brings intricate designs to life, and the best way to show off colorful and detailed artwork on items like apparel and banners

• Debossing

  • A technique where the image, logo, or test is pressed into the surface of the material, creating a recessed, or sunken impression. Ideal for leathering, faux leather, or decorating microfiber products, such as luggage tags, journals, coasters, or desk accessories.

Game On Promo Font Collection

Not sure about the right font for your artwork? We use Adobe Illustrator to create our designs. Head to the Adobe Fonts finder tool  (opens in a new window)

Clip Art Catalog

We're proud to partner with the world's largest community in stock photography and a reliable supplier of high quality digital images at affordable prices. If you're interested in using imagery in your promo designs, take a look through the Dreamstime catalog here (opens in a new window), or call for help to make the right choice!

Artwork Requirements

You’ll see the option to upload your artwork files or email it to our Artwork Team after you’ve chosen your promotional products. For files over 30 MB, you can choose to share a Google Drive or Dropbox link with us or send it via a large file transfer service like WeTransfer or TransferNow. 

Preferred File Formats

High-quality files make it easy to have your logo look great on your new swag. Our preferred file formats are vector files with the fonts converted to outlines or curves. These file extensions include:

• AI

• EPS

• PDF

• SVG

Other Accepted File Formats

We can accept PSD, PNG, and JPG raster format files if they are large enough to cover the imprint area. Raster format files have text and images embedded into them. We recommend a resolution of 300-600 dots per inch (DPI) at full print size*.

Note: While 150 DPI is accepted, finer details demand higher resolution. Given the close scrutiny of mugs, we highly recommend high-quality files and high-resolution images. Likewise, for shirts, opt for 300 DPI to ensure sharp, clear prints.

*Refer to the product details on the product URL to find the imprint area for your design.

For both vector and raster files, we suggest that any small text in your design is at least 6 points in size. This is a standard size that most people can easily read when holding the product in their hands.

Art Terms Glossary — An Explanation of Promotional Industry Terms

Bleed: The bleed is extra space around the imprint area that allows for slight shifting during printing. It's like a safety margin to ensure your design looks perfect even if there's a tiny amount of movement during production. For example, if your background color extends beyond the imprint area, that's the bleed.

Composite: A composite is a digital preview that helps you see how your finished product will look. It's like a sneak peek to ensure everything is just right before it's made.

Full-Color AKA 4-Color Process: Also known as CMYK printing, full-color, or 4-color printing brings your prints to life with a rich palette of vibrant colors. Whether it's photos, detailed designs, or colorful artwork, full-color printing can recreate almost any shade you can imagine by using  four primary ink colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. By layering these colors in different ways, it can create a wide array of shades and hues. This method is popular for projects like brochures, magazines, and product packaging because it is both high-quality and cost-effective.

Imprint Area: This is the space in which your logo or design is added to the product. It varies depending on the item’s imprint size set by the manufacturer.

One-Color AKA Spot Color Printing: One-color printing uses a single solid ink color to apply your 1-color logo or artwork onto your chosen promotional item(s) via “spot color” printing. Spot color printing requires each color to be applied onto your product individually (in this case, just 1 color), creating beautiful color displays with a more authentic feel than four-colorprinting can sometimes achieve. Depending on the goals you have for your project, hot foil can also be used as a spot color, transferring a material to the substrate rather than a color.

Raster: Raster artwork is made of small dots called pixels. When raster images are enlarged, pixels are more visible and the image is less crisp. The image can become jagged and rough. Our Artists will give their best recommendation when customizing your art proof based on your product, so that you can rest assured you'll have high quality custom art experience.

Vector: Vector artwork is composed of paths. When enlarged, the quality of the image remains the same. This makes vector graphics much more versatile and easy to use.