Artwork is what connects a customer’s idea or dream with the work that you will do to make it come alive for them. For that reason it is an important and crucial part of our business. You will have three options to address this area of the business:

Outsource It

In the embroidery part of our business, we call the creation of the artwork, that we need, a stitch map. There is no way for an embroidery machine to know when to sew without it. The creation of that stitch map is done through specialized software. The software is very expensive and it’s use is a blend of both skill and artistry. Lots of experience is necessary to do it well and efficiently. So it is always something that we outsource.

You could mount, many, if not all of those same arguments for the rest of your artwork needs too. We always outsource our digitizing needs and we could always outsource our other artwork needs too. The cost that you would incur to do that would be mark up and then sold to the customer, just like we do with digitizing. It’s really just a matter of deciding what you want to do and then finding the right partner to outsource to.

Hire It

However, it is our observation that Centers who employ a Graphic Designer, have less stress about artwork. Because of their training and confidence, graphic designers are never stumped by what the customer is asking. Any request becomes a simple matter of “we can or we can’t” and “we will or we won’t, for this cost.” If you have these skills in-house you should always charge for the work that they do. But even our busiest Centers do not have enough “design” work to have even a part-time employee that does just that. So the GD you want, is the one that is willing to do production too.

Learn It

Learning it yourself is the option that we are going to try and talk you out of. It just isn’t the best use of your time and talent, your focus needs to be on the growth and the management of your business.