The design and fashion industry is a world where every detail is important. Whether it’s a luxury brand, streetwear label, or anything in between, all fashion brands and designers want that one detail that gives their pieces some extra style! Recently many of those designers have turned to the embroidery digitizing service.
Embroidery digitizing services give designers the ability to turn their creative artwork, ideas, and designs into embroidery-ready files that all embroidery machines can interpret and use. Whether it’s a logo embroidered on a cap, a floral design embroidered on a jacket, or a signature embroidery design embroidered on a tote bag, this process can help ensure that the outcome looks exactly how the designer intended.
Why Fashion Brands Use Embroidery Digitizing Services
When a brand decides to turn their logo into an embroidery design (or add embroidery to their line), it’s not as easy as it looks. Every fabric has a reaction to thread and stitch density. A digitizer takes the original art and lays it out in a way that it stitches cleanly on the fabric the brand is using. This saves designers time and money when they are going into production, especially for large-scale production!
Fashion houses also love embroidery digitizing services because they allow for better quality control to ensure the designs are created and produced just as envisioned. When the stitch file is done well, you avoid common issues like uneven patterns, broken threads, or distortion in the design—all of which are problems that can cost you money and have bad consequences like ruining high-end fabrics or messing up difficult or intricate details that could be very costly if not done right.
How Different Sectors of Fashion Use It
Every segment of fashion uses digitizing a little differently. For instance, streetwear brands tend to favor bold embroidered patches and logo work and tend to utilize embroidery digitizing services to maintain sharp graphics and texturing, especially on the bulky and thicker styles such as denim or outerwear fleece.
High-end fashion brands utilize the digitizing method, especially for high-quality or intricate work, such as silk blends, metallic threads, or upper-market accessories. A strong digitizer is willing to ensure that if adjustments further from the brand’s desired image are made when needed, it has been done in a way that stitches are not distorted or damaged fabrics are not compromised.
What Brands Expect from Digitizing Services
Fashion brands are typically much clearer about their needs. Here is a general list of requests from embroidery digitizing service vendors:
- Fabric knowledge: Different fabrics require different stitch types. An expert digitizer will adjust accordingly.
- Color matching: Thread colors need to be consistent with the brand’s existing visual identity.
- Machine readiness: The final file should work seamlessly on the machines being utilized for production.
- Sample approval: Brands will typically request a small test embroidery prior to full production.
Again, when all of the above is done well, the digitizing method creates a level of consistency and professionalism from one composite piece or collection to the next.
An Inside Look at the Process
Let’s say a brand is developing a new style of bomber jackets with floral embroidery down the sleeves. The design is sent to a digitizer who converts the artwork into a stitch file. The digitizer decides on stitch density, direction, and underlay depending on the fabric of the jackets. Once the default file is produced, the brand makes a sample. If it stitches out perfectly, that file can be used for hundreds of jackets without having to make any changes.
Now let’s say a bag company wants that same logo embroidered on leather and on cotton. Both fabrics respond differently, so the digitizer makes adjustments in the file for each fabric to maintain the shape and spacing. That type of adjustment is what keeps brands coming back to professionals instead of relying on automated methods.
In summary
In a fast-paced fashion world, the use of embroidery digitizing services will help companies maintain quality in their designs while catering to production timelines. The digitized process can close the gap that exists between pixels and stitches and provides an opportunity to customize each piece.
Embroidery always has that finished look that printing can’t achieve. Yet, without digitizing, even the best of designs can lose their integrity when they are embroidered. This is one of the reasons so many fashion brands rely on embroidery digitizing services; it is the unassuming part of the process that ensures everything looks flawless when on the runway or when it is on display in a retail environment.
The next time you see a jacket that has beautiful, embroidered flowers or a hoodie with a clean logo, remember there is a digitizer who made it a reality.
