What types of products do you carry?
Why should I order from you and not a bigger supplier?
Why are your custom items more expensive than XYZ Company?
What are your standard delivery times?
What are your shipping policies?
When is the best time to reach you?
What formats for logos do you accept?
What do Setup Charges Usually Include?
What are Debossing and Embossing?
What types of products do you carry?
We can obtain nearly any promotional item you can think of...if you have seen it with a company name and logo on it somewhere, we can probably find it for you. We specialize in corporate apparel and small business promotionals, such as calendars, pens, small giveaway items, carabineers, printing and so on.
It depends on what you want to order from us! We have a very small selection of our products on our on-line store at Flutterby Designs Promos. Most of the items in that store are unimprinted supplies for business, so most likely you will need to contact us for orders so we can assist you in getting just the right products at just the right prices. You are welcome to check through some of the links on our business services page for ideas, or to reference anything you have seen or had done before...we can work with it all!
Why should I order from you and not a bigger supplier?
If you know exactly what you want, don't mind some pretty large minimums, are very familiar with artwork requirements, and have the time to sift through the 100,000 item offerings on a large suppliers' site, you will probably do fine with a bigger promotional company, and find lower prices to boot. However, if the terms 4 color process, transparency, digitizing, PMS, EQP, asi and deboss have you scratching your head, or if a minimum order of $250 is a bit over your budget, you're in the right place! We try very hard to reward our clients with great customer service and appreciate you helping to support small businesses like ours.
Why are your custom items more expensive than XYZ Company?
There can be a few reasons for this. Sometimes we just can't order in their volume, sometimes they are taking a loss on one item in order to upsell you on something else, sometimes our items are of a better quality, or handmade, or USA made. Sometimes their setups and shipping are higher to offset the lower costs, or they have larger minimums than we require. Sometimes they are putting their advertising info on your products in exchange for the lower pricing. And sometimes they are just plain a better deal *grin* Make sure you figure in all the costs when price comparing, and by all means, let us know if we are way out of the ballpark on an item so we can continue to improve our items and prices. Thanks!
What are your standard delivery times?
For first time orders with new customers, if at all possible plan on 4-5 weeks to iron out all the details, polish artwork, proof samples, run the order and ship it. Of course, we know that this doesn't always work out, so contact us anyway, and we'll see what we can do! For repeat embroidery orders, usually 7-10 days will do, for screenprinting, allow 10-13 days and for promotionals see the item information for exact deliveries. Again, we can often work magic, it never hurts to ask!
What are your shipping policies?
In the Denver area, we often deliver to your business or organization address...it gives us a great reason to get out of the office and meet our wonderful clients in person! Out of the Denver area, UPS is our preferred shipper for larger orders, and the good ol' USPS for smaller items and orders. If you have a specific request, just let us know when we take your order! Of course, some methods, such as overnight shipping, or special packaging requests may increase your costs a bit - you will always be advised before we do anything that costs you more than you expected.
When is the best time to reach you?
We answer emails at least twice a day, morning and night, usually a whole lot more often than that! We're also often available on yahoo with user id: zavierchick. By phone, we are in and out of the office all the time, so if you don't mind leaving a message sometimes, we can usually get back to you within 24 hours. We've been trying to take the weekends off, but that's not always the case, so if it's easier for you to call then, go for it!
We accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Paypal, business checks with clear time or approved credit and good 'ol American greenbacks if you are in our delivery area. For more on our payment policies, see our Policies Page.
What formats for logos do you accept?
We can work with logos in most major formats; our preferred is .eps for most purposes, but .jpg and .pdf can often work, too. In general, .gif files are too low res for most custom embellishments. If you have had embroidery work done before, we can accept all embroidery formats, although .dst and .exp are the most common.
What do Setup Charges usually include?
It will depend on the type of logo embellishment we are doing, but typical setup services include things like graphic design and logo creation, screens and films for screen printing, digitizing for embroidery, dies for debossing and embossing and plates for pad printing. Setups can range from as little as $15 to well over $350 for some types of dies!
Machine embroidery is using thread to create a logo on fabric items. It is perfect for low quantities, higher end apparel, multiple color designs, and personalized items, like individual names. For logos we need to digitize the design first, or you can choose from our thousands of stock designs and fonts to create a logo.
Digitizing is the process of setting up a graphical logo for embroidering on fabric. We do this in-house using the Summit Design Shop- it is very similar to a CAD program in using an x-y graph to convey information to our embroidery machines for how to place the stitches. For every logo we embroider, this is the first step!
Screen printing is used on a variety of items, often apparel, but also on all sorts of flat surfaced items, like bags, clocks, binders, nylon, ribbon, etc. It produces a permanent design that is usually a bit glossy and a little stiff and is the preferred method for decorating tee-shirts, canvas bags and other items when you have one or two colors in your logo. Multiple color logos, or full-color pictures get a bit expensive this way, although it is certainly possible! Setup for screen printing is priced per color.
What are Debossing and Embossing?
In debossing an image such as a logo, a title, or other design is heat-pressed into the surface of the paper with a die, creating depressions rather than raised impressions as in embossing. The same technques used for embossing — blind, foil, and ink — can be used with debossing to create visual effects and texture. Debossing can be done on hard and soft materials, embossing is usually on hard surfaces or papers.
Thermography produces raised printing similar in appearance to engraving but using a different process. In thermography, a special powder is added to the ink printed on the paper. The printed piece is heated and the powder and ink mixture dries to form a raised effect on the paper. This is often referred to as "poor man's engraving" but gives a great effect for little money!
Digital Printing is reproducing your design digitally, without the use of litho plates. It is ideal for short run full color printing with fast turnarounds, and usually substantially reduces the intial setup costs.