Art for Digitizing, have some pride and respect

Digitizing can only be as good as the art provided to work off of.  Now this saying has been around for years and is still valid today only for different reasons than it used to be.  Originally digitizing was a very expensive service that required much more time than it currently does to complete a design.  Because it took so much time and the software was not as advanced as it is today, the art was extremely important to avoid costly redos if the fonts were wrong or details left off due to them not being recognizable if the art was poor.  Art was extremely important since designs were mostly hand punched and the digitizer could only punch what they saw. 

Modern digitizing software is much more capable, in the right hands, of dealing with less than stellar art and still end up with a quality embroidery design.  But this doesn’t mean we should send a digitizer whatever the client offers up front for art if it isn’t good.  Each digitizer has their own idea of what they like to receive as art, find out what yours likes and try to make sure all your orders have that type.  Some prefer vector art while others are perfectly fine with 72dpi jpgs.  Their preference is based on their skill and comfort level and only stands to help them create the designs with the best quality and speed that they know how to.  Do not make it more difficult for them to achieve these goals since they are your partners in creating quality, smooth running designs.    Anything less shows a lack of respect for your digitizer’s needs and puts you in the position of probably going from digitizer to digitizer as they each fall short of your expectations or push you away. If you haven’t given them the tools they request then when this happens, you are the one to blame.

Now I remember the days when it was common to accept whatever art a client offered with absolute gratitude that they graced you with an order.  It was often you would hear distributors boast that they would take whatever art the client had whether that was a pencil sketch on a napkin or the hat off a head.  The rallying cry was to do whatever made it the easiest for the client to place the order and you would be successful.  I can still abide by that philosophy, but when you get the order there is no reason today of either not asking for better art up front or asking for an art fee or having good art created.  If your client is a business chances are they have art somewhere or, if not, there are many companies now that offer art services for very affordable prices, some as low as $12.50 with same or next day service.  Many digitizing companies can create the art as well, but should this be done for free?

Recently we had a distributor send us a hat for art.  The hat was filthy with sweat stains and smelled of layers of hair products and who knows what else.  He knew the hat was a bit “off” because it was double bagged and a pine air freshener was included in the box.  The instructions   stated that this was the only art his client had and we were to return the hat after we copied the design for digitizing.  Normally we would prefer to cut the image off the hat so it could lay flat for a better scan, but in this case we weren’t allowed to do that because someone actually wanted the hat back.  When we called the distributor to see if we could work something out since this would not be acceptable to us as art we were told that we needed to make it work and at no additional charge or send the hat back and there were thousands of digitizers who would jump at the chance to take his money.  He would not go back to his client for fear of losing the job and wouldn’t pay an art charge because that would eat into his margin which he stated was already low since this was a starter design for this company just to get his foot in the door for future business.   Come on.

People do business with people they like and respect and that respect them in return.  If, at the drop of a hat, (no pun intended)  the first response is to tell your service provider to shut up and do the job or there are plenty of other companies that will, then you must understand it is a two way street. If you treat your digitizers as less than professional people, or they you, then you both may find yourselves bouncing from one to another to another.   I want my clients to be proud of the service they provide in this industry, but I also want my employees to be proud of theirs as well, this cannot happen if attitudes such as this distributor’s prevail.  You are a professional, your service providers are professional, let’s work together with pride and mutual respect!