Design studio · artwork · digitizing
A print file, not a JPEG and a prayer.
Every logo that enters the system gets checked at print resolution before it can reach a press. Decoration areas match the garment's real print zones, not a rectangle on a mockup. Embroidery comes back as DST with a stitch count. The 72 dpi logo gets caught on the call, not on the dock.
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| Zone | Technique | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Left chest | Embroidery · 6,840 stitches · 4 threads | DST ready |
| Full back | Screen print · 2 colors | 302 dpi · pass |
| Sleeve | DTF · full color | Awaiting art |
The gate
Nothing reaches a press that failed at print size.
Most store tools take an image upload and call it artwork. Then the shop finds out on the dock that the logo was a 72 dpi screenshot, and somebody spends the afternoon calling the customer for a real file. Here the check happens when the logo enters the system. Resolution is measured at the size it will print, in the zone it will print in. A logo that passes at left chest can fail at full back, and the studio says so before the buyer sees a price.
The same check runs on a store built from a pasted domain. If the logo we pulled off the customer's site is too small to print, you hear it on the call, while you're still talking to them.
Real print zones
Left chest is four inches. The studio knows that.
Decoration areas come from the garment, not from a template. A left chest, a full back and a sleeve each have their own dimensions, and artwork gets clamped to them. Embroidery gets clamped to the hoop. The buyer can drag a logo around, but they can't put a fourteen-inch design on a sleeve, and they can't stitch something the hoop won't hold. That's most of the rework in this industry gone before it starts.
Techniques the studio prices and previews
- DTG and DTF
- Screen print, by color count
- Embroidery, by stitch count
- Engraving and laser on hard goods
- Sublimation
- Foil and emboss
What each technique changes
- Which zones are available on the product
- How the price is built: base plus decoration, per unit, by quantity
- What the mockup looks like: a stitched logo looks stitched, a foil logo looks like foil
- What gets checked: DPI for print, stitch count and hoop for embroidery
- What the floor receives: a print file, a DST, or a vector for the laser
Digitizing
Embroidery requests live inside the order. Not in an email thread.
Embroidery is where corporate programs go to die. The polo order is easy. The digitizing is a separate conversation, in a separate inbox, with a file that shows up three days later attached to nothing. Here the digitizing request is part of the order record. Stitch count and thread palette sit on the line item. The DST comes back into the same order and goes to the heads with everything else.
One downside worth saying: a digitizer still does the digitizing. The studio doesn't invent a stitch file out of a JPEG. It keeps the request, the approval, the file and the stitch count attached to the order that paid for it, which is the part that was broken.
Mockups
AI lifestyle mockups, keyed to the technique.
A buyer wants to see the polo on a person, not a flat garment on gray. The studio generates lifestyle mockups from the actual artwork in the actual zone, and it knows the technique: embroidery renders as thread, screen print as ink, foil catches light. The picture that sells the order is the picture the floor can produce. A mockup that promises what the press can't do is a refund waiting to happen.
Customers design, inside your limits
Let the buyer build it. Decide first what they're allowed to build.
The customer-facing studio is the same engine, exposed on a store, inside limits the admin sets. A gym network locks placements and colors so a location can't invent a shirt. A decorator opens everything and lets the buyer go. A franchise HQ sets the rules once and every location's stores inherit them. Whatever the buyer makes still passes the DPI gate, still clamps to the zone, still prices live as base plus decoration.
Checked at print size the moment it lands. They get told on the call, and they get told what to send instead.
Worth: the afternoon your art department spends chasing filesThe mockup is the quote. The quote is the store. The artwork is checked once and travels with all three.
Worth: one file, three sales toolsAdmin sets placements, colors and which techniques are allowed. Locations design inside that box and never know it's a box.
Worth: brand consistency you don't have to policeDesignMint runs on its own. Drop the studio into what you have today and add the rest of Brandfora when you want it.
Worth: the print-ready piece, without the platform decisionSend us the worst logo file a customer ever gave you.
We'll run it through the studio on the call and show you where it fails, and what the buyer sees instead of a bad shirt.