How Do I Find A Good Digitizer For My Embroidery Designs?
by The Embroidery Coach · Filed Under: Apparel Decoration · Embroidery Tips
Requirements For A Good Digitizer
How do I find a good digitizer for my embroidery designs and what do they charge?
First of all, what is a good digitizer? A good digitizer is someone that will work with you and help to make you look good to your customer. A good digitizer will know the embroidery process and know what it takes to make your design look the best that it can on your particular type of fabric. A good digitizer will ask the following questions:
- What fabric is this design going to be sewn on?
- Will you be using this design for any other type of application?
- What format do you want the design to be finished in?
- Will you want to increase or decrease the size of the design from the original size?
- Can I make some modifications to the design to make it sew better such as increase the letter size or choose a different font style?
There can be many other questions, depending on the design and the information that you have given them. When you are looking for a good digitizer, look for one that uses the same software that you do and request that you have a copy of the outline file. This will allow you to make changes such as resizing or removing lettering from the digitized file. You may have to pay a little more for this privilege, but it is well worth it.
Digitizer must know embroidery production
Make sure that your digitizer knows production so that you have as few trims and color changes as possible. Make sure that he or she sews out the designs before sending them to you. This is a problem with a lot of digitizers, especially with Graphic Artists.. They get their software and think that since they can create any type of graphic art, they can digitize. This is far from the truth. They don’t usually know anything about the sewing process and have no idea about push and pull comps, underlay or density.
The best place to find a good digitizer is through the sales rep in your area that sold you your embroidery design software. He or she should be able to direct you to someone that will be the type of digitizer that you are looking for.
Most good digitizers charge from $9.00 to $20.00 per thousand stitches. Sometimes they charge by how long it takes and sometimes it is by how complicated the design is. There are even good digitizers that will give you a choice and will create designs based on a scale. If you want a lot of detail it will cost you more than if you want less detail. If you want color blending this is an additional charge on top of the stitch count. If you find someone that is charging less, then you had better try them out on a design that is for a customer that would not complain if it is not the kind of quality that you envision. If the price is low, I would truly beware.
This brings me to the subject of going over seas for your designs. Yes, their designs are very inexpensive; but can you communicate with this person or is it a company that employs a lot of digitizers? You have no control over who you are going to get. Sometimes the designs are OK and sometimes they are horrible and you cannot specify who you want to digitize your design.
This can also be true in this country if you are dealing with a large company. They will send your design to the next person that is available. Sometimes they even contract them out to other companies and maybe overseas. This is even worse.
Digitizer must sew out designs
Make sure that your digitizer sews out the designs before sending them to you. Many digitizers with such a low fee do not sew out the designs before sending them to you. Many of this type do not even own an embroidery machine. If you have a design that you have purchased for a low price and it has a lot of issues in it, it will cost you money in the end. It will drive up your production time so far that it will cost you money to do the job.
You want to make sure that you are working with someone that will give you a trouble free design and you can make money on their work. This is truly one area that you do not want to skimp on in your embroidery business! This is one area where you get what you pay for. Don’t forget you are going to charge the customer for the digitizing fee. This is not a charge that you absorb in any way shape or form!
Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach
4 Responses to “How Do I Find A Good Digitizer For My Embroidery Designs?”
Leave a Reply
 |
Joyce Jagger, The Embroidery Coach with 30 years experience in the embroidery industry is the creator of several embroidery training courses such as Embroidery Tips and More, How to Price Embroidery and currently holding an Embroidery Webinar once each month. Joyce helps aspiring and struggling embroidery business owners find the right fit for their skills and passions. |
I am not opposed to going overseas for a digitizer. It is very important that you can communicate with your digitizer in a way that he or she knows exactly what you want! This has caused many issues with a lot of my students. They try to keep the cost down by going overseas but when the designs come back, they are not what they were expecting and then they have to pay more money to get the design the way that they want it. Sometimes this does not happen and the design must be sent to someone else to edit it. This can cost you a lot of time and money in the end!
Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach
Your comment “This is a problem with a lot of digitizers, especially with Graphic Artists.. They get their software and think that since they can create any type of graphic art, they can digitize. This is far from the truth. They don’t usually know anything about the sewing process and have no idea about push and pull comps, underlay or density.”
I find this comment a little disturbing and narrow because I am a commercial artist and have been for 37 years. I wouldn’t take on the task of handling the entire digitizing load of a large agency here in Wisconsin without first recognizing the fact that I need to put out a good quality embroidery design to compete. When I started digitizing 12 years ago I was taught by going to seminars through out the Chicago area and software product companies and was told the because I was an artist that it would enhance the design technique, after all it is “design” by its name. I found that it is the opposite of what you say. I find that most embroidery houses don’t have an artist on staff and I find that their designs are extremely lacking in aesthetic boundaries though their embroidery sewing is ok. I don’t think that because I am an artist by trade that a flag should go up and you should stay away from my services, oh contrary. Do you have an artist on staff? If not what gives you the right to sell “design”? Or to put out an article about selling design? How do you match colors without knowledge and a background in color? Has this been done at the expense of your previous customers through trial and error?
I will agree that there are a lot of people out there who simply buy a computer and call themselves “graphic artists” or “digitizers“ or “embroiderers“…and I think these people, in reality, are who you are talking about and that you’re confused about that fact. Remember one thing from a senior commercial artist who has created art in the graphic field long before computers: the best software and hardware in the world is the brain.
Bruce Parrott
Artist
HI Bruce,
I apologize is this offended you, but for the most part, I have found this to me true. You are one in a million! Not many graphic artists will take the time or go to the links to get the training and information that you have to help them create the quality of designs that are needed. I have traveled the world training people in embroidery and digitizing and I have found over and over that what I said was true.
I too have a lot of design background and in all of my trainings and teaching people how to embroider, I have found that very few people have this type of training. There are many many people that buy a graphic arts program, study it a bit and call themselves Graphic Artists.
You and I both know that this is not a true Graphic Artist any more than a person purchasing a digitizing program and after a few lessons, they are suddening digitizers. It takes a lot of work and in many cases years before they are true Graphic Artists or Digitizers. It is not an overnight process. I have trained many Graphic Artists to become digitizers. It is easier to teach someone to digitize that has a design background than one that does not have any. It is also easier to teach someone to digitize that has a strong embroidery background. This is the best of both words and this combination does not come along very often.
Thank you for your comment and I hope to meet you in my travels. I would love to meet someone of your design caliber! That is a rarety!
Joyce Jagger
The Embroidery Coach
I must admit you share a tremendous amount of information regarding that center. Personally i will take care of every single word that you had mention over here about Digitized Embroidery Designs.