Vintage is hot right now and a lot of customers want to know how to go vintage for their apparel campaigns. If you ask our resident screen printing expert he’ll tell you: It depends.

Vintage vs. Vintage
Some people think that vintage is a look. Other’s say it’s a feel. Purists might say that vintage only applies if it’s a genuine old thing. So, your idea of vintage might not match with your designer’s idea. Defining the categories below will help you get the look that you’re interested in.

Logo Styling
Logos change over the years. If you have full creative control over your logo, ask your friendly neighborhood graphic artist to have fun with your logo and give it a throw-back overhaul. Our friends over at Google and Pinterest have a ton of images for inspiration. We’ve pinned some favorites on the RIGHTSLEEVE Pinterest page here.

Vintage inspired logo from our design collection

Effects
If you’re not in for a complete overhaul, you can still lend a vintage edge to your logo by using design filters.

The shirt below, from our CampRIGHTSLEEVE collection, was designed using a filter to give a distressed look when printed.

Logo with distress filter from our design collection

Printing
Quality printshops can also help clients achieve a vintage look on their tees by using different ink & decoration techniques. There are two primary techniques we recommend: no underbase and soft-hand.

No Underbase
Screenprinters usually add an underbase to fabric before they apply colored inks so the colors print truer. If you take away the underbase, the print won’t be as bright making it appear more vintage. If pantone-match is really important to you, this method might not be the right choice.

Soft-Hand
The easiest way to achieve a soft-hand print is to use water-based inks, however they are difficult to work with and are often more expensive as a result. Another route to the same effect is to use soft-hand additives, which are are mixed into the ink. The additives thin the ink, giving a softer feel, and can also give a faded look to the print.

Fabric
Vintage isn’t just about look. It’s also about feel, so to cap off a vintage-inspired design, find fabric with a softer, or faded look to it. Going to a 50/50 blend over 100% cotton will give you a softer feel without having to go through the hassle of trying methods that may or may not work, like salt-water or chemical washes. You can also go with a throw-back style, like the ringer t-shirt below.

50/50 soft blend tee with vintage-inspired styling

Products and links that have us in a spring sorta mood.

Recycled Pallet Vertical Garden from source

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For Foodies

 

Macarons are the new cupcakes from source

 

 

Ingredients for Spring Cooking from source

 

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For the Outdoors

K-WAY: What’s old is New Again from source

The ultimate urban biking accessory from source

 

 
Killer Kite from source

 

Every industry has jargon. When used well it makes communication clearer and quicker. When compiled into flashcards, it makes for a fun office game.

But, jargon can also be a barrier. It can make communicating across departments difficult in large organizations. When computer-troubleshooting with my parents, jargon can make everyone want to chuck the computer out the window and go back to carrier pigeons. At RIGHTSLEEVE, we work with a variety of industries that have their own forms of jargon, so it can be confusing when we’re using the same words but with different meaning.

Here are five jargon hotspots that often flare up into misunderstandings.  Hopefully reading how RIGHTSLEEVE uses these terms might help bridge some communication barriers of your own.

Purchase Orders  (aka POs) at RIGHTSLEEVE are used to communicate with vendors outside of our offices. They tie together an exterior supply chain rather than an interior spend. However, in large companies, POs are usually internal documents that are sent between various departments and their finance team.  They are often used to approve large spends. Once approved, the PO number must be placed on all bills so finance knows to tie it back to the initial approval.

Samples fall into three main categories.

• Blank samples are an undecorated product that is pulled and shipped so a client may examine the construction and function of an item.
• Decorated samples are usally decorated with another company’s logo. Often these are pulled from over-runs and used so that customers can see the decoration quality of an object.
• Pre-production samples are a “first off the press” item usually pulled from the full stock of a confirmed order and produced before the large run is placed on the line.  Pre-pro samples are done so a customer can see how the products in their order will look and feel. Depending on the amount of time and cost pre-pros can be done via photo and approved immediately or shipped for review and approval after receipt.   Pre-pros that are shipped to a customer for approval usually take longer and may have a higher cost associated with them because machines have to be set-up an extra time.

Proofs are often confused with samples. A proof is a graphical representaion of a logo on the item being purchased. The item can be a line-drawing with the logo added or a picture with the logo super-imposed (sometimes also called virtual proofs). Proofs are generally used to ensure proper placement and logo use. They are often sent as pdfs and viewed on computers. To allow for color display differences on monitors, many proofs will be done in black and white renderings with color noted as the appropriate pantone color.

Color and color theory are topics with a level of complexity beyond my comprehension and one of the biggest misunderstandings between our designers and our customers.  A customer might come to us thinking the logo to the left is a two-color logo – blue and red. At first glance I see a 5 color logo – 3 different blues, red, and white. My designer would probably see five colors plus several gradients. Differences this big afffect not only how this logo can reproduce on the variety of products that we offer, but can also change the costing in a big way.

Digital Artwork is akin to color theory in its ability to confuse.  Put plainly, artwork needs to be vector to re-size and reproduce well on the majority of our products. To really understand vector, take your favorite graphic artist out for a coffee and an coax the details out of them. For an abbreviated version from a non-graphic person (that’s me!) read on. 

Vector Artwork  is an image created in a vector-based software such as Adobe Illustrator (.ai file extension).  The canvas for creating vector artwork is a grid. The lines of the image are defined by their relationship to points on that grid. Because vector graphics are created on this grid-like system,  you can make the grid larger or smaller and the relationship between items stays the same with no loss of quality.  By comparison,  a .jpg file is not a vector image and therefore becomes pixelated or “muddy” when the size is adjusted.

People often say the same thing in different words,  now I also keep an ear out for people saying different things with the same words.  Hopefully that will help to keep the tower of jargon from collapsing around us.

I’m a sucker for infographics. Truck over to the RIGHTSLEEVE Pinterest page and you’ll see there’s a board devoted just to those charming nuggets of graphs and stats.

Naturally I wanted a RIGHTSLEEVE infographic of our very own and set out to rustle one up. I got one, but looking back on my quest, I see parallels to how customers want promo. Oh, and not the good kind of parallels.

I started my quest innocently enough, with a Google search. I found a few pages describing how to go about making a quality infographic. Things like: know what you want to convey, gather your data, take your time to create a custom look.

But, I want my infographic and I want it now!

The articles I found told me I was going to have to slow down and do some work. I didn’t want that. I wanted my graphic. So, I kept searching and found a site called visual.ly that is currently building software that will take the complex elements (like design and number-crunching skills) out of making infographics.

Notice I said “building software.”  As in, not available yet.

I was back to having to put effort and resources into our infographic.

The Band-Aid Solution

I kept peeking around on visual.ly (which does look like a really cool tool) and discovered that they could make an infographic for me based on the @RIGHTSLEEVE Twitter stats. And, they’d do it for free.

*Cue victory music*

I synced those bad boys up and got me an infographic.

Victory at Last!

Well, not really.

I have my infographic, but it’s not really worth anything. Sure, it’s cool for me to see the breakdown of our Twitter usage, but that doesn’t really matter to anyone who, well, matters. And, I don’t quite understand why the graphic says we have 1:1 “Follower:Following” ratio when we have over 1000 more followers than we follow.

Even though I have a graphic now, I’m not any further ahead because it doesn’t convey much of value to co-workers, clients, or readers.  It doesn’t serve anyone.

I have the shiny new thing, but it’s not worth anything.

This is exactly what a lot of people do with their swag campaigns. They want instant gratification. The cheapest solution. Something that’s not right, but that fills a want.

That’s why my infographic #fails. And why a lot of swag campaigns #fail.

The title of our infographic is “You Are What You Tweet.”  I like to think we’re more than that.  With swag.  And with any future infographics.

RIGHTSLEEVE loves social media. We love to share and create.

We also love to participate and were proud to be on board as a sponsor again this year for Social Media Week Toronto. In addition to being involved in the sponsorship, I trucked out to some events and have been thinking a lot about what I learned from my session, ‘Storyselling: How to use great digital content to help make the sale.’

What I learned might not be what you think.

Sure, Lisa Horvat of Strategic Storytellers used great examples of stories that educated me, made me smile and, made me tear up. But, looking back, I learned a lot by watching what Lisa did with the session, not what she did at it.

Homework
Before the event, Lisa sent an event reminder to me, but it was more than your typical calendar reminder. She personalized it, kept true to my company brand by capitalizing RIGHTSLEEVE in her message, thanked us for sponsoring, and opened the door for me to speak to her at the event. Chatting with a friend who also attended the session, Lisa some online sleuthing and also personalized her contact. Eyeballing the full room of attendees at the seminar, I was impressed that Lisa would take the time to reach out to people on such a personal level.

Connection
Because she did her homework (see above) Lisa knew a sponsor (me) was in the audience and gave a personal shout-out to RIGHTSLEEVE. She also knew other attendees by name and commented on interaction she’d had with them prior to the event. Such engagement helps to tear down the wall that sometimes exists between presenter and audience and creates a personal connection…something fundamental to story telling.

The Extra Mile
They provided coffee and treats – score! There was also someone greeting me as I entered the room and getting me set-up with a name tag, which was nice when chatting with other attendees. There was good lighting and sound. It might seem like the small things don’t matter for free events, but they do. The small things always matter. Oh, and the bathrooms were clean. I totally judge events based on their bathroom facilities. And now you may judge me based on my bathroom prejudices.

Availability
Lisa made herself available. After the event she chatted with attendees. She also pointed out other members of the Digital Storytelling crew so that guests could speak to them. And, because she reached out to me with that personalized event reminder, I felt comfortable emailing her so I could ask for help while I was writing this blog post. An email she replied to within minutes.

I learned a lot from my session, but it went beyond story telling.

When was the last time you were surprised by what you learned?