Artwork and labels in a tech pack

What each artwork needs

The glossary defines the terms these pages use: placement, vector artwork, digitising and the strike-off that approves a print before bulk.

Placement: measure from fixed points

Give every position as two distances from landmarks that do not move: down from the high point shoulder, and across from centre front or centre back. "Left chest" is read differently by every factory; "top edge 180 mm below HPS, centre 95 mm from centre front" is read one way. Left and right are the wearer's.

Say whether the artwork keeps one size through the run or changes with it. A chest print that suits a medium can crowd the smallest size, so a large print is sometimes made in more than one size for the run. A print that crosses a seam, wraps round to the back or covers the whole garment needs its route stated, and whether it is printed on the fabric before cutting, as an all-over print usually is, or on the finished garment.

Files and colours

• Screen print: vector artwork, one screen per colour, each ink with its colour standard.
• Embroidery: the artwork, the thread colours and the finished size. The factory or an embroidery supplier digitises it into a stitch file.
• Digital print: a high-resolution image at the size it prints.
• Lettering: converted to outlines, so the factory needs no font.
• Colours: a TCX code for each ink in every colourway, or a lab dip to match.

Before bulk, ask for a strike-off of each print on the real fabric, and approve its colour and size against the pack.

Artwork in the Studio

The Studio makes artwork four ways, each a piece you can move, resize and reuse:

• Recreated from your photos: the logos and prints they show are drawn with the flat, on their panels.
• Generated from a description, as vector artwork or as an image.
• Lettering, straight or arched, whose words you can change later.
• Your own files: SVG, PDF, AI, PNG or JPG.

One artwork can sit in several places, so a logo on the chest and the sleeve is one artwork with two placements. A print can repeat inside its box, wrap over the shoulder, round to the back or onto a sleeve, or cover the whole garment, and a placed print follows the garment when you resize it. A photograph is not a print: the Studio does not edit an uploaded photo into artwork, but cuts out the part you need, traces it as vector shapes, or places the photo as it is.

Labels and hangtags

List every label with its size, its artwork and where it sits: the main label usually at the centre back neck, the care label often in the left side seam, and a hangtag on a string or a tag fastener. Say how each is attached: sewn into a seam, sewn on all four sides, or printed on the fabric.

In the Studio, labels come from the questions it asks while it draws: your brand name, which labels and tags the garment needs, where their artwork comes from (your photos, your brand name or your logo), and what the care label says. They are drawn on the garment's inside view, where they sit, and the pack's labels page lists each one. A hangtag is drawn on its own, with its shape, its size and its artwork, and gets a page of its own.

Nothing is invented on a label. With no brand name there is no brand label, and with no country there is no "Made in" line: both are listed on the pack's card of what the factory must confirm, because a guessed brand or origin would be a false declaration.

The care label

A care label carries the fibre content, the care instructions and often the country of origin. The care symbols run in a fixed order: washing, bleaching, drying, ironing, then professional cleaning, each with its temperature or limit. Write the words beside the symbols in the pack, so the label maker and the factory read the same instructions.

What a label must show depends on the market. Fibre content is required in most. The United States also requires care instructions, the country of origin and the maker's identity, while in the European Union care symbols are voluntary. Check the rules of each market you sell in.

In the Studio a care label holds one symbol per group, drawn as vector under its words, and the pack lists what each symbol says. "Standard care for this fabric" fills it in from the fabric, or you write your own instructions.

The brand kit

Logos, label artwork, brand colours and care symbols used on every garment belong in the brand kit, kept once. A kit logo goes onto a garment, a label or a hangtag as your own file; a brand colour brings its TCX code or lab dip; and every new care label starts with the kit's care symbols. The assistant reads the same kit when it builds a pack.