And the Winners Are …
We looked for a few good embroiderers to sew out our Stitches State of the Industry 2010 logo – you pulled out all the stops with unique thread colors and 3-D embroidery.
By Matt George
We challenged embroiderers to enter our first-ever Stitches State of the Industry Embroidery Contest. Here's how it worked: We provided entrants with a State of the Industry 2010 logo designed by Stitches Creative Director Jim Lang and a men's pima cotton polo shirt (BG-2202) in maize from Blue Generation (asi/40653), our contest sponsor.
The instructions? Entrants had complete creative freedom in their digitizing and embroidery processes. Whether it was unique thread colors, gradient embroidery, 3-D foam or any other eye-popping technique to make the State of the Industry logo stand out (tastefully), we wanted to see it.
Trendy Hues
For Melissa McWhite, owner of Greenville, SC-based Honeybee Designs (www.MMHoneybee.com), narrowing down her design ideas was her biggest challenge. "I had plenty of ideas, but I didn't know which one to go with," says McWhite, who also enjoys a game of fearsome tennis to relieve job stress. "I decided to go with spring colors because that's what would attract me if I was out shopping."
McWhite chose green and blue threads for the lettering and a thin blue thread to outline the logo. "When a customer sends me their logo, I stay as true to what it represents to them as possible," she says. "However, I left the ‘2010' hollow to make it more unique."
What we love: This designer used very trendy colors that will appeal to wearers. "These shades of blue and green together are superb," says Lang, who liked how the oval is outlined with blue and backed with green. "The ‘2010' could have popped more," he says. "However, the overall effect and embroidery are excellent."
Top Tone-on-Tone
Patricia O'Neill, digitizer at Binghamton, NY-based TeamWorld, thinks her client's design should dictate the way she approaches each job – in a professional manner. "I figured a lot of the submissions would be very colorful and may be similar so I decided to take a different path," she says.
For O'Neill's design, the tone-on-tone color of the lettering is almost identical to the color of the shirt. "It makes the design look classier and crisp," she says.
O'Neill triple-checked her work before sending the final sew-out to us. "You should go into detail and ask yourself if the letters are the same height," she says. "Is everything aligned and does the embroidery flow? When you think everything's perfect, you're probably wrong. There's always room for improvement."
What we love: "This is a fantastic example of tone-on-tone embroidery," Lang says. "The embroidery is top-notch too – for example, the stitching behind the ‘2010' is very precise."
The Accent Has It
"I look to animals for inspiration," says Pat Jackson, owner of Elgin, IL-based Foxhaven Embroidery. "I've been going to cat and dog expos for years and I incorporate animal fur colors into my work." For her design, Jackson decided to do yellow lettering with a red outline. "You see yellow tones in fur, but I added the red as a strong accent," she says. "My basic tone-on-tone and accent approach catches the eye."
What we love: In addition to high-quality embroidery, the choice to pair a red accent thread with the tone-on-tone look produces a pleasing effect. "The red ‘2010' pops off the yellow background," Lang says. "My only suggestion would be to outline just the letters in ‘industry' rather than bringing the red thread inside the letters."
You're on Fire, Baby!
Kerry Reinfeld and Robert Cross, digitizers at Millersburg, PA-based Virginia Lee Embroidery, decided to have a friendly competition to see whose interpretation of the Stitches State of the Industry logo they'd enter in the contest. "We like to go head-to-head sometimes," Cross says. "We decided to let our colleagues choose which design we'd enter."
It was a tie. "So, we decided to combine the two," Cross says. "Coincidentally, we used similar colors." Reinfeld's interpretation of the logo had a red outline on the words and "2010" and Cross' had flames coming from puff embroidery used on "State of the Industry." The final design shows off both styles. "I said the final design could symbolize that the industry is doing so well that it's on fire," Cross laughs. "Or, that it's burning up."
What we love: The digitizers stayed within the parameters of the logo, but added a unique message – that the industry's hot – in an eye-catching, but subtle way. "We loved the gradient embroidery, the flames and the puff work," Lang says. "Flames could be a little wild, but the color palette is still tasteful with the maize shirt."
Chocolate Cues
For Jean Taylor, her friend Betty Kelly's love of chocolate inspired her interpretation of the Stitches State of the Industry logo. "Betty suggested I enter this contest, so since she's a chocoholic I went with that," quips Taylor, owner of Winfield, AL-based Stitches in Design.
Taylor used a rich chocolate brown color palette, choosing a slightly lighter color for "industry" to add interest to the logo. "The polo's maize color left a lot of room for experimentation," she says. "Sticking with one solid color and coordinating it with the shirt was the right way to go."
What we love: Aside from the fantastic-quality embroidery, the monochromatic use of colors is spot on. "The directional stitching on ‘industry' is great," Lang says. "The ‘2010' pops because the designer let the shirt color show against a darker background."
Puff It Up
For John McKillip, creative director of Sportco (asi/88972), creating a standard embroidery look for the Stitches State of the Industry logo wasn't an option. "Some corporate logos and left-chest designs you see in work environments are just too plain," he says. "For this project, I wanted to create a dazzling look."
McKillip, who'll be launching his own T-shirt line called Chariot Apparel, digitized a gradient logo with foam to make the "2010" in the logo stand out. "I've been experimenting with gradient embroidery and used three different colors to make this design pop," he says. "We use a lot of foam to make logos on hats look more appealing – I wanted to try it with a logo on a shirt."
McKillip also was careful in his color choices. "Green is the ‘eco-friendly' color and blue is so popular at retail now," he says.
What we love: The use of color is very striking in this interpretation of our logo. "In the word ‘industry,' the green outline and the gradient black into blue embroidery is quite nice," Lang says. "The ‘2010' in puff is noticeable, but still tasteful." Lang's only suggestion: It might be less distracting to have "state of the" in one thread color.
MATT GEORGE is a contributing writer to Stitches.