Bellingham Screen Printing Graphic Design
Shirts, Signs, Yard Signs, Magnetic Signs, Bumper Stickers and Decals, Signboards, Graphic Design - Photo GalleryAt Bellingham Screen Printing, you are never just another customer.
We work with you: to discover your needs, to fulfill your needs, and to build quality business relationships.
We can create any graphic design needed for shirts, signs, posters, business cards, or any design needed.
Artwork Design Tips for Screen Printing - Screen print technology requires special considerations when developing your artwork. You will want to become familiar with it's strengths and limitations before completing your design. The information here is intended to help you understand the basic requirements of "screenable" art. The quality of your end product is limited by your original art work.
Original Photo
Shirt Design
Group Photos of Shirts
Photo of Design Ordered
Shirt Printed
Effective Sign Design
Your sign is usually the first thing customers notice about your business, and it can be a powerful factor in establishing a good first impression. Let your Bellingham Screen Printing consultant help you develop a design that's right for your specific needs.
Booth
Popup Displays
Booth Layout
You should consider:
Best with Photo
The use of a photo creates a 300% greater recall than ads without
photos.*
Best
Full color graphics create the highest awareness of all sign
categories.**
Better
A border and graphic add visual interest and the extra colour
improves reader retention by 78%.*
Good
Signage builds awareness through low-cost, multiple impressions,
reinforcing your other advertising media.
Here are some additional points to consider in designing an
effective sign:
Visibility
Viewing distance is a primary factor. Your sign and the message it conveys must be readily distinguishable from the surroundings. When you don't have room for lettering as large as you would like, try using light-coloured letters on a dark background. The contrast will make the lettering appear larger and viewers will find it easier to read.
Readability
The reader's ability to correctly read your message is maximised by a design that enhances individual letter distinction. Studies have proven that black letters on a yellow background or yellow letters on a black background are the easiest colour combinations to read, especially at a distance. Other combinations that work well have been studied and ranked in order of readability. Ask your FASTSIGNS® professional for some good examples.
Get Noticed
You can draw the reader's attention by changing a sign's message, colour, size or shape frequently.
Legibility
The right typestyles and spacing can help readers distinguish letters and words. Your sign professional can help you with these selections.
If You Already Have A Logo Or Graphic Design For Screen Printing
DIGITAL FILES: Digital art files include those designs created and saved from a professional graphics program or those designs exported from a graphics program at HIGH RESOLUTION.
Our file format of choice is a generic eps file that can be opened and resized at any size and resolution we require. Acceptable exported files include eps, gif, jpeg, or bmp, SO LONG AS THESE EXPORTED FILES ARE PROVIDED AT THE FULL SIZE OF THE INTENDED REPRODUCTION AT HIGH RESOLUTION (a minimum 300 dpi). Any and all fonts must be included with the exported file, or all fonts must be turned to paths prior to export.
CAMERA-READY ART: Artwork presented as camera-ready must be crisp, clean black and white line art. Camera-ready art may not have any colors or halftones in it (unless a low line screen halftone is to be a part of the print). Camera-ready art must be output at a minimum of 300 dpi, with 600 dpi suggested; any art presented at a lower resolution than 300 dpi runs the risk of being jagged and reproducing poorly.
FILM POSITIVES: If the customer or his agency is highly knowledgeable about the screen printing process, then that customer can provide film positives to the Bellingham Screen Printing. All film positives should be provided a minimum resolution of 300 dpi at actual print size, and already spot color separated using butt-registration. There are many variables involved for different types of products and production formats; detailed discussions with the art department prior to providing films are welcomed.
IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE BUYING A SIGN
DOES MY BUSINESS REALLY NEED A SIGN?
If you live in a small community and everyone in your area knows that you're the guy to see when they need a car fixed, or a farm implement welded, or similar, and you're happy with the volume of the work you're getting, you don't need a sign. But if you are opening a new for-profit venture in a community where you aren't known that well, you need one, and it needs to be in place when you open for business (preferably sooner). The fact that you're reading this web page is probably an indication that you already know that, but, surprisingly, there are some who don't. If there is any doubt about the necessity of a sign, go to the SBA link below for some good information.
SIGN WORDING
Include some thought about your future signage when you are deciding on a name for your new business. You will be restricted somehow in usable sign area, which has a direct effect on how large your letters will be. Further, many locations are only permitted to use individual neon- lighted letters for signage; they are an excellent type of sign advertising, but a long name can increase the investment on that type of sign by thousands of dollars!
SIGN LEGIBILITY
Your sign designer doesn't try to limit the amount of wording and graphics on your new sign design because he/she is lazy. A truly well designed sign includes a good balance of blank space (called negative space), and the lettering and graphics on it appear much more prominent as a result. Passing motorists don't have time to read your life story or your entire inventory list, in fact a driver's mind in moving traffic tends to ignore heavily worded signs. Limit your signage to your name and logo, if you have a logo, and at the most, just a few carefully selected words that describe the nature of your business and/or entice potential customers into seeing the inside of your store.
LOGO/SIGN DESIGN
When preparing for your new business, have a graphic design firm or a sign company design your official logo and business name layout, before you buy your business cards and other stationery, with your future sign advertising in mind. If you want your printed advertising and your sign advertising to be consistent in appearance, and you should, it will much easier and almost certainly less costly for your printer to match sign colors and graphics than for a sign builder to match ink colors. Many sign materials such as vinyl and Plexiglas are far more limited in color choices.
REFLECTIVE LETTERING
Consider having reflective lettering put on at least the back of your business vehicle(s); this increases your mobile advertising exposure enormously, with an almost 100% guarantee that your message will be read at night by the drivers behind you!
Here's a quick questionnaire to help identify your signage needs.
Use of Your Sign
Are you...Directing, Informing or Selling?
Will the display time be...Temporary or Permanent?
Do you want to project an image that is...Professional, Sophisticated, Youthful, Fun or Other?
Will it coordinate with existing graphic advertising?
Your Target Audience
Who’s attention do you want to attract?
How far will readers be from the sign?
How long will they have to read the sign?
Sign Copy and Layout
What special message do you want to communicate?
Do you have special logo or layout requirements?
Installing Your Sign
Where will your sign be displayed?
How will it be attached?
What are your landlord or local sign code authority requirements/restrictions?