Custom Services
Branding & Pantone Matching
For the buyer with a logo, a colour and several items: one mark and one colour reference have to hold across a lanyard, a cap and a bottle that do not come from the same place.
This page is about keeping one look across a whole list, which is partly design work and partly a purchasing question — most of an order is bought rather than made, and a list produced item by item is where a colour drifts and a logo ends up in three different sizes.
One layout, one colour, one order
- What is held One logo layout and one colour reference, carried across every item of the list
- Colour reference Where the colour requirement is clear, a Pantone number is the main basis for confirming it
- When it is fixed At the pre-production stage; a strict colour project confirms the colour before the bulk run
- Where the items come from Own production plus a supply chain that serves most routine demand, all on one order and under one reference
The service
One mark and one colour, held across the list.
What the design team works to, and why the same work has to reach the items the company buys as well as the items it makes.
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One layout across the list
The logo is laid out once for the project and then fitted to the decoration area of each item, so a lanyard, a cap and a bottle are presented as one set rather than as three unrelated products.
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One colour reference
A single colour reference is confirmed for the project instead of a colour being decided item by item, and it is the reference every item is checked against.
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Prepared per process
Print and embroidery files are adjusted for the process each item is decorated by, because the same mark is not sent through two different processes as one file.
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The bought-in items as well
Most of a list is bought rather than made in house. Those items sit on the same order under the same reference, which is what makes the look of a list a purchasing question as much as a design one.
How it runs
From one reference to one set.
The four points a list passes through on the way to looking like one project, and what is decided at each one.
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The list and the mark
The items, the process each one is decorated by, the colour you work to and where the mark has to sit. Where the list is still open, the occasion, the headcount, the budget and the date come first, and the items follow from them.
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Layout and mockups
One layout for the project, fitted item by item and resized to each decoration area, with mockups so the mark is approved on the product rather than on a flat surface.
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Colour confirmed
The colour is confirmed on the item and on the process it is decorated by at the pre-production stage. Where the colour requirement is strict, it is confirmed before the bulk run rather than judged from a screen.
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Held through production and packing
The items we make and the items bought through the supply chain run to the same reference, and the set is gathered, counted against the list you approved and packed under one packaging plan before it ships.
Where several suppliers each produce their own part of one list, the usual results are uneven quality, a colour that has shifted, a logo that does not match and packaging that arrives in different styles. One company managing the list is what reduces that, and a reference confirmed on the items — rather than agreed in the abstract — is how it is held.
The limits
Where one reference stops helping.
Five things about colour and about the scope of the design work, stated before an order rather than after it.
- Bringing a list inside one company reduces these problems; it is not a claim that they disappear. The point of one reference is that colour, logo and packaging are confirmed and then checked on the items instead of each item being judged on its own.
- Two materials and two processes are not assumed to render one colour reference in the same way. That is settled where it can be settled: colour is confirmed on the actual item and the actual process at the pre-production stage, and a strict colour project confirms colour before the bulk run.
- A Pantone number is used when the colour requirement is clear. Where the colour is not fixed yet, the reference is agreed with you before the bulk run instead of being assumed from a screen.
- The team is not a brand agency. A full brand identity programme, a large original creative project, or design work with no direct relation to production is not taken on here; what is produced is the layout and the colour confirmation an order needs.
- Not every item comes out of our own factory, and the company does not claim that it does. Items outside the own-production lines are bought through the supply chain and controlled on the same order and against the same reference.
70–80% of routine demand is served by the supply chain the purchasing team already works with, and the rest — special products, new products or special requirements — needs a supplier developed for it. A reference held across a list is therefore held across an order that is mostly bought, which is why it is settled with the buyers and the designers together.
What we need from you
What the reference is built from.
Six facts are confirmed before a formal quotation. These are the ones that decide how the finished list looks, and where one is unsettled the reference is agreed with you rather than assumed.
To hold one look
Customisation can reach the logo, the colour, the material, the process, the packaging or the combination of items. The ones that decide how the list reads are these.
- The logo, as you use it today
- The items on the list, and the process each one is decorated by
- The Pantone reference, or the colour you have in mind if there is no number yet
- Where the colour matters most, so the items carrying the most risk are settled first
- The material of each item, where that is not already fixed
- The packaging the set should arrive in, and whether it has to read as one set
What comes back to you
What is produced before the order runs, and the colour you are asked to approve on the items themselves.
- One colour reference confirmed for the project at the pre-production stage
- The colour checked on the item, the material and the process, not on a screen
- A logo layout you approve on the product, with the sizing settled for each item
- Artwork files the decoration process — print, embroidery or another method — can use
- The items we make and the items we buy held to the same reference
Where the colour is already fixed, the reference is worked to as it stands. Where it is not, it is agreed before the bulk run and confirmed on the item, and where a detail turns on the material, the process or the supplier, it is settled there rather than guessed here: it depends on the specification — ask for a quote.
Questions buyers ask
Colour and logo questions.
The questions that come up around a Pantone reference and a logo across a list, answered the way they would be answered by email.
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Can you work to a Pantone number?
Yes. Where the colour requirement is clear, the Pantone number is the main basis for confirming the colour, and the colour is confirmed at the pre-production stage. A project with a strict colour requirement confirms its colour before the bulk run rather than after the goods are made.
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Will the colour be the same on different materials?
That is the question the pre-production confirmation exists for. The colour is confirmed on the actual product, material and decoration process rather than promised from a screen, and on a strict colour project it is confirmed before the bulk run. If a material or a process will not give you what you are after, that is said at that stage rather than on delivery — it depends on the material and on the process, so it is confirmed rather than assumed.
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Can the logo size be adjusted for each item?
Yes, and it usually has to be. The logo is laid out for the item it goes on and fitted to that item's decoration area, with size adjustments so the mark sits correctly on the product instead of being scaled across the whole list at one size.
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We do not have a Pantone number.
Then say so, and the colour is settled with you before the bulk run instead of being assumed. A Pantone number is used as the main basis where the requirement is already clear; where it is not, send the colour you already work to — the one you print, or an item you were happy with — and it is confirmed at the pre-production stage.
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Who confirms the colour?
You do, at the confirmation point before production. The colour reference is prepared for the project on the design side and then confirmed on the items, and colour is one of the points confirmed before an order moves forward, alongside the logo, the process and the packaging. It is a confirmation rather than a conversation, and the order is placed on what was confirmed at that stage.
Where to look next
The pages this one hands over to.
Where the layout and the colour are settled, what happens to the set afterwards, and a list where one look matters most.
- Artwork & Sampling Where the layout and the colour are actually settled: the artwork built item by item, and the proof or sample it is approved on.
- Custom Packaging & Kitting What happens to the set once the items are produced: one packaging plan, the goods gathered in one place and the quantities counted.
- Trade Show & Conference Merchandise A list where this matters most: dozens of items, one date, and a set that has to look like one project rather than several purchases.
Send the logo, the colour and the items.
The items, the process each one is decorated by and the colour you work to is enough to start — or just the occasion and the headcount if the list is not settled yet. Where you have a Pantone reference, send it; where you do not, the reference is agreed with you before anything runs.