Digital Art Requirements TM
CrazyElvis Signs offers logo creation and editing or digitizing of existing logos. You may desire to save a little money by creating a logo yourself or you may have a friend who will do it for free. By following a few rules you might be able to bypass any art charges. Don't worry if you can't create a design we are here to help you. Our charges are very modest. If your art work is not created properly it is harder for us to use it for creating a sign for you. Please do no send low resolution (72dpi) .jpegs or .gifs pulled off the Internet except to show colors or ideas. They are more times than not useless. These small images can not be upsized without the image becoming distorted due to pixelization.
1. Use an actual graphics program. CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Sorry we do not support Multimedia Freehand. Avoid Paintbox programs bundled in with desktop publishing software or "Junior" versions of anything that came with your new injet printer because they will not work. Quark Files (Mac) can't be used either.
2. Size all artwork to the actual size and scale. If you want a logo to print out at a scale of say 15" high and 24" wide it must be created at this size. Things can generally be sized down with no problem, but sizing up is what causes the pixels to distort. Sizing up can be done, it just takes more time in editing to make the graphic look right.
3. Convert all text (Fonts) to "Curves", "Paths" or "Outlines". Our fonts may not be the same as yours. Text can move all over the place when reset using a different font...even if it has the same name.
6. DO NOT flatten Photoshop images.
EXPLAINATION:
We manufacture our graphics primarily from cutting sheets of vinyl film much like pinstriping a car. Our machines are concerned with the shape or VECTOR of the elements (Letters or logos) that make up your design. Bitmaps or scans are made up of dots (RASTOR IMAGES). Bitmaps must be converted and edited into "VECTORS". An image that may look somewhat ok on screen (72dpi) may not be at all acceptable for vectorizing. It would also not hold up to enlargement for your band front. We do have software to assist us in the conversion process but does not work well on small low resolution bitmaps.
You may specify the color in your drawing, but vinyl comes in a wide but limited range. The actual color is determined by the roll of material that we load in the cutter. We have many colors to chose from but can not color match vinyl to Pantone colors. We will make the closest commercial match that we can.
We also produce large format color printed vinyl decals. We have the ability to print and cut the shapes of the logo. Our printed images use a CMYK color system. Many Pantone colors and metallics are not reproduceable via CMYK color systems. But we get excellent results if the file you generate is of professional quality.
You may email your files to CrazyElvis@hughes.net for review. If you are not sure please call us at 903-553-1007 to discuss your needs. If you have a very large file 5 megs or larger we would prefer that you snail mail it to us on a CD. Email tends to mess up large files. Also many email servers will reject large attachments. If you are sending us several files attach only one file per email, especially AOL users.
Don't worry we can always create a nice logo from your ideas or sketches at a reasonable price. We will also design a logo to fit your overall budget.
