Apparel artwork placement: sizing, positioning and specifying decoration

This section is about position and size, not about technique. Which decoration method suits a product is covered in the printing and embroidery comparison, and what files a factory needs is covered in artwork file requirements. What follows assumes those two decisions are made and asks the next question: exactly where does the artwork go, and how do you write that down so the thousandth garment matches the first.

It matters more than it sounds. A logo two centimetres lower than intended is not a defect anyone can point to in a specification that never stated the position, and by the time it is noticed the order is packed.

The vocabulary production actually uses

Placement positions have ordinary names, and using them is better than inventing anything more descriptive. A factory hears left chest and knows the region being described. It does not know what an upper torso branding zone is.

Named regions on the front of a garment. Left chest means the wearer's left, so it appears on the right as you look at the garment. These describe an area, not a specification: the position within each region still has to be measured.

The back divides differently. A nape print takes the place of a woven label, and an upper back print sits below the neckband seam.

Why "logo on left chest" is not enough

Left chest names a region roughly the size of a hand. Two garments with the logo anywhere inside that region are both correct against that instruction, and they look noticeably different side by side. The instruction is also silent on how big the logo is, which is the more consequential of the two.

A placement becomes reproducible when it is expressed as measurements from points that do not move. The garment's own landmarks are the stable references available: the high point of the shoulder, the centre front, a seam, a placket edge, a pocket edge, the hem.

Centre front and the high point of the shoulder are the two usual stable origins on tops. The drawing shows which distances to state; it does not state values, because no value here is universal.

That list is the placement block of a tech pack. How to write it, and what to do about the fields that are easy to forget, is covered in specifying decoration placement in a tech pack.

How large should a chest logo be?

There is no universal answer, and any source that gives one is describing a convention rather than a rule. Published placement guides from decoration suppliers commonly suggest a left chest mark somewhere in the region of 7 to 10 cm wide, positioned in the order of 18 to 23 cm down from the shoulder seam on adult menswear, with women's garments taking a shorter drop. Those figures vary between sources, which tells you what they are: starting points that a real product then adjusts.

The reason they vary is that width alone does not describe a logo. A wide, short wordmark and a compact circular crest at the same width are visually very different marks, and they sit differently on the chest.

The practical route is to fix the size on a physical sample at the base size, then record the number. A logo judged on screen at 100% is often chosen slightly too large.

What the garment will not let you do

Placement is constrained by construction long before it is constrained by taste. A position that works on a plain jersey panel may be impossible fifty millimetres away because a seam, a pocket or a zip is in the way.

The garment construction reference sets out what each of those components is and why it behaves that way. The point here is narrower: a placement has to be checked against the construction before it is approved, not after.

A left chest position on a polo has two constraints at once: it has to clear the placket on one side and stay well inside the armhole on the other. The wordmark's width, not its height, is what the available space limits.

Fabric changes what is achievable

The surface matters as much as the shape underneath it. The same artwork behaves differently on smooth jersey, on textured piqué, on brushed fleece and on a technical polyester.

• Smooth flat knits such as single jersey hold fine print detail well and impose few constraints.
• Textured structures such as piqué break up fine lines, which sets a practical floor on small lettering.
• Brushed and pile surfaces such as fleece have a nap that thin embroidery can sink into and that print sits on unevenly.
• Stretch fabrics move under the artwork, so anything applied to them has to tolerate extension or it cracks.
• Polyester performance knits are the surface that all-over sublimation depends on, and they carry their own colour behaviour.

None of this rules a technique out on its own. It changes what size and level of detail are sensible, which is a specification decision rather than a production one.

Does the artwork change between sizes?

It is a real decision with three legitimate answers, and leaving it unstated means the factory picks one. The common default in production is the first.

Scaling is not free. Screen printing needs a separate screen for each artwork size, embroidery needs the design re-digitised rather than simply enlarged, and sublimation needs the artwork re-laid onto each panel set. That cost is why many programmes scale in two or three size bands rather than continuously, and why small marks are usually left fixed.

Colour, across four different processes

A colour reference communicates intent; it does not guarantee a result. A Pantone number, a CMYK build, an RGB value and a thread shade are four different things, and a logo reproduced by screen print, sublimation, transfer and embroidery will not match itself exactly across all four. Ink on a fabric surface, dye inside a polyester fibre and a dyed thread are physically different materials.

• Spot colour references work for screen printing, where an ink is mixed to a target.
• Sublimation and other digital processes work from a colour profile through a printer's own colour management, so the same reference is an input to a conversion rather than a specification of the output.
• Embroidery uses thread shade numbers from a thread manufacturer's range; the nearest thread to a brand colour is chosen, not mixed.
• The garment colour underneath changes the result on anything that is not fully opaque.

The workable approach is the one described in Pantone colour matching: give the reference, then approve the physical result of each process separately. Where a brand mark appears in more than one technique across a range, approve them together so the difference between them is a decision rather than a discovery.

Getting artwork approved

Every technique has an approval artefact, and they are not the same artefact. What they share is that the check happens on the real fabric, in the real colour, at the real size.

A proof approved on paper or on a different fabric proves very little, which is the same argument the pre-production sample makes about the garment as a whole.

Placement tolerance

A specification states a target position. Production works to that target within an agreed tolerance, because garments are handled by people and fabric moves. Those are two different numbers and both belong in the agreement.

There is no universal placement tolerance in apparel. What is achievable depends on the garment, the technique, the fabric and the position, and a tolerance that is realistic on a flat jersey panel is not realistic on a stretch rib or across a seam. Agree it per project, in writing, at the same time as the measurement tolerances, and be aware that asking for a tighter tolerance than the process supports produces rejected garments rather than better ones.

The general principle, and how tolerances are inspected against, is covered in apparel quality control.

Where Voyager fits

We review incoming artwork and placement for feasibility before quoting, and say where a position or a size will not work on the garment in question rather than producing it and letting the sample explain. Embroidery, transfer and sublimation printing are handled in-house, and specialist techniques run with established partners. Placement is confirmed on a physical sample before bulk and held on file for reorders.