Here in the Philippines, whenever we say ID lace, it refers to lanyard and vise versa. This product is widely used in schools, companies and organizations. That is why there are also lots of id lace makers who print custom designs requested by customers.
Common types of ID Laces in the Philippines
Let us disregard the ready-made type of id lace. This article focuses on customized ones.
1. Screen-Imprinted Polyester Lanyard
this kind of lanyard was known even before the age of digital printing in the Philippines. This is used by companies for their employees. Their company name is screen-imprinted on the lace. Schools then were just using ready-made lanyards for their students but days came that imprinting on lanyards became popular even on rural areas and also used as part of students' school uniform required by school administration. Lace is available in different colors and width.
2. Embroidered Lanyard
Design is embroidered in the lace, and is usually limited to single color and simple design/text only.
3. Woven Lanyard
Design is produced by the alternating color of threads woven by a computer-aided machine. The back side of the lanyard is the opposite design in front.
4. Sublimated Polyester Lanyard
This became famous when digital printing through sublimation process became popular in the Philippines. By the use of certain degree of heat and time, complete color and full design of layout printed from a computer is transferred to the lace before assembly. Since the transferred design is printed using a computer, it allows designers to use the full feature of designing with photographic images, where almost unlimited colors and gradients at smaller details are possible.
Common Mistakes of Designers When Placing Designs and Contexts on Lanyards
Beautiful designs and proper use are always the primary tools and advantages of a printing business. But not all beautiful designs are appropriate in all items. Let us enumerate some of which most of us observe.
1. Use of Colors
We cannot change the colors which are present in customers' logo. Also, there are cases that the submitted design was created by the customer himself or their boss. It's not that easy to recommend changing the colors or layout. But in some instances, there are customers who are open to and request for suggestions and alterations. Colors that appear in computer monitors are not always the same when printed. There are monitor colors that are impossible to print (colors with gamut warning in Photoshop). There are also combinations of colors that are not pleasant to the eyes. There are some suggested color combinations found on the color wheel.
2. Contrast
Colors of important designs and contexts must be in proper contrast with the background because if not, visibility is an issue.
3. Font Size
No company will choose to place text on their lanyard as their uniform that is not readable at a normal distance. Common context used in lanyards are company name, tagline and website. Font size is emphasis. Text with biggest font size is like your headline. It is the most important context of the design. Some designers fail to do this properly.
4. Background Colors
Even if you have a good contrast between the colors of your context against the colors in the background, if you place small texts on top of a very colorful background, it will not be as readable as you want it to be. Using simple backgrounds with smooth transitions between adjacent colors (gradients) or use a bigger font size on your text are solutions to fix this matter.
5. Proper Placement
placing context outside the visible part of the lace is not useless - we consider it as a design. But if possible, graphic designers of id lace makers must place the context to the visible part specially the most important ones. We will focus on this in the next part.
Context Hierarchy on ID Lace
We normally read context from left to right and from top to bottom. We apply this to id lace printing.
1. The Primary Context
depending on the use of id lace, the primary context in the design can be the company name, school name or name of organization if the purpose of the lace is as uniform. It can also be a tagline if the purpose is to give emphasis on their identity or vision. It can also be a website if the purpose is to promote their website. In the sample photo, the primary context is the company name. So obviously the lace is primarily promoting the company name. We used the biggest font possible in bold and capitalized letters but with enough margins on the edges of the background. We used white text against orange background and we can read it from left to right (primary) and from top to bottom (secondary)
2. The Secondary Context
in the sample, the secondary context (less important than the company name) is the company's tagline. We used the same size of font as with the company name but is not capitalized and bold. It is also visible but not as prominent as the company name. We also used black stroke and enough shadow effect to make it visible against the background. We can read it from left to right (primary) but this time from bottom to top.
3. The Least Important Context
We cannot consume all the most visible parts of the lanyards for all the contexts. In the sample, we placed a website on the back part of the neck. This only serves as a design and not intended to be read. This can only be visible on men wearing this or women with very short hair. With regards to font size, it can be as big as the company name or tagline as long as it extends only on the back part. It will not create issue on hierarchy of context.If you noticed, the company name and the tagline did not exceed or overlap on left and right part of the lace. Furthermore, the company logo just serves as a decoration on empty spaces.
Mypowderblue is a Lanyard Maker and Printer
Mypowderblue.com can do id lace printing with considerations to the guidelines mentioned above. Place your order through our website and our customer service representatives and graphic designers will attend on your order. Varieties and corresponding price list of id laces are already posted depending on quantity. From Manila, we deliver orders in the Philippines, nationwide, via 3rd party couriers and cargo forwarders.
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