Sep 14, 2017

Inside The Icebox: Understanding Artwork Files Types

Hey there! Ping here. Today I want to cover some knowledge that many of us in the swag industry admittedly take for granted—artwork file types. We love taking our clients behind the scenes (remember “A T-shirt’s Story?), and today we’re sharing our insight into some graphic design 101.

Have you ever submitted your logo or artwork for printing—whether on paper, apparel, or promotional swag—and been told to send a specific file type? Most likely this file type would be *.Ai,*.eps., or another vector file format.

To those in marketing, event planning, or human resources, who don’t have a lot of experience with graphic design, “vector format” might sound like something out of a science fiction movie. But it’s really a special type of art file that is created using mathematical geometric planes, as opposed to pixel art, which is comprised of small colored squares.

If you have ever zoomed in on a photo and noticed it getting blurry or “pixelated,” then you have seen how pixels work like a mosaic to create the larger image. The more pixels per inch that comprise a piece of digital artwork, the higher its resolution. The higher the resolution, the larger you can print the image clearly. The most common file types for pixel images are *.jpeg, *.gif, and *.png.

The problem with pixel art is that its limitations can be finite. Higher resolutions mean larger file sizes, and even the most densely pixelated artwork has limits on how large it can be displayed clearly. Furthermore, resizing and resaving pixel art multiple times can decrease its resolution.

That’s why vector artwork is always the preferred file type for logos and typography. Vector files can be stretched and placed in any dimensions without losing clarity and sharpness. So when you send your logo for printing to a professional printer, you will be asked to provide vector images. Many printing companies will not even print your logo if it’s submitted in pixel format.

The challenge for many clients comes when they simply do not have vector files for their artwork. We will have customers send us *.jpeg files of their logos and explain to us that it’s all they have. For most printing companies, especially in the promotional swag industry, those clients would be told to send that logo to a graphic designer for tracing and converting to vector format. Most often, this results in the client giving up and not having their art printed at all.
This is where The Icebox distinguishes itself.

We have a full staff of creative professionals and graphic artists who can not only trace and convert your artwork when needed, but creatively apply your branding to depict your company story in a way you never thought possible. When you purchase promotional swag from The Icebox, you gain access to this creative team at no additional cost.

So while we believe it’s important to teach our customers about best practices around artwork submission for printing, we also know that it’s not always a customer’s job to know the difference between pixel and vector art. That’s why we’re here—to add real value to every client engagement, however we can.

If you are interested in working with the best art team in the swag business, reach out to the creative experts at The Icebox today.