Custom stickers are a great way to help boost your business and improve your marketing efforts. However, if you have an inefficient design or a poor print, they could harm your company instead. Creating custom die cut stickers requires the proper time and resources to ensure a high-quality product. If you don’t take the time to make sure your design is right and your file is optimized for printing, you could end up with a costly mistake. Here are some tips for how you can design and print unique stickers.
Tips for Designing Custom Die Cut Stickers
The design of your sticker is crucial whether you plan to promote them or sell them. How you design your sticker specifically should change between the two needs, but there are some overall design tips to keep in mind.
Maintain Brand Integrity
This tip is most important for promotional stickers, but it can be beneficial for stickers that you sell as well. Maintaining your brand integrity helps build brand recognition, meaning that customers will know your company by sight. Some ways to help incorporate your brand into your sticker design include:
- Using Similar Colors – If all of your promotional products are in shades of blue, your stickers should ideally include blues or other cool colors as well.
- Using Similar Imagery – Using the same kind of images that you have in your logo or website design can help make your stickers noticeably yours.
- Using Similar Fonts – Although we may not be consciously aware of it, we can recognize font families and associate them with certain brands. Using the same font across all marketing material is a great way to build brand recognition.
Use Clear Design Elements
Stickers can be decorative, but if they’re too hard to decipher, then it can be hard for new customers to find your business. When designing your stickers, make sure you can clearly define the images, colors, and text. The text especially needs to be legible and large enough to read. This is one of the main ways new customers will be attracted to your brand. But if they can’t see what your brand is, then you may miss out on business opportunities.
Photo by pure julia on Unsplash
Know Your Sticker’s Purpose
Above all, how you design your stickers will ultimately depend on what you’re using them for. If they’re promotional items that you give away at events, for example, then you’ll want to make sure you design your sticker around your logo or company name. On the other hand, if you’re planning to sell your stickers, you may want to focus more on creating a unique artistic design. If you’re having trouble creating your own sticker, it might be a good idea to hire a designer or enlist the help of your printing company’s in-house design team. A poor design can harm your business efforts just as much as a good design can help them.
Tips for Printing High-Quality Custom Die Cut Stickers
With a good design ready, you’re halfway to getting the stickers you need. Finding the right printer and ensuring your files are formatted for physical printing is the other half. Even if you have a great design, you could still end up with a poor product without proper planning and attention. Here are some tips to ensure you get a high-quality printed product.
Format Your File
Image editing software tends to default to optimization settings for computer screens. These settings, however, tend to result in blurry, discolored, or even cut-off print designs. To avoid these costly mistakes, make sure you follow your printer’s file formatting guide. Some common formatting mistakes include:
- Setting the DPI Too Low – The DPI (dots per inch) should be a minimum of 300 for a crisp and clear print.
- Choosing the Wrong Color Spectrum – RGB (red, green, blue) will display great on screens, but you need to switch to CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) to ensure your colors are vibrant in print.
- Not Including a Bleed Area – There is a small margin of error that can occur during printing, so it’s a good idea to include a ¼” bleed area around your design to avoid losing any important information.
Choose the Right Printer
Choosing the right printer is crucial if you want to get a good print. While many printing companies can produce high-quality stickers, there are a few other factors to consider to help you narrow down your options.
- Location and Shipping – Finding a printer in a centralized urban area can help ensure you have a wide range of shipping and delivery options. If you choose a local print shop, you may even be able to pick up your order. The more delivery options you have, the higher the chances are you can find one that fits your time and budget needs.
- Services Offered – While custom stickers may be all you need now, it’s a good idea to find a printer with a wide range of services. Being able to use the same company for business cards, magnets, and whatever else you may need can help save you time and money in the future.
- Online Reviews and Photos – Checking online reviews, especially with photos, can help you determine the true quality of a product. It’s also a great place to see how well a printing company handles customer service.
Get Custom Die Cut Stickers with Guru Printers
At Guru Printers, our goal is to help you reach your printing goals. Our high-quality custom die cut stickers are just one of the many printing services we offer for business and personal use alike. You can start by filling out our online order form for quick and efficient sticker printing. If you have any questions or need help with your order, call us today at (213) 513-2159 or send an email to [email protected].