Pointers for designing your caps 

Custom embroidered caps can be a great way to promote your brand. Be it for promotional merch or for staff uniforms, creating personalised hats offers a twofold opportunity. Firstly, it’s a memorable reminder of your business – and one that’s super visible to boot. Second, the design is a chance to make a statement about your brand’s identity.

From cap styles to embroidery choices, we’ve got together the top tips for anyone entering into the custom embroidered caps game.

Why hats are a great way to promote your brand

If your caps are part of a staff uniform for a workplace or event, then they can be a great extra addition to underscore awareness of your brand. To put it simply, hats are right in people’s eyeline, and people are likely to notice them. Plus, if it’s for promotional merch, it’s an opportunity to create widespread awareness of your brand. In many cases, a cap will become an everyday staple of someone’s wardrobe, creating endless potential talking points about your merch – and, by extension, your brand.

What kind of embroidery?

There are two main types of embroidery. The first is 3D puff embroidery: as the name suggests, it’s a raised three dimensional style. It’s well suited to big and simple designs – especially round-shaped letters, with enough space between them. This could be a good choice if you want to make a big, brash statement with your design.

The other is flat embroidery, the most common type, which is stitched straight into the cap. This allows you greater freedom in the kind of design you can use, and could be the best choice if you’re after a style that’s more understated.

Choosing a style of cap

There’s plenty of options out there in terms of cap style: from trucker caps to dad hats, each of them has its benefits. Each type of cap projects a certain kind of identity, and so it’s worth considering who your audience is and what the most relevant choice is. Take the bucket hat, for instance. These have had a resurgence of late, and are a common sights and gigs and festivals. If you’re trying to appeal to a young, music-based audience, then this could be a great choice. On the other hand, you also need to weigh up what kind of design you want to create with your embroidery, as there are some styles which might not be well-suited. 

What kind of design?

A common mistake with personalised hats is directly transplanting a design you’ve used elsewhere. Embroidery is a different process to direct-to-garment printing, and for that reason it requires a different approach. It can be better to do something simple, for example, as simple designs are easier to embroider and can produce a sleek finished look. It’s also best to avoid small, detailed designs, and to remember to take into account the fact you should use a limited number of different colours. 

Creating a range of custom embroidered caps? ICON Printing offer a range of caps, hats and embroidery services – get in touch with our team to find out more.