Dig through your wardrobe or the ‘unused items’ rack in your house. There is a high chance that you will find at least one FREE cap someone received at an event or from a company. Not generally worn for styling purposes or as a fashion accessory, but that cap always comes in handy when you have to be under the sun for a certain period of time. Also, good news! The trend of wearing a cap on top of various outfits is rising nowadays. If there is any time that is perfect for creating your own customized cap, it’s now! Here are what you should take note of to make your cap both practical AND fashionable!
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TYPE
For it to be practical, there needs to be a protruding visor that can shade the whole face against the sun. In regard to that, you might want to scratch bucket hat off the list as it is not the most feasible option. There are several headwears with bills we would generally recognize. They are trucker caps (with the mesh backside), bucket hat, the stylish snapback, and lastly, the baseball cap (aka dad cap) that we are all most familiar with. The baseball cap is generally what companies would get for the team as it fits formal and semi-formal outdoor settings the most. The baseball cap is undoubtedly the most famous and highly-favored type for many reasons. It is a versatile piece of clothing item that can look good on pretty much any outfit!
COLOR SCHEME
As it is ultimately a headwear, most colors will fit nicely just like how an outfit in various colors can look good on your body. It is, after all, a piece of clothing item. However, try not to go for neon colors or those that are too bright. Not only it might be difficult to match with other everyday outfits (keep in mind that others would most likely use the cap for other occasions where they will not be wearing the company uniforms), but it might not even look appealing when placed on the hair and skin. If you are making this for your team who each already owned a team shirt, make sure that the cap will match the shirt. Imagine wearing a bright green cap on top of a yellow t-shirt. That would make a perfect outfit combination…if you are walking down the runway in Project Runway.
For an outfit, you will be wearing on a daily basis, keep it simple and as natural as possible. This, however, does not necessarily mean that they have to be of the exact same color. Color-blocking will look nice as well. A dark maroon cap paired with an emerald green shirt will look incredibly appealing. You can try to match the exact colors as well. If your shirt is made of black fabric with a yellow image or text on it, you can create a yellow cap with black fonts on it. You might want to avoid designing it in full white as it can enhance dirt and sweat stains, especially if the team will be using it outdoors a lot.
IMAGE
In relation to the previous aspect, this element is equally important and will decide the overall look – whether the cap will be a hit or miss. Depending on which printing you decide on – which you hopefully will by the end of this post – there will be images that are suited or unsuited to be printed on your cap. Decide whether you would like to have an image covering the whole cap or only place a smaller image on either the bill or the crown area. If you wish to put a company logo on it, keep it small, particularly if you intend to insert the slogan along below it. One important thing to keep in mind is the positioning of your image. Adjust the dimensions and keep everything center. Recklessly placing an unbalanced design can cause the overall feel of the cap to be unflattering.
CUSTOM TEXT
People normally pick either one of image or words to be placed on their headwear, but you can have both on your cap! If you are including a slogan, phrase, or more than one word, you can beautify it by writing in lowercase, italicized, or even create cursive fonts. Keep the fonts in small size and preferably serif fonts (letters with strokes or tiny lines at their ends). Avoid making them in uppercase letters, unless you are placing only one or at most, two words on your cap. If you are inserting only one word, you may use uppercase letters with extra character spacing for a premium look. Keep in mind that there is very limited space for printing on your cap, and you do not really want to spread the words all around the cap. Hence, it is best to just keep the word(s) at the front where everyone can see what’s written from one side.
If you are still uncertain, design a cap with all of the forementioned elements; image, fonts, and colors (of the base and image) added to it. This lets you see how they will look on the cap and whether the elements blend in seamlessly with one another once they are done. You would also be glad to know that the company who is going to print for you will have various options of fonts for you to pick from and they will most definitely help you with it! There might be certain aspects where changes are required in your design, depending on which printing method you go for – which brings us to the next point:
PRINTING METHOD
Cap printing can be next-level challenging, but thanks to the advancement of technology, there are various kinds of methods you can opt for to get your desired design on top of your head. The challenge mainly lies in the curved surface and the seams on the cap panels in which both can complicate the printing process.
Screen-printing / Heat Transfer
If you have a limited budget but are printing a large batch, this will be highly cost-effective. You will get a great outcome with this method that produces excellent finishing with vibrant colors! This printing method allows extra details and gradient tones in your image, so if this is particularly a crucial aspect for you, you should consider this method as it can pretty much print everything. Plus, this type of printing can produce a large batch in a short time. Need to place a rush order? This is the method you are looking for.
However, the problem with screen-printing or heat transfer is that the image stays on top of the fabric, which means the fine layer of the design will likely crack, flake, or fade over time. While this method can still be considered for t-shirt, you may notice the design crumbling sooner than you expect if you use the cap frequently. The main purpose of a cap is to shade your head, therefore this also means that it is getting the most exposure of sunlight. As a matter of fact, you should expect the design to not hold up perfectly in the long run. The fact that you would be washing it less frequently compared to your other clothing items would probably help, but the problem remains.
In comparison to other methods, screen printing is undoubtedly much simpler. The procedure normally only involves resizing your graphics in the editing software until it matches the size of the cap perfectly. Then, the printer will take over and complete everything for you. Pretty much everything from lettering to a full-color photo can be transferred using this method so no digitizing is necessary.
Embroidery
For an authentic cap design and printing, embroidery is possibly the best method you could go for. It is the common printing technique widely done on headwears. It is operated in slower technology thus taking a long time to transfer the graphics onto a cap, but you will realize that it isn’t that big of a deal for the results it produces! The thick material of the cap makes it an excellent fabric for this particular method too. The aesthetic of this method is pretty much what gives a cap its classic look. Embroidery produces the high-quality, long-lasting design. Similar to embroidering on any other piece of clothing item, it has one downside. You cannot create images that are too complicated, especially ones with shadows or gradient tones. This is due to the printing using threads instead of printing as a normal printer would. Unless you are printing on an extremely large material, complicated images would be hard to transfer through this method.
Working with custom embroidery will most likely take longer and not due to the meticulous printing process only. It requires an extra step where the design is digitized. Digitization is the process of analyzing your design which will be transferred in the software for the embroidery machine to read and translate into threads. You might have to tweak some things in your design following this step.
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So, have you gotten some idea on how would you like to design your cap? If you are still clueless, talk to the experts or professional printing service representative. Note: Do not rush your design! Your first draft will most likely differ a lot from your final draft so take your time to plan it and modify the design here and there. There are a number of companies that offer cap printing Singapore residents would need! With Custom Print, for instance, you will be presented with various colors for your caps and you can get a free design review and free delivery! How many ‘free’ more can there be? Talk to us now to find out!
