Preparing artwork for a wristband run

What fails at wristband scale

Hairlines below roughly 0.3 mm disappear or fill in. Type below about 5 pt is illegible on a curved surface even when it reproduces. Gradients band on debossed and woven surfaces because both are constrained to discrete tones. Fine serifs break up on textured substrates such as cork or a satin weave. None of this is a printing defect; it is the limit of the surface, and the remedy is redrawing the mark rather than shrinking it.

The method changes what is possible

Debossing has no colour — it is a shape cut into the material, so it reads as a shadow. Screen printing adds colour and wears at the high points. Woven artwork is thread, so it is fixed at the loom and cannot be adjusted afterwards. Laser marking gives one tone controlled by depth. A logo that works in all four is rare; a logo redrawn for the method is normal, and it is a job worth doing once rather than compromising every run.

Numbering has to live somewhere

Sequential numbering is included and it needs a position that does not collide with the artwork, is not hidden by the closure, and is readable by a member of staff at arm's length. It is easiest to place at the proof stage, and hardest to place after a design has been approved that fills the band edge to edge. Leaving a deliberate clear area for it is the single most useful thing a designer can do here.

The proof is the last free change

Everything is adjustable up to approval and nothing is adjustable after it, because tooling is cut, screens are made or looms are set. That is why the proof asks for a written approval rather than a nod on a call. Properties that treat it as a formality are the ones who discover in week two that the logo sits a few millimetres off centre on ten thousand bands.