Brand guidelines for merch.
A brand book is written for screens and paper, while fabric stretches and gets washed. This guide covers how thread and DTF ink match a Pantone, why embroidered lettering stops at 5 mm, and what goes in a one-page apparel annex.
Three things go wrong when a brand book meets a garment. The blue comes back warmer than the website, thin strokes in the wordmark fill in with thread, and the lockup that sat well on a slide sits badly on a chest that moves. All three are artwork problems, and all three get fixed before a needle touches fabric.
If you do only two things, send vector artwork with your Pantone numbers and, where a color has to be exact, ask for a sample and judge it in daylight. Those two steps do most of the work, and the sections below explain why.
What Pantone matching means on fabric
When the brand book says PMS 2728, what happens next depends on the decoration method:
- Embroidery (ours) is matched to the nearest thread in the library, with up to 12 thread colors on one mark. Most brand colors land close and an unusual bright can sit visibly off, which is the reason to approve a thread number rather than the word "navy."
- DTF print (ours) is full color printed from your artwork, which puts the match in the file's color conversion and the press profile. Gradients cost nothing extra.
- Screen print (ours) uses ink mixed to the Pantone formula before it touches fabric, which is the true spot-color match. Ask us which garments suit it, and see the decoration guide for the trade-offs between methods.
- Sublimation (other vendors) has a wide gamut on white polyester, managed through ICC profiles. It works on polyester only, which rules it out of a cotton line.
No method controls the fabric itself. The same dye reads darker on matte piqué than on smooth jersey, and cooler on a shiny synthetic, and no supplier can change that. For that reason a render can't settle an exact color. When the match matters, ask us for a sample set, which is paid and takes about two weeks, and hold the brand book swatch next to the garment in daylight.
Minimum sizes for thread and print
Clear-space rules carry over as written. Minimum sizes don't, because paper holds a 6-point wordmark and thread can't, and the table shows the floors we hold designs to.
| Element | Embroidery minimum | Print minimum | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text height | 5 mm | Anything legible on screen at print size | Below 5 mm, the counters in an e or an a fill with thread |
| Stroke width | Hairlines are thickened or cut | Prints as drawn | A running stitch needs something to hold |
| Left-chest logo width | Up to about 4 in embroidered, up to about 10 in printed | Polos and tees. A cap front panel takes a smaller mark | |
| Fine gradients | Redrawn as solid bands | Prints as drawn | Thread has no gradient. DTF prints exactly what's in the file |
The practical move is to send vector artwork (SVG, AI, EPS) with Pantone references and expect the mark to be redrawn for thread, with anything under these floors simplified. A digitizer who runs your file untouched is skipping a step.
Where the logo sits on a garment
Brand books specify lockups in a vacuum, and garments have anatomy. Four placements work on nearly every body. The left chest is read at handshake distance and is the corporate standard. The back yoke below the collar is visible when the wearer faces away, which is the reason booth teams use it. The sleeve is quiet, and increasingly the choice for teams who want the mark found rather than announced. The fourth is above the cuff on hoodies. Center-chest at large scale is the promotional register, right for a concert and wrong for a client meeting. If you need visibility across a room, solve it with color and pattern, not a bigger logo.
Break the lockup on purpose.
The strongest merch programs use the logo least. A brand is a system of palette and geometry, and fabric is the medium most brands never put it in:
- Derive a pattern. Take the mark's geometry and repeat it as a large DTF-printed graphic or a tonal embroidered motif. Poly9's expo tees carry their purple-to-pink gradient as a print, with the mark embroidered tonally on the polos. The reasoning is in why we embroider, and when DTF wins.
- Go tonal. That means navy on navy or stone on stone. Meridian Capital runs a navy tone-on-tone micro-check with one brass-thread monogram, and partners request the piece. A tonal mark is present at conversation distance and invisible in a restaurant, which is the range people will wear and the register for gifts.
- Make the brand color the garment. A whole polo in your hue with a small tonal mark reads as "you" faster than a white polo with a large logo.
Write these adaptations down in a one-page apparel annex to the brand book. It holds the approved placements and sizes, the matched thread numbers per method, the derived pattern with usage notes, and the do-not list (no stretching, no unapproved colorways, nothing below minimum size). With that page, every later order starts from the right answers, whichever team or region places it. When you brief the Design Studio, upload the annex with the logo. The proposals respect it from the first render, and a designer on our team checks the final artwork against it before anything is made.
Typography and co-branding
On typography, if your brand has a distinctive typeface, resist setting sentences in it on garments. Thread and knit render type as shapes, and at garment scale a tagline turns to noise. Use one word or none, meaning the wordmark alone or pure pattern. Every extra word on a garment halves the odds anyone reads the first one.
On co-branding, partner events put two brands on one garment, and the default output, two logos side by side on a chest, flatters neither. Decide the hierarchy up front. The host takes the left chest, the partner takes the sleeve or back yoke, and both marks render in one limited palette so the garment looks designed rather than negotiated. Get the partner's minimum-size and clear-space rules in writing before digitizing. Finding a violation after the run is stitched is an expensive way to meet a partner's brand police. Past two marks, tonal treatment in a single thread color is the only approach we've seen that doesn't turn the garment into a race car.
Questions we get.
Can you Pantone match a logo on fabric?
Close, and the method decides how close. Embroidery matches to the nearest thread, with up to 12 colors on a mark, and DTF prints the values in your file. Screen printing mixes an exact spot ink, and we offer it too; ask us which garments suit it. If the color has to be exact, ask us for a sample and judge it in daylight instead of on a render.
How big should a left-chest logo be?
Embroidered, up to about 4 in wide. Printed, up to about 10 in, though most teams stop well short of that, because a bigger logo reads as promotional and not as more visible.
What logo files does a supplier need?
Vector (SVG, AI, EPS), plus your Pantone numbers. A 300 dpi PNG works too. Expect the mark to be redrawn for thread, which is the supplier doing its job.
Should merch follow brand guidelines exactly?
For color and clear space, yes. Adapt the application rules on purpose, and write the adaptations into a one-page apparel annex so every later order inherits them.