The Brightest Upgrade Option
For a lot of customers ordering custom patches, the primary question is how to best make those patches stand out? Whether creating uniform patches or ordering patches wholesale, the need for the information it contains to be as eye-catching as possible is unavoidable. If your security guard patches blend in to the officer’s uniform, all of the authority granted to them by the patch is also invisible.
Luckily, there are a number of different ways to make sure the patches you design make an impact. One option is to add metallic thread to your design. Using this thread, however, comes with a couple design considerations that will help to make sure your patches stand out for all the right reasons. If you’re looking to add a little shine to your patches, follow these helpful guidelines for the best practices for adding metallic thread to your patch design.
Metallic Thread to Add Embellishment
If you want to make use of metallic thread the first thing to keep in mind is that only our threaded patch types are available for such an upgrade. We don’t really combine different patch types, so if you’re hoping for a heat transfer or leather patch with a shiny upgrade, don’t get your hopes up. Woven and embroidered patches are the ones you’re looking for.
The two colors of metallic thread we offer are gold and silver. Because these colors are bright on their own, the best way to incorporate them into your patch is to make sure they’re surrounded by darker colors to add contrast. Whether the contrast is added by a darker mesh or by the surrounding thread, making sure your metallic thread isn’t washed out or blending into the background of the patch is imperative.
Using the thread to embellish a design is one of the more popular ways we see this upgrade option employed. This way, the metallic doesn’t have to carry the entirety of the design on its own, but can instead draw a person’s eye to specific parts of the patch design. However, if you want the metallic thread to make up the bulk of your design, that can be done as well.
When Metallic Thread Takes Center Stage
If a little embellishment in certain places is too subtle for you, consider making the bulk of your design out of metallic thread. When you choose to go big on the metallic elements of your design, the same guidelines apply about creating contrast for your patch. However, since the area featuring the metallic thread is larger, the amount of contrast needed is greater.
To accomplish that, most designs rely on a darker colored mesh to form the background of the patch. If you still have a need for a white, or lighter colored mesh, your other option is to choose a patch with 100% thread coverage and to use that coverage to add the needed contrast to help your design stand out. If you do decide to change the mesh color of your patch, we offer 72 different options to choose from.
Building on Top of Metallic Thread
Even with 72 different colored mesh options, one thing we don’t have is metallic colored mesh. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t build your design on a background of metallic thread.
In order to accomplish this, you need to order a patch with 100% thread coverage and choose the metallic thread you want to serve as the background. When you create a metallic patch like this, the design is created with different colored threads. In that sense, contrast is automatically added by the design of the patch. However, that shouldn’t be taken to mean that you can choose whatever colors for the design that you need. A patch with a gold thread background wouldn’t look good with a design presented in yellow thread, for example.
Metallic thread does come with a small increase in the unit price of your patches, but given the unique flare it adds to your design, it’s easily worth it. If you’re looking to create custom thread patches that truly stand out from the crowd, adding metallic thread either as an embellishment to your design, as the primary aspect of the patch, or even as the background for the rest of your artwork are all great choices.
