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A Guide to Designing Custom Enamel Badges: Key Line Thickness, Colour Separation, and Cut-Out Spacing

Designing custom enamel badges involves key considerations like line thickness, colour separation, and cut-out spacing. This guide outlines essential design tips to help you create high-quality, stylish badges.

Understanding the Basics of Enamel Badge Design

  1. Key Line Thickness: For clear definition between colours, key lines must have a minimum thickness of around 0.3mm to ensure they’re visible and durable.

  2. Separation of Colours: Each enamel colour needs to be separated by a key line. This is essential because enamel cannot blend or mix like paint. The lines act as dividers.

  3. Cut-Out Areas: When designing badges with cut-out spaces, there’s a minimum spacing requirement—usually around 1.2mm. If the space is too small, it can’t be cleanly cut.

Design Limitations by Badge Type

  1. Soft Enamel Badges: Soft enamel allows for greater flexibility in colours and textures but requires deeper grooves between the enamel and metal for a tactile feel.

  2. Hard Enamel Badges: These are smooth and durable but offer fewer options for complex layering or intricate cut-outs, as they rely on flat surfaces.

Considering Small Details

  • Intricate Design Restrictions: When working with very fine details, it’s important to simplify designs. For example, text should have a minimum height of 5mm for readability, and small details like tiny lines or dots may get lost in production.

Choosing the Right Plating and Finish

Customers should also consider the metal plating (gold, silver, black nickel, etc.) and whether they want additional features like glitter enamel or 3D effects, which can change both the look and cost of the badge.

Artwork Requirements

Provide clear vector files (e.g., .AI or .EPS) to ensure accuracy, and always review the design with your manufacturer to confirm that it meets technical specifications.

Conclusion

Educating customers about these design limitations and possibilities ensures smoother collaboration and better end products, reducing the risk of revisions or errors during production. Such a guide helps clients understand what works best for their specific needs and guarantees a well-crafted final product.