We often get asked what kind of artwork do we require for custom award medals. Whether you are ordering custom award medals in wood, acrylic or metal, here is a quick guide on what you need to know in order to correctly fulfill that next artwork request for your custom award medals and custom awards.
Let's first discuss what you probably don't want to submit. Most often, providing your artwork in the form of a photocopy, website art, or a photograph is not always ideal, and generally will not work. These examples are not considered "original artwork" which typically is required. Remember, someone created your logo/art, and it's up to you to find out where it originated, and if it is available digitally. If you can find the originator of your art or logo, you will save yourself a lot of work, and will likely be able to provide your art to your vendor per their requirements.
Regardless of file format, most vendors will require vector art. Open your artwork on your computer and zoom in very, very closely. If your art is composed of small dots it is likely a bitmap or raster image, and is NOT a vector image. A vector image is made up of lines, and if you zoom in very close on your image you will see that the graphic is still very crisp and clean with no blurry dots. Check the art by increasing the size about 10-20 times. If the "blown up" image is still as crisp, clean and detailed as when it was small, you likely have a vector image! If it becomes blurry the bigger it gets, your image is likely a raster image. Another way to check, if your file has any of the following extensions, it is likely a raster: .bmp, .jpg, .gif
So your image is a bitmap or raster image, and you don't know what to do? Bitmap or raster images may be acceptable if they are high resolution bitmaps in the 300-600 dpi range. Keep in mind that some more complicated art may need to be a bitmap image in order to achieve the visual effects desired, but will still need to be high resolution. This would be the case of photo images. In addition, some vendors such as JustAwardMedals.com have conversion software, where a bitmap can be converted to vector art. There are also many businesses on the internet where you can provide your digital bitmap file in various formats, and they will convert your art to vector art. Go to Google and search for "vector art conversion" and you will find many available options for this service. Lastly, perhaps you don't need to convert to vector... check with your vendor to see if your bitmap image is acceptable.
Your vector or high resolution bitmap image may need to be in a specified file format. Usually, most custom medals awards vendors will ask for your art to have one of the following file format extensions: .ai (Adobe Illustrator), .cdr (Corel Draw), .pdf (portable document format), or .eps (encapsulated postscript). Whatever program you are able to open your artwork up in, you should be able to "save as" or "export" as one of these file formats. Be sure to convert any text to curves. Please understand, that taking a low resolution bitmap file and saving it as a higher resolution .eps or .ai file does not improve the resolution of the art, nor does it turn it into a vector file.
If your still at a loss and cannot provide artwork for your custom awards or medals, you may have to have it recreated. Recreating art may be expensive as you most likely will have to have the a graphic artist do this for you. Plan on spending $50-$100 per hour for this service, and once provided, have them save several copies in various formats for future use. In the end, you want to supply artwork in an economical and efficient manner, and hopefully some of our suggestions can help you with this goal!
