By Craig Davidiuk - 12 August, 2020

Designing Enamel Pins: Assigning Base Metal And Painted Areas

Due to the complex nature of die-struck lapel pin...

By Craig Davidiuk - 27 July, 2020

DIY Enamel Pin Design: Electroplating

Enamel pin designers, take note. Many of you are leaving an...

By Craig Davidiuk - 23 July, 2020

Bronze, Silver, Gold and PINK? Electroplating Explained [video]

Electroplating is a complex process is used extensively in...

By Craig Davidiuk - 09 July, 2020

How To Make Enamel Pins

The Lapel Pin Manufacturing Process Explained Follow a pin...

By Craig Davidiuk - 29 June, 2020

DIY Enamel Pin Design: Pin Backs

There has never been more choices for the back of your pin....

By Craig Davidiuk - 21 May, 2020

How To Design Enamel Pins, Step By Step Guide

Our step by step guide walks you through the process to...

By Craig Davidiuk - 29 April, 2020

Custom Years Of Service Pin Program Guide

It's more important than ever to stay connected to your...

By Craig Davidiuk - 29 April, 2020

Enamel Pin Design Template

Our enamel pin template offers tips and tricks for...

By Craig Davidiuk - 21 April, 2020

Finishing Guide For Enamel Pins & Custom Medals

Whenever you buy pins or medals you'll have to select the...

By Courtney Driver - 21 April, 2020

Hard Enamel vs Soft Enamel Pins: What Is The Difference?

The main difference between these two lapel pin types is...

By Craig Davidiuk - 06 November, 2019

4 Tips For Designing Custom Puzzle Pins

The most sought after sport trading pin by any trader at...

By Craig Davidiuk - 18 October, 2019

Custom Enamel Pins .....No Minimum.

One of the top searches that helps people find our site is...

By Craig Davidiuk - 16 October, 2019

DIY Enamel Pin Design: What Size Do I Make My Enamel Pin?

The amount of text and detail on a pin usually decides the...

By Craig Davidiuk - 10 October, 2019

Powering Over Pain At World Transplant Games

Patriotic Pins Help Boost Athlete's Morale Robbie Thompson...

By Craig Davidiuk - 12 September, 2019

The Silly Season: Deadlines You Need To Know About

In our business, TIMING is everything. Please review two...

By Craig Davidiuk - 20 August, 2019

The Top 5 Frequently Asked Questions About Enamel Pins

After nearly 5 decades in the custom enamel pin business,...

By Craig Davidiuk - 07 June, 2019

Designing Enamel Pins Without Paint

A lot of enamel pin designers are leaving the most...

By Craig Davidiuk - 21 May, 2019

Custom Race Medals And Runs For The Cure Medals.

Take a moment to learn about our experience in creating and...

By Craig Davidiuk - 06 May, 2019

Sandblasting & Engraving Textures

Custom sport medals usually showcase a lot of exposed...

By Craig Davidiuk - 03 May, 2019

5 Design Tips For Custom Medals

The beautiful thing about custom medals is that you can...

By Craig Davidiuk - 03 May, 2019

What Size Should I Make My Medals?

How do you create medals that look and feel like the...

By Craig Davidiuk - 03 May, 2019

Attaching Medals To Neck Ribbons

There are two ways to attach your ribbon to the medal. With...

By Craig Davidiuk - 03 May, 2019

Stock Ribbon Choices For Medals

Our company offers three different ways to attach your...

By Craig Davidiuk - 03 May, 2019

Full Colour Ribbons For Medals

We feel the ribbon is almost as important as the medal....

By Craig Davidiuk - 03 May, 2019

Customized Logo Lanyards

Lanyards are one of the most versatile promotional products...

By Craig Davidiuk - 03 May, 2019

What Are My Choices for Custom Printed Lanyard Attachments?

Custom printed lanyards offer you more versatility and...

By Craig Davidiuk - 01 May, 2019

Custom Lanyard Badge Holders & ID Badges

When ordering custom printed lanyards, the lanyard is only...

By Craig Davidiuk - 01 May, 2019

Custom Printed Lanyards Buyers Guide

Recent Order By The Flash TV Show In Vancouver Trade Shows...

By Craig Davidiuk - 01 May, 2019

Customizing & Engraving Medal Backs

When purchasing custom sport medals, there are a zillion...

By Craig Davidiuk - 23 April, 2019

What Are The Different Types Of Custom Lapel Pins?

The first you need to make when purchasing custom enamel...

By Craig Davidiuk - 18 April, 2019

What is the difference between 2D and 3D Engraving?

Adding curved or three dimensional elements to your medal...

By Craig Davidiuk - 01 February, 2019

World Paranordics Medal Supplier Prince George 2019

----October 25th, 2018, For Immediate Release--- Ultimate...

By Craig Davidiuk - 31 January, 2019

7 Things To Look For When Selecting Enamel Pin Manufacturers

The word “quality” is very subjective. Using photos online...

By Craig Davidiuk - 31 January, 2019

DIY Enamel Pin Design: Silk Screen Enamel Pins

Silk screen enamel pins help you overcome the most common...

By Craig Davidiuk - 12 January, 2019

DIY Enamel Pin Design: Vectorizing Art In Adobe Illustrator

This video is for artists who want to create enamel pins...

By Craig Davidiuk - 06 November, 2018

DIY Enamel Pin Design: Before & After

In this enamel pin tutorial screencast, we dive into the...

By Craig Davidiuk - 31 October, 2018

Custom Lapel Pin Design: Cheat Sheet

Our cheat sheet offers tips and tricks. Be sure to dig into...

By Craig Davidiuk - 30 October, 2018

DIY Enamel Pin Design: Illustrator Swipe File

Direct from the desk of our design team, this illustrator...

By Craig Davidiuk - 27 September, 2018

How Do I Specify Colours On Enamel Pin Designs? [Colour Matching...

We haven't come up with a way to see the colours inside...

By Craig Davidiuk - 13 September, 2018

DIY Enamel Pin Design 101: Screencast

This is the video that started it all! Three years ago we...

By Craig Davidiuk - 15 August, 2018

DIY Enamel Pin Designer Master Class

To say that the enamel pin trend has had an impact on our...

By Craig Davidiuk - 15 August, 2018

Custom Employee Recognition Pins

It's more important than ever to stay connected to your...

By Craig Davidiuk - 15 August, 2018

Corporate Anniversary Pins, Years Service Pins and Volunteer Pins

It’s important to mark milestones in any organization....

By Craig Davidiuk - 13 August, 2018

DIY Enamel Pin Design: Clear Enamel

Do you want unique looking enamel pins? One of the most...

By Craig Davidiuk - 13 August, 2018

DIY Enamel Pins Design: Textures

Metal pins without paint offer a whole host of creative...

By Craig Davidiuk - 13 August, 2018

DIY Enamel Pin Design: Colour Matching

Color matching is one of the more challenging concepts that...

By Craig Davidiuk - 13 August, 2018

Understanding Logo Imprinting

Another topic that baffles our customers is the imprinting...

By Craig Davidiuk - 13 August, 2018

What Is Vector Art?

Vector art is the preferred graphics file format in the...

By Craig Davidiuk - 13 August, 2018

DIY Enamel Pin Design: Glitter

The hottest trend in Enamel Pin design is definitely...

7 Things To Look For When Selecting Enamel Pin Manufacturers

Posted by Craig Davidiuk - 31 January, 2019

The word “quality” is very subjective. Using photos online as a guideline is not ideal when evaluating an enamel pin maker. How do you know what type of enamel pin to order? What criteria do you use to evaluate quality? 

Before you can start, you need samples. Ask for samples in hard enamel, soft enamel and metal finish. This is also a good way to rate a vendors response time to your quote requests. 

With samples in hand, use the following guidelines to determine if your vendor can produce quality custom pins for you:

 7-things-to-look-for-selecting-pin-suppliers

 

1) Legibility 

 Does the design hold up at scale? Sometimes vendors will suggest smaller pins, in an effort to cut costs and win contracts. Even worse is when you select a pin size that is too small for your design. Nobody wants to buy a pin you cannot read! At Ultimate Promotions, we clearly communicate design concerns to our customers before we make each pin order. 

 

 2) Thickness And Type Of Base Metal 

A lot of people equate the thickness of the pin with the quality. It has to “look and feel” like quality. The thickness of the pin is fairly standard in our industry.

 
 
 
 Lapel-Thickness-1
 
 
Our hard enamel pins are 1.2 mm - 2.0 mm thick depending on size.
Our soft enamel pins are 1.2 mm - 2.0 mm thick depending on size.
Our printed pins are 1.2 mm -1.4 mm thick and aluminum based. 

 

Note: customers who want quality custom pins generally are not satisfied with the printed pin process. This is also called "hybrid" or "digi-print".  Think paper glued on a metal base. 

 

3) Enamel Quality

 Is the paint clean and firmly in place?  If your samples have light colors, look closely to see if there are any swirls or imperfections in the colors from dirt on the base metal.  Look for dust or specks stuck in the paint as well. Look in between some of the lettering at the “A”s to make sure that the insides are filled. If they are not, the pin size might be too small for the design or the vendor doesn’t have clean enough pin bases at the factory before applying paint. 

 
Pin-Size-Example
 

Are your enamel color choices rich and bright? Do you see high and low spots where there shouldn't be? Has your pin been buffed to a shine? Does the enamel fill all sections of your pin or did they miss a spot in the laying of enamel process. The soft enamel process does not showcase an even level surface on your design whereas our hard enamel process does.  If you need help understanding the difference between the hard and soft enamel process, click here

 

hard-enamel-versus-soft-enamel-pins-difference-2019


 4) The Post And Grip

Take off the backing and give the post a little push back and forth. Does the weld hold or does it pop off? Is it easy to remove and apply the butterfly clutch?

 

Grip

 

5) Placement Of Backing

Is the backing centered so that it hangs properly on the garment? Sometimes an off-centered backing is required to allow the pin to hang correctly.

Posts

 
 

6) Quality of electroplating

Are there any marks or spots on the edges of the pin? Is the metal finish a nice bright gold or nickel or bronze color? If you are considering antique or sandblasted finishes it is especially important to ask for samples to determine if you like the effect. It's also common for factories to have different shades of gold electroplate. Some favor more yellow colours. 

 
EdmontonCulinary-2AWG2016
 
 

 

7) Experience & Reviews


Make sure you go with a company that has a track record. It's our opinion that it takes 10 years or more as a manufacturer or supplier to achieve excellence. It's also common for online business to allow customers to review them on social media or google maps. 

 

We started in this business as manufacturers. Most suppliers simply take your design and order it from another factory. If they don't understand the manufacturing processes, you may be paying too much! When we order your pins, you can be confident that your art, logo and pin idea are going to work well with your custom lapel pin.

 

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About The Author

Craig-Headshot-18-temp

linkedinCraig Davidiuk has been in the promotional products his entire life. His family owned and operated a pin factory until 2002 and he eventually took over the company in 2012. He also has a diploma in Media Resources from Capilano University. Today his company is one of the leading suppliers of custom pins, medals and swag in Western Canada.

He is a father of one son with his wife, Courtney. Craig enjoys skiing, mountain biking, DJing, playing saxophone and world travel.  The Davidiuk family resides in 100 Mile House, BC.