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DIY Enamel Pin Design: Vectorizing Art In Adobe Illustrator

By Melissa Hermiston

This video is for artists who want to create custom enamel pins and learn professional enamel pin design techniques using Adobe Illustrator. It is ideal for anyone interested in diy enamel pin projects, diy lapel pins, and beginners looking to design your own enamel pin from paintings or sketches.

Graphic designers will also learn how to structure and trace enamel pin design properly in Adobe Illustrator while working toward custom enamel lapel pins and customized lapel pin concepts.

Pin designers and industry veteran Craig Davidiuk walks you through the process he uses when re-drawing art for customs pins, custom made pin projects, and professional lapel pin custom design work.

You'll appreciate the instructors laid back style and in depth knowledge. Gain valuable enamel pin design tips for designing pins, refining enamel design, and preparing artwork to create custom enamel pins. Time lapse and music move the course along at a fun pace, making it perfect for anyone wanting to design an enamel pin efficiently.

Step 1: Choosing Your Metal Finish for Enamel Pin Design & Custom Enamel Lapel Pins

Choosing the right metal finish is essential when producing custom enamel lapel pins, custom soft enamel pins, and premium enamel pin products.

What electroplate goes best with your art? If you like black lines, use black dyed nickel in the soft enamel finish, which is commonly recommended by the best enamel pin manufacturer for bold lapel pin designs.

Dyed metal is a great option if you require coloured details for customized lapel pin or custom made pin applications.

Decide if your fine details are best rendered in gold, silver or bronze. Bronze is an overlooked electroplate that goes really well with turquoise and blues and greens, especially when you make custom pins with detailed enamel design.

Consider ditching the enamel all together and going with an antique metal pin or sandblasted finish when you make custom pins or experiment with alternative lapel pin designs.

Step 2: Start Big – Structuring Enamel Pin Design for DIY Enamel Pin & DIY Lapel Pins

Enamel pins always start with a container or shape for the design, which is a core principle of professional enamel pin design and lapel pin custom design.

Dynamic shapes look the best as opposed to squares and circles when you design an enamel pin or design your own enamel pin.

Don't be afraid to place objects outside your shape. ie- lighting bolts, text etc to un-box the design and elevate custom enamel pins.

If you are tracing your own art, start with the outside border first, a best practice when designing pins and preparing files for custom enamel lapel pins.

Create art in layers to support clean enamel design and efficient production by the best enamel pin manufacturer.

In illustrator, we often use pink lines when tracing art. This allows us to see all the areas we have drawn in the event we are tracing over original art for diy enamel pin or diy lapel pins. You can easily replace the line colour in Illustrator or Photoshop.

 

Step 3: The Details – Refining Enamel Pin Design for Custom Enamel Pins & Customs Pins

We like to start with the easy shapes first. Now that your border is done, direct your efforts towards smaller details and shapes when creating custom enamel pins and custom soft enamel pins.

You may need to overlap lines. Don't worry about perfect alignment. We clean it up later by thickening the metal lines and masking out the rough edges, which is standard in enamel pin design workflows.

Remember, your shape has to be 2mm at scale in order to hold colour. Just trace the shapes for now. We'll colour them in later when refining your enamel design.

Don't get too hung up on a perfect trace if you are using the bezier tool in Photoshop or Illustrator. You are crafting metal lines that will be stamped in zinc alloy for customs pins and custom made pin production.

Identify which areas of your pin are raised metal. Identify details and accents that should be metal and trace them. When you design an enamel pin, use our cheat sheet to snag the metal and enamel colour chips and create a colour palette to assign a colour. Just use flat colours..no gradients.



 

Step 4: Scaling to Actual Size & Assigning Colour for Custom Enamel Pins

Load your Pantone coated colour book in Illustrator or Photoshop and create colour swatches out of your preferred colours for custom enamel pins and lapel pin designs.

Select colours from actual Pantone book, not your monitor, to ensure production accuracy when you create custom enamel pins.

Use eyedropper tool to assign colours during enamel pin design and designing pins workflows.

Create a box at your desired size. Copy and paste your art into the box. Make sure your Adobe Illustrator Preferences are set to "Scale Line Widths" for custom enamel lapel pins.

At actual size, use the 2mm dot to determine if your coloured areas meet minimum requirements for enamel pin production.

Change small enamel areas to raised metal to perfect your custom enamel lapel pins and improve lapel pin custom design clarity.

    STEP 5: Submit Art to Supplier for Custom Enamel Pins & Customized Lapel Pin Production

    Send your art sketch to suppliers in vector based .pdf, .ai or .eps. You may also send a JPG for quoting purposes when working with the best enamel pin manufacturer.

    Whether you're creating custom pins for your business, custom enamel pins for branding, or a diy enamel pin for personal use, most suppliers will re-draw the art for you in the event you are not an Adobe Illustrator user.

    This professional approach to enamel pin design ensures your custom enamel pins will turn out exactly as envisioned, and suppliers can help you make custom pins even if you need assistance with the technical file preparation.

    Learning to design an enamel pin properly from the start will save time and ensure the best results for your customs pins, customized lapel pin, and long-term lapel pin designs projects.

     

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