Work place dress codes are coming full circle. In the corporate world, classic, conservative suits (think Mad Men) were de rigeur. Then, over time, many businesses began to go casual, first on Fridays and then throughout the work week. Men shed their suit jackets, but kept the tie and slacks - or in some cases, began dressing down all together.

It seems with every decade, business dress codes become more casual than the last. Sure - how we dress for work is almost entirely dependant upon the industry we work in, and some industries are more apt to accept casual dress codes than others. But one thing is certain - trends in business attire (for all industries) have begun to tighten up once again.

With dress codes becoming less casual, promotional apparel has evolved to keep pace with a slightly more formal corporate world. And while many companies will still order branded knit shirts and polos for employees, others can opt for wovens, the dressy alternative to knits. Wovens, including popular styles such as mens’ and womens’ oxford shirts, are not nearly as difficult to care for as they were in, say, 1960. There are tons of easy-care and wrinkle resistant fabrics to choose from.

Whether you require all of your employees or just certain departments to wear uniforms, we can find quality alternatives to knits that fit your budget. Keep in mind that even if you are required to “dress-up” at tradeshows, choosing wovens over typical knit polos really gives prospects a polished and professional impression of your company.

By Jessica Matase

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Have you lost your PDA, iPod, cell phone, or keys and wished there was some way the finder could contact you? Yes? Well, I guess you haven’t heard of TrackItBack. TrackItBack is the world’s largest lost and found recovery service for such easily misplaced items.

TrackItBack provides its customers with uniquely coded ID labels that come in various sizes, shapes, and languages. Customers affix the ID labels to their personal items and register them online at TrackItBack’s website or by phone. That’s pretty awesome, but wait! It gets better!

TrackItBack recently formed a partnership with Loyalty Labels. This partnership allows companies to add their logo to a loyalty label. The companies can then give the custom labels out to employees, customers, or prospects. All the recipients have to do is register their label’s unique identification code and wait to lose their stuff. And the best part is, there is a finder’s reward! Whoever finds and returns the lost item receives their own TrackITBack gift pack plus any additional reward you may choose to provide.

Finders, keepers? Not with TrackItBack loyalty labels! Give us a call today, and we’ll set you up with a TrackItBack/Loyalty Label program.

By Jessica Matase

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Appliqué is the process of combining fabric and embroidery into a design that is sewn onto another piece of fabric to create designs, patterns or pictures. Appliqués can be put together to make an object or scene. Different fabrics are selected for the individual patches to add texture, contrast and style.

There are three different types of appliqué:

• Regular appliqué utilizes traditional appliqué to fill large areas of a design to reduce cost.
• Reverse appliqué is a technique that places the appliqué material inside of the garment, and then a laser cuts the garment fabric to expose the appliqué.
• Distressed appliqué occurs when a laser cuts the fabric of the garment you want to decorate, after the cut, the fabric frays which creates the distressed look.

Reverse and distressed appliqués have become popular at the retail level, especially in clothing stores– American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Hollister all regularly feature such items.

By Jessica Matase

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Annapolis, MD July 8, 2009

In a combined effort, Skyline Technologies, Earth Security and ClearWave Solutions have recently selected Quintain Marketing to provide tradeshow design and marketing collateral.

For the trade show display, Quintain has designed graphics illustrating the capabilities of Skyline Technologies and Earth Security. The graphics have been produced on an 8 foot photomural panel display. Banner graphics outlining each company’s services were also created. The display and banners will be used at all upcoming tradeshows.

Quintain has chosen promotional give-a-ways such as micro-fiber cloths, earth shaped stress relievers, and eGrips to be handed out during tradeshows.

About Skyline Technologies
Skyline Network Engineering, LLC is a premier Information Technology Integrator serving the Mid-Atlantic region. Their core business areas include Network Engineering, Network Monitoring and Operations, Network Security and Systems Support. For more information, see http://skylinenet.net/

About Earth Security
Earth Security provides their customers with innovative and cost-effective solutions in the design, installation and maintenance of their video surveillance, access control and intercom systems. For more information, see http://www.earthsecurity.com/

About ClearWave Solutions
ClearWave Solutions is a premier communications cabling construction company, serving the Mid-Atlantic region. For more information, see http://www.clearwavesolutions.com/

About Quintain Marketing
Quintain Marketing is a promotional strategy consulting firm located in Annapolis, MD, offering unique, creative and high quality branded products, dimensional marketing, and web-based employee and customer gifting and incentive programs.

By Jessica Matase

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Embroidery is a highly popular branding technique for most promotional garments, hats, and bags. Many clients choose embroidery because it is the more cost effective than screen printing. Embroidery pricing (depending on stitch count of your logo) is generally less costly than screen printing because set-up charges for embroidery are (usually) a one time charge for digitizing. Once a logo is digitized for embroidery, the tape is usually kept on file for future orders. Embroidery tapes can be reused, unlike screen printing screens which have to be created for each order.

Tonal embroidery/tone-on-tone is an embroidery style that matches the thread color to either the color of the garment you are having decorated or choosing thread that is either 1 shade light or 1 shade darker than the garment. Tonal embroidery is a great alternative for companies who choose products or apparel outside of their logo’s general color palette. Tonal embroidery works best with logos that do not have many colors in the original design and it is also important to know that small letting or small stand alone elements may get lost when embroidering tone-on-tone.

By Jessica Matase

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