Most people think that making your own enamel pins requires you to be (or hire) a great designer or artists. It doesn’t. I’m not a designer, an artist or even that good at drawing, but I’ve been making and selling enamel pins for years, and so can you.
In this article, I will break down the three most important elements of the pin design process (if you want to know about the whole production process, check this out).
Free Enamel Pin Mockup is the easiest and fastest way to make a statement is to wear a pin that relates to it. It can be about an actual movement or personal preference, one look at a pin allows people to know whether you’re pro or against, something that will save you plenty of questions but sometimes start random conversations and debates. 37+ Beautiful Enamel Pin Mockup PSD Templates: Finding some enamel pin mockup designs is not so difficult as you can see the effective ones have been.
First, the essentials of enamel pin design, second, the factory requirements and how to prepare your design for production, and third, some tools that might help you along the way.
The essentials of enamel pin design.
If you’ve never designed an enamel pin before it’s important to understand the limitations (and benefits) of the medium in order to create artwork that will translate well into pin-form. In comparison to traditional designing on paper (or digitally), in which you can use any lines, colors, details or shading that you’d like, the enamel pin production process imposes the following limitations:
All colors are delimited by lines: Because all pins are made from metal molds, the epoxy paint used to fill-in the colors can only be applied to sections that are delimited by metal. Every black line in your artwork will be a metal line in the production process, so it’s important that all colors that you apply are delimited by lines in your design.
Thin and intricate lines do not translate well:Clocking in at around 1-2 inches in size and made out enamel (which doesn’t facilitate intricate work) pins are a small canvas to work on, so unless you’re a super experienced designer and producer that knows the intricacies of pin materials and production capabilities of a pin factory, overall, you should try to create designs that are simple, with bold lines, strong colors and no shading.
That is because the more detail and thinner lines you include in your design, the more likely the lines are to blend together in the production process (which will end up looking like a crappy pin) or the larger you’ll have to produce your pin, which will make it a lot more expensive and inconvient for the customer.
The design on the right has complex thin lines and shading. It will not translate well into a pin. The one on the left is the same design but simplified using strong bold lines that delimit all colors.
Enamel Pin Mockup Free
Pricing is based on pin size, not the number of colors or lines: When thinking about or preparing your pin design, it’s also important to take into account how factories will price your design. Overall, pricing is based on the size of the pin because it requires more material and work, NOT the number of colors or lines (which a lot of people assume dictates pricing). This means that if you want to start off with a small investment (and if you’re just starting, that’s a smart move), you should aim to create a pin design that is simple enough to comfortably fit into a 1-1.5 inch pin.
Having a larger pin will not only increase your costs but also limit your potential market since most people won’t be able to put a 2-3 inch pin on their lapel or jacket.
The requirements and tools to mock up an enamel pin design.
Okay, now that you know the limitations of the enamel pin medium, what will a factory require from you to produce a design? This one is simple. All they’ll need is a high-quality PDF of the design and the size you’d like it to be. That’s it :)
There are two main ways of preparing your design.
Hand draw your design and turn it into a PDF: If you don’t have experience with digital design software, or just prefer to draw something by hand, you can mockup your design on paper and scan it in order to make it into a PDF file. Although not ideal, most factories offer bare-bones design services and will transform your sketch PDF into production-ready artwork.
Heed with caution here, more likely than not it won't be high-quality artwork and that may have a negative impact on the final product.
Use digital design software: If you know your way around one of the many graphic design software options out there, this one will be a breeze for you. All you’ll need to do is generate the digital design and export it into a PDF.
Once a factory receives your PDF and the size that you’d like it to be, they’ll translate it into an enamel pin production mock-up that looks like this:
This is called a production 'proof'.
Enamel Pin Mockup
If you want to go the extra mile, you can include the exact Pantone colors that you’d like your factory to use. If you want to go this route, be warned, the production process changes certain colors and factories don't always have the widest range of colors available, so unless you know what you’re doing, it’s best to allow the factory to guide you in terms of which colors will get your pin as close to the original design as possible.
Some tools that might help you along the way.
Like I mentioned previously, I’m not a designer or artist and I have no clue how to use photoshop, so to avoid the risks of only using pen and paper, I decided to make a small investment and buy myself an iPad pro + pencil and the Pixelmator app. This made it super easy for me to sketch my design ideas quickly and be able to produce pins more often (you can get “Apple store” versions refurbished on Amazon for less than half the price here and here).
I can only speak from experience, so that’s what I’d recommend if you want to take your pin design endeavors seriously and you lack design skills, but there is definitely a bunch of other tools in the market, like Photoshop, Sumo paint, etc, that can also facilitate your design adventures.
Whatever you choose, the principles of design will remain the same. And don't forget, work with your factory, be patient and build a friendly relationship with them.
They can and will be your biggest ally or a headache depending on how you view the relationship.
You're all set!
Thanks so much for reading this article. If you found it helpful, please share it with your friends! It'll help more people see it.
Also, if you're interested in building a better enamel pin business, you can check out these articles as well :)
- How to make enamel pins.
Enamel Pin Mockup Photoshop
-How to package and ship your pin sales.
Enamel
In case you're wondering about the pin-selling part, here are a few essential articles that will help you understand what you need to do to sell them on Instagram (or you can also sign up for my Instagram Small Business Class where I teach people how to grow their small business on the platform):
Enamel Pin Manufacturer
Start by first understanding how to grow your Instagram without buying followers. Then, you can tackle the following: how the Instagram algorithm works, how to make money on Instagram, the best Instagram bots, why your Instagram account isn’t growing, how to create effective Instagram story ads, how to create a visually appealing Instagram grid, how to increase your Instagram engagement, how to create effective Instagram sponsored posts, how to check if you’re shadowbanned, how to create an Instagram repost account that makes money, Instagram bots in 2020, how to monetize your Medium article, how to automate an Instagram bot that isn’t spammy, how to increase your Instagram engagement rate, how to find the best times to post, as well as how to find the most valuable Instagram influencers, how to measure what an influencer is worth, how to measure your influencer marketing ROI, and how to reach out to influencers.
That should give you a good place to start, but if you need more help, always feel free to DM me on Instagram @pinlord. I'm testing out new pin factories all the time and I'm happy to share them :)
Did you have that “phase of collecting” stuff in your childhood? Pokemon chips, miniature collectible cars, dolls, stickers, badges — different generations had different things to be obsessed with. Nowadays, you can still meet the reincarnation of this habit in something else, like ordering enamel pins! It’s always nice to get those for your backpack, jacket or sweatshirt, right? It’s time to design a pin of your own with this versatile mockup!
Metallic Enamel Pin Mockups from Pixelbuddha is about simple and layered PSD templates. Just place your text, logo or shape into smart object window – close & save! That’s it :) You can play with more effect versions so you can edit your final pin badge very easy. So you can convert your fonts or logos to realistic metalic pin badges in seconds!
With this deal you get:
- Convert your texts, fonts, shapes or logos to realistic metallic pin badges in seconds!
- 3 pin contours (thin, medium, bold) & 4 contour colors (gold, silver, copper, black) & 5 background textures
- layered PSD file – 3600 x 2400 px, 300 dpi
- 6 ready-made PSD scenes – 3600 x 2400 px, 300 dpi
Take a look at what you can get:
Convert your texts, fonts, shapes or logos to realistic metallic pin badges in seconds!
There are so many things to discover in the package! Apart from the isolated pin mockup itself, we’ve worked on 6 themed PSD scenes demonstrating the pins in all their glory. Besides, some backgrounds are available as separate files, so add 5 background textures to the product’s value. Moving on to the details: you can adjust the pin contour (thin, medium, bold) and set a color for it by picking gold, silver, copper or black. The exciting creative process will make you lose track of time (consider yourself warned). The set will find its purpose in tools for showcasing logotypes, emblems, monograms, icons, illustrations and more!
What’s inside?
- high-quality PSD mockup;
- 3 pin contours (thin, medium, bold);
- 4 contour colors (gold, silver, copper, black);
- 6 ready-made PSD scenes;
- 5 background textures;
- 3600×2400 px, 300 dpi;
- help file.
This bundle highlights:
- Convert your texts, fonts, shapes or logos to realistic metallic pin badges in seconds!
- extended license (like all of our deals): use for unlimited personal and commercial projects + you can also use them in designs/products that you sell. You can use all these items as a part of your non-digital or digital designs ( posters, t-shirt designs, stickers, web templates…). You cannot resell these files directly, or within items/goods where they can be extracted in their original form (like vector shapes, elements, fonts… – they need to be flatten into background or object in your digital item for sale). License is only for 1 person – you’ll need to buy 2 licenses if 2 persons will work with these graphics. Please read more about our exclusive license!
Pricing:
Normally, these cool text or shape effect templates would cost you $18 (without extended license) & $79 (with extended license), but for a limited time only, you can get these unique effects only for $8!
Deal Terms:
- Delivered as an instant download, after completing your purchase.
- All results from these effect templates can be used for both personal and commercial purposes, for yourself or on behalf of a client, on their own, or as part of your new design for sale.
- Cannot be sublicensed, resold, shared, transferred, or otherwise redistributed on its own.
- You cannot share these resources with others. This is a single user license (for 1 user on any number of devices)! You’ll need second license for your colleague computer!