My wife Lura and I had just finished having dinner with some friends when one of them, Jeff, showed me a feature he had recently discovered on his iPhone.

Corporate gifting has long been recognized as a powerful tool for building and nurturing professional relationships. However, in an era brimming with mass-produced, impersonal and forgettable mementos, the significance of a thoughtfully curated gift cannot be overstated. For businesses seeking to express gratitude, strengthen relationships or leave a lasting impression, sandcarving offers a level of elegance and sophistication.

The contrasting appearance of color fill against the backdrop of a sandcarved product adds a stunning element. Products that are dark in color, such as red wine bottles, black granite, ceramics and dark glass, are prime materials that benefit from a color application—and in some cases require it. Stone and wood surfaces also require color fill.

(Originally printed in the January/February 2023 issue of Insights.)

Personalization shops have been adding in-house rubber stamp making for many years. Shop owners have realized that producing stamps is an easy way to add a new profit center and expand the store’s existing customer base without a large equipment expense. This article will look at why a shop should start selling custom-made stamps and the most common methods for production.

I’m always on the lookout for more resources to help me do my job—design and production for promotional products. I’m especially excited when those resources are free. But, most often, it is not enough to explore YouTube or use a quick Google search. Instead, I rely on a list of online resources that I have compiled over the last few decades. In the May/June 2022 Insights issue, I wrote about free resources for finding fonts, images, tutorials and more. This is the sequel to that article.

In 1982, Fred Schwartz left his job as a mechanical engineer at General Electric, deciding it would be fun to start a company focused on creating personalized products.

While laser engraving photographs remains one of the hottest and most unique engraving trends, it also seems to be one of the most misunderstood.

Whether you’re looking to add apparel decoration to your personalization and awards business or you’re starting from scratch, you made the right decision. When decorating apparel and accessories, there are a variety of processes, applications and heat transfers to consider. Hopefully, this information will help you narrow down the best process for you—or at least the process you’d like to begin with. 

Sure, personalized tumblers make great gifts for teachers, parents or wedding parties across the country. But retailers are getting creative with what they engrave and personalize, including everything from whiskey and perfume bottles to the edges of coins, bomb shells and even cow patties.

From all indications, the demand for laser engraved tumblers continues to grow—and grow. However, most laser owners could use tools to be more efficient in getting finished products out the door.