1. I have been digitising embroidery designs for over twenty seven years. I previously worked for and
managed, what was at the time, the UK's largest digitising house, David Sharp Ltd. I am now
owner and manager of The Motifs Co. Ltd.
I have written various articles for industry magazines and have also been invited to judge the
garment decoration awards at the annual Printwear and Promotion show on three occasions.
My name is Andy Needham and my company is called The Motifs Co Ltd, if you have been in the
embroidery business for a long time then you may know me better from my days at David Sharp
Ltd who at the time were the biggest and most respected embroidery design company in Europe.
If you haven't been in the industry for that length of time then please allow me to give you some
background as to who I am and what I do.
The early years
I began my career in embroidery design over 27 years ago when David Sharp himself interviewed
me as a fresh faced youth eager to work in a creative environment using my drawing skills as, back
then, the actual interpretation of the logos for embroidery was done on a drawing board producing
6x enlarged scale drawings of the logos including every stitch!
I was David’s apprentice for five years which was the usual training time to become a competent
embroidery 'draughtsman' as we were called.
After this apprenticeship I continued to work with David in the 'front office' of the factory which
not only gave me a great insight and experience with face to face customer service but also allowed
me to make some wonderful UK and European contacts.
In the mid nineties I worked closely with a company called Wilcom in the UK, they approached
David Sharp Ltd to evaluate their new range of DOS based digitising systems. I was probably one
of the very first people in Europe to move from drawing table to digitising software similar to that
which is used today.
Going digital.
The years rolled by and technology sped forward towards the digital revolution which brought with
it the more familiar windows based digitising systems we still use today but even in this we were
slightly different to the rest in that I specified that the systems we bought must still have the
drawing tool element. This enabled us to use the same draughtsman techniques on the screen that
we had always used on the drawing table. The reason for this was the attention to detail and ability
to adjust and re-draw the image that enabled us to create a design that once the 'push and pull' of
embroidery had occurred in the sew out of the logo the design would look most like the original
artwork. This gave us the edge (and still does!) over the competition who either simply work over
the top of the image without making the necessary adjustments or even worse but sadly more
widespread these days, use vector images which they then allow the software to process.
This 'auto-stitching' of a design can lead to rather poor results, not only in the look of the finished
logo but also in the way the design behaves on the machine in the form of unnecessary running
around, extra thread cuts and colour changes which all add up to extra production time that costs
money! These days it's easy to overlook that aspect of a quality embroidery design in favour of a
cheap set up price but I would suggest that is a false economy.
In time I was made head of the digitising department and pushed forward with re-training all our
draughtsmen to operate the Wilcom systems. By the time the millennium rolled round we were at
the point where we had laid down our pencils for good and firmly grasped the mouse and keyboard
as our creative tools. The dawn of the new millennium not only saw the retirement of David Sharp
but my appointment as Managing Director of the company.

2. I continued in this roll until 2004 when I decided the natural progression of things meant that I
should start my own digitising company and The Motifs Co. Ltd was born.
Since it's founding 12 years ago the company has continued to specialise in embroidery digitising
and I have made it a priority to use the same traditional techniques together with modern software
to ensure our logos are the very best available in terms of interpretation, efficient production and the
finished look on the garment. Our customers not only in the UK but in Europe, Scandinavia and
worldwide appreciate they are getting a service which is a cut above that offered elsewhere.
Although we will never be the cheapest available I believe we can compete in terms of 'value for
money', attention to detail and quality of service.
So what about the future?
I'm saddened to see the industry that I have devoted my working life to cheapened and de valued by
internet based vector digitising and it is my belief that if people like myself with a history in the
area and real knowledge of the subject don't speak out to inform our customer base then this poor
quality option will be seen as the 'norm' and the quality digitising companies will be priced out.
The difference in price between what I see as the two types of digitising is down to the time it takes
to produce a design and also the geographical economic differences.
I say a design but that doesn’t mean that all designs are to the same standard.
The danger is that ill-informed customers see digitising as a consumable that is the same from
where ever they get it and the only difference is the price.
In my opinion vector digitising is no substitute for an experienced embroidery digitiser who is able
to use his or her judgement to adjust and alter the image to achieve an efficient embroidery that
looks great on the fabric it is intended for. This way of working takes longer and therefore costs
more but it does result in a much better product.
I personally favour a pricing structure that allows for embroidery set ups to be comparable with that
of screen printing, which seems to have had a constant and accepted set-up charge for many years,
and I feel that should been seen as fair and realistic.
I am optimistic for the future as I know that quality will always win through and together with a
realistic and competitive pricing structure and the ability to effectively demonstrate a difference
between different levels of service and quality the the future can be bright for quality digitising
services but only if we in the know speak up!