About
Two people, one machine's worth of opinions.
ZB Designs is a small digitising studio. We make stitch files and vector art for other shops — and we have kept it deliberately small, because the moment you scale a digitising business you stop punching and start managing people who punch.
What we actually do all day
Somebody sends a logo. We look at it, decide what thread will do on the fabric they named, and rebuild it shape by shape as a stitch file. Then we check it, send it, and fix it if the sew-out says we got something wrong. That is the whole business.
Most of our work comes from contract embroiderers and uniform suppliers who need a digitiser they do not have to check up on. A good share of it is white-label: the end client never learns our name, and that suits everyone.
Why we do not do the embroidery
We do not own an embroidery machine for production and we are not going to buy one. The shops that send us work are the shops we would be competing with, and a digitiser who quietly takes decorating jobs on the side does not stay trusted for long.
It also keeps our attention where it belongs. Digitising is a craft with a long tail of small judgements, and it rewards doing nothing else.
How we talk to people
Plainly, and sometimes bluntly. If your logo will not embroider well at three inches we will say so before taking the money, and tell you what to change. If we are going to be late you will hear it before the deadline rather than after.
There is no account manager, no ticketing system and no portal. You get the person who punched your file.
Where we stand
What we will not do
- Run your logo through an auto-digitiser and call it hand work
- Charge you again for a second file format
- Put your client's logo in our portfolio without asking
- Take a job we know will sew badly just to book the money
- Compete with the shops that send us work
What we would rather you did
- Tell us the fabric — it changes the file more than the size does
- Send a sew-out photo when something is off, even a blurry one
- Ask for the editable source if you might want edits later
- Say if a deadline is real, so we can sequence the day around it
- Push back if a file is not right — that is how it gets fixed
What we punch
Nine positions, each with its own rules.
Left chest
The bread-and-butter job. Polos, oxfords, fleece, softshells.
Cap logo
Structured fronts, six-panel seams, cap-driver ready.
Jacket back
Big panels, big stitch counts, and pull you have to plan for.
3D puff
Foam-backed caps and letters with a clean, sealed edge.
Sleeve
Narrow, curved, and hooped on an awkward frame.
Towels
Terry pile, knockdown stitch, and edges that hold.
Applique
Placement, tack, trim, cover. Properly sequenced.
Patches
Twill, felt and full-coverage patches with a clean border.
Custom logos
Crests, mascots, gradients and the jobs nobody else wanted.
Next step
Send us something awkward.
A faded scan, a photo of a van door, a crest with eight colours and a mascot. Those are the jobs we like, and the ones other digitisers quietly decline.
Or email orders@zbpunch.com — orders taken 24/7 — someone is on chat almost all day.