If you haven’t had a chance to check it out already, industry expert Dane Clement has a featured article in this month’s Impressions Magazine. The article, titled The Importance of Artwork, walks you through understanding artwork trends and breaks down how to create great art for use with various materials and processes.

Artwork trends come from many different areas and paying attention to these trends – keeping your finger on the pulse – is important to your long-term success. As a decorator, you want to offer your customers what they want when they’re ready to buy it, and not have them go elsewhere to find it.

But on top of understanding and staying on top of trends, Dane stresses, “It’s important to realize how each decorating method requires you to think differently about the art you will design so that embellishing products is an easier task.”

Knowing what kind of art you need and where you’re going to put it is probably the most important thing to consider. The type of fabric and garment color affects how artwork is prepared and which artwork you’ll choose. In this article, he walks you through the types of printing processes available and what goes best with which material.

For example, Dane mentions “each decorating process has its own strengths and weaknesses, with vinyl cutting being the easiest and probably most versatile.” He then goes on to discuss the two popular trends of polyester and performance materials as well as the new trend of water-based, high-solid acrylic inks.

You’ll definitely want to check this article out if you’re looking for more information about artwork trends and how to create great art on many different materials.