Lanyards are cords you wear to hold items on your body and allow easy access or visibility. One of the most typical types is a badge lanyard, in which an i.d. badge is worn on a cord around the neck. This is a good example of a lanyard being used so that an item can easily be seen. Key lanyards are an example of carrying an item where it can be used without having to search through pockets first. Another example is when a coach or umpire wears a whistle on a lanyard. In addition to their functional uses, lanyards can also have text, photos, logos, and other graphics printed on them for promotional purposes. Here are some tips about how to have promotional lanyards made for your organization or company.
There are different styles of lanyards and you need to determine which style is most suited for your promotional goals. One style is the beaded lanyard, made of plastic or metal. Also called a ball lanyard, it looks like little balls strung together, and although it is inexpensive it is not a good choice for promotion since nothing can be printed on this type of lanyard. A cord lanyard, usually made of nylon, polyester, or cotton, is another inexpensive choice that is not suited for promotional purposes since it also can’t display anything. The style of lanyard you want to go with for promoting your organization is the flat, strap style. The flat surface can easily display printed material that people can see from a distance.
In addition to the style of lanyard, you need to determine the material you want to use for your lanyard, since different materials allow for different printing methods. These methods vary in price and in how much complexity, detail, and color they allow for the material you will have printed on the lanyard.
The least expensive printing method is hot stamping, which is typically used with polyester. Heat and pressure is applied to print material which is on a metal plate. The downsides to this method are that it is not suitable for logos with a lot of fine detail or many colors, and not durable because only a thin layer of color is applied to the lanyard. Use this method for large text and simple logo designs.
Screen printing is a more expensive, time consuming process which is normally used with nylon and cotton. The promotional material gets transferred to the cloth by squeezing the ink through a fine mesh. Manual labor is used to print one lanyard at a time, and a separate step is used to dry the ink with heat. This method allows for more detail and is more durable because of the larger amount of ink that is employed.
Dye sublimation is the most sophisticated method used for printing lanyards made of cloth. With this method, heat and pressure is also used as with hot stamping, but the printed material gets down into the cloth instead of sitting on top of it, so there is much more durability. The material to be printed also starts out on paper rather than metal, which allows for considerably more detail. White polyester is always used as the material, with both the design and the background color being applied to the cloth. The main drawbacks of this method are the cost and the need to order a large minimum number of lanyards printed.
For the most sophisticated promotional lanyards, you need to use vinyl or plastic. This allows for the four color process to be used, in which cyan, black, yellow, and magenta are mixed to produce millions of colors. If you want to incorporate color photographs into your promotional material, the four color process is necessary. But it is the most expensive process, so your final decision will have to balance cost and quality concerns.