If you are planning to start an enamel pin business, it could be a great business with a small investment; the lapel and enamel pin business has huge potential with high demand, plus easy to ship all over the globe. Over the past few years, enamel pins have been ruling the market, People love to collect various pins collections, and pins are the best thing to gift to loved ones. In this post, you will learn how to start a successful lapel, enamel pin business with a very easy step-by-step guide. Design pins, choose category/niche, find suppliers and manufacturers, set up a store, and more.

Enamel Pin Business Guide | Step-by-Step Tips to Start Your Business

To start a successful lapel or enamel pin business, you must know what to keep in mind before designing pins, where you can find pin designers, the requirements for pin manufacturing, and How much it costs to design pins. Many more, so let’s get started.

What are enamel pins?

Enamel pins are small pieces of metal jewelry and artwork that are used to decorate and wear on bags, clothes, hats, and many more things. These are widely popular in GenZ and Millenials as they help to express their interests and personalities. and enamel pins can help with marketing businesses.

Many businesses use enamel pins of their logos, branding, promotional items or their product-related pins for brand promotion, it makes an impact on customers and makes the brand memorable.

Types of Enamel Pins

Enamel pins have various styles and types, hard enamel, soft enamel pins are mostly used by people and businesses, Let’s understand difference between hard enamel pins and soft enamel pins.

• Hard enamel pin?

Hard enamel pins or cloisonné pins, are a premium category of enamel pins, these are made with a strong metal base such as brass or copper. These pins have a smooth, polished, shiny and flat surface that gives it a high-end and luxurious appearance. 

Hard enamel pins are scratch resistant, anti-fading and long lasting. These pins are widely used for corporate logos, brandings, employee recognition badges and promotional items.

Hard enamel pins are a little more expensive than soft enamel pins, due to its polished process in manufacturing.

• Soft enamel pin?

Soft enamel pins are a popular category of pins, these pins have a different appearance that is vibrant colours and textured surfaces. These are also made with a metal base of copper, brass as hard enamel pins, 

Soft enamel pins are less expensive and have many advantages compared to hard ones. You can get various color finishes and metal options for soft pins and complex designs with soft enamel pins.

Soft enamel pins are cost effective and sustainable due to its quicker air-dried manufacturing process. If we talk about appearance, soft enamel pins have a tactile texture and raised metal that separates colours with borders.

Soft enamel pins are suitable for everyday wear, but these are less durable than hard enamel pins. These pins are widely used for artistic applications, promotions, giveaways events and many more casual purposes.

Choose a niche/category

Choosing niche is the most important part of starting any business. It plays a big role in sucess of business, Choosing right niche helps you understand target customers, market demands, competetion by identifying these a business can stand out in the crowded market.

You can market research about popular pins on many online platforms such as Amazon, Etsy, and Google Trends or you can use Ai tools like chatgpt for enamel pin business for market research and niche selection.

Choosing a Name for your pin business

After deciding on niche and target customers, choosing a name is important because it introduces your business to your customers. Keep a short and simple name for your small business so your customers can easily remember it.

You can try business name generator websites like Namelix or Ai tool Chatgpt, to get name ideas for your business and find domain names and hosting on Namecheap, cloudways.

Design a logo and branding

The logo is the face of any brand; people recognize and remember any brand with its logo as the name. The logo should be very simple and easy to understand. You can hire a freelancer or contact us to design logos and branding.

Design your pins

Once you figure out your target audience and the niche, brainstrome ideas and concepts for your pins, You can take help of AI tools like Chatgpt enamel pin ideas, or midjourey to see actual product mockups. or you can start drawing basic sketches for your concepts and convert them into enamel pin files in design tools.

Design Tools for Pin Creation

After doing market research and generating pin design ideas, You will require tools to turn your ideas into vector enamel pin design files that are ready for manufacturing. Here are some free and paid graphic design tools that help you design your pins.

Adobe illustrator

Adobe illustrator is a vector based software that allows you create vector based designs, illustrations, logos, artworks. It is the most popular tool in the graphic design industry. You can operate Adobe illustrator in Mac and windows

Gimp 

Gimp is an online graphic design app that can be used through web browsers to create stunning designs, vectors illustrations for free. 

Canva-

Canva is an online graphic design tool that allows you to drag and drop to design graphics, You can use canva to design basic graphics, or use premade templates to create your design. It has some limitations to design unique ideas that means you can not explore and experiment with design too much. If you are designing simple shapes or text based designs then it could be a helpful tool for you.

Vectornator

Vectornator is a free app for Ipad users, to create vector artworks and illustrations, it allows you to design beautiful illustrations for your pins and export in required file format for manufacturing pins.

Procreate

Procreate is a paid tool for ipad users, it is a most popular vector design app that allows you to draw advanced illustrations, vectors, and other graphic designs. You can purchase this app through the app store for one time payment.

If you do not know how to use software or do not want designing part, you can hire freelance graphic designers for your enamel, lapel, and hat pins.

How to design enamel pins in Adobe illustrator

Enamel pins can be designed on any vector based tool but Adobe illustrator is the most popular and widely used tool for graphic design and vector based designs. I have been doing this for 6 years and I am about to share the exact method of designing enamel pins, lapel pins using Adobe illustrator, that are ready for manufacturing. 

Drawing Sketches for Your Pin Idea

Start with drawing rough sketches of your ideas on a paper or drawing tablet, if you don’t have ideas for pins, then check out this guide on how you can use ChatGPT to generate enamel pin ideas. 

Once you are done with ideas and drawing them on paper, click a photo of your sketch from the top view, so it can easily be traced on Illustrator, then transfer sketches to your laptop or pc via email, whatsapp, data cable or any other convenient way.

Import Sketch to Illustrator

Next step is to import your drawing into Illustrator, to import the image in Illustrator, Open illustrator > Select dimensions of artboard> Create document, then go to the folder where you placed your sketch, select image> drag and drop the sketch into illustrator document.

Outline the Sketch In Illustrator

After importing the sketch, click on the sketch, reduce the opacity to 50%-60%, then lock the current layer. Create a new layer and select the Pen tool by pressing “P” on the keyboard. Start tracing your design with a pen tool, or if you want uneven lines, then select a brush tool by pressing “B” and trace your design.

After tracing your sketch, hide the sketch layer, and check your design, make sure all the color filling areas are enclosed with boundaries without any gap in between lines.

Adding color to your enamel pin designs-

To add colors to your design, select your whole design then press Shift+M, choose the color areas and start clicking on each filling area, after completing this process, change the colors from all filling areas according to your color palette. 

Expand Boundary Outlines

Expand or outline the strokes to avoid scaling the thickness of lines when artwork is resized. To expand this, select artwork, and then you go to Object > Expand > Stroke. Now, all your strokes transformed into shapes!

To outline the strokes select the artwork, Object>Path>Outline Stroke.

Final Steps

Final step is to put all the details such as size, pantone color guide, metal, back stamp, clutches or any other specific detail you want to keep in your pin. After completing these steps, just save your file in AI or EPS format.These were exact steps to turn your ideas into enamel pin files for manufacturing.

Things to keep in mind while designing pins

• Vector design must have thick outlines for all the areas because pins are always small, and if you keep thin outlines in the design, they will not be visible clearly from a distance.
• Enclose all the color-filling areas with outlines.
• Keep it simple, avoid using too many details and colors in the design.
• Always use the solid coated pantone color guide.

Where I can find a designer for enamel pins?

If you do not want to invest your time in designing enamel pin files, then you can find freelancer designers to do this for you. Here are some online marketplaces you can consider to find designers for your pin.

• Fiverr– Fiver is a freelancing marketplace, where you can find graphic designers for enamel pin design at affordable price. That starts from $5 usd.
• Upwork– Upwork is popular freelancing marketplace where you can hire designers on hourly basis or fixed price basis for your enamel pin designs.

Note:- If you are purchasing any designs or hiring a designer then make sure you ask for all required file formats for enamel pins with the correct dimensions.

What file format do I need for enamel pins?

You can discuss with your manufacturing partners, What file format they require to make your products, generally PDF, SVG or AI file formats are ideal for the pin designs.

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How much does enamel pin manufacturing cost?

Pricing for the pin production always depends on the complexity of the design, the number of colors used in the design, type of metal and enamel used in the product.

If you want to start with a minimum cost, then a soft enamel pin with few details and colors would be perfect.

Packaging Design for Enamel pins

Packaging design plays an important role in enamel pin business, it narrates your brand’s story, it not just protects your pins from damaging but also enhances unboxing experience and makes your brand presentation memorable.

Always choose sustainable and cost effective material for packaging design, incorporate your branding creatively on packaging, You can also design packaging that relates with the design of pin. By investing in good packaging design businesses can boost their business and make their brand memorable, There are several options you can choose for enamel pin packaging 

Polybags or zippers

Poly Bags packaging is very cost effective, customers can easily see pins without opening it. These are best for single pin protection.

Backer cards

These could be a little costly than pouches and plastic bag packaging, but backing cards add a professional touch to your products, these can be multipurpose use, you can showcase your branding, business details. This can act as packaging as well as business cards.

Box packagings

Box packaging is the most secure packaging for pins, these protect your pins from damaging in shipping, you can utilize these types of packaging to showcase your branding effectively, and enhance the unboxing experience with a premium feel.

Finding Affordable Pin Manufacturers

Finding a good manufacturer is the challenging part to turn your designs into physical products, There are many ways to find a good manufacturing parter, You can browse a most popular ecommerece website Alibaba for the cheapest manufacturers from china. Thousands of manufacturers list their services; you can enquire with them for your enamel pins.

• Alibaba Manufacturers– Cheaper prices, long delivery time.
• USA supplier– High prices, premium quality, fast delivery time

Note- Stay away from manufacturers who promises free moulding fee, because they might add that price in your pin costing and when you order same design again they charge you same price again , which means you are paying for mould again and again. Always check reviews and past works, and try 2-3 manufactureres prices then decide whom you want to work with.

If you are looking for enamel pin suppliers in the USA, you can try this company, It’s important to note that I have affiliations with these manufacturers, and I want to be completely transparent about it.

They provide premium quality products with a free 3D video of your pins, a 10% discount on your first order, fast shipping, etc.

Online platforms to Sell Enamel Pins

Building an online presence is great way to make more sales, utilizing social media, e commerce webistes is best way to showcase and sell your enamel pins, The best thing about this era is we have many options to market our business and sell our products over the globe. Here are a few best places where you can sell your enamel pins.

Etsy- 

Etsy is a most popular online marketplace for handmade items, You can create a store on etsy in a very easy way and list your enamel pins, it charges 0.20$ per listing, plus some other tax fee. If you join etsy from here , you will get 40 free listing for signing up.

Shopify- 

If you are planning to sell your enamel pins on your personal website, then shopify can be a best choice for you, Shopify offers a dedicated website design that you can design according to your branding and theme. 

Social media- 

Instagram, facebook and tiktok are another good way to sell your pins, many people have made their personal brands, and made big companies by leveraging social media. You can start building content on social media and sell your pins with it. Utilize link in bio tools to create free landing page and online store to sell your products and collect payments for your products.

Brick and mortar stores- 

Local markets have great potential to sell any products, the best part about shops is you can directly interact with your customers and network with people, showcase your designs.

If you want us to build your enamel pin website or online store, you can reach out to us for your Branding and website design.

Conclusion

Throughout this guide, You’ve acquired a basic understanding of starting an Enamel pin business from scratch, So let’s build your enamel pin brand today. If you want to enhance your business then try these Midjourney prompts for enamel pins, To start the business, we have covered all the required topics; follow each step to build your brand and make more sales with a small investment.