How to Design Custom Umbrellas - Expert Tips

Chances are, if you’re reading this page you’d like to do a little more than print a logo on an umbrella. Perhaps you’d like to print an intricate pattern all over the entire umbrella canopy, or print full colour photography on the umbrella? Or maybe you want to print a subtle branding message or even a local map on the inside of the umbrella? There are a few things you should consider before you start designing your own custom umbrellas.

Consider What Umbrella Style Will Work Best

The main styles of umbrella are:

• Golf Umbrellas - Largest canopy

• City / Executive Umbrellas - Medium sized canopy

• Telescopic / Folding / Collapsible) Umbrellas - Medium to small canopy

• Compact / Mini Umbrellas - Smallest canopy (6 panels only)

If you’d like to print in full colour, or use a detailed pattern that will require heavy ink coverage, we recommended going with a medium city umbrella or large golf umbrella. With folding umbrellas, the canopy literally gets all folded up when you collapse it, so heavy ink coverage will not fare well over time. You can still do an all-over print on a folding umbrella, but try to keep it light. For example, small polka dots would work just fine on a telescopic umbrella - but a full colour map wouldn’t work as well.

Another thing to keep in mind is that small compact umbrellas have fewer panels than large ones. Most umbrellas, such as golf umbrellas, city or executive umbrellas, and telescopic (foldable) umbrellas have eight panels. However very small, or compact umbrellas only have six panels.

Umbrella Canopy Fabrication - Pattern Matching

When printing all over an entire umbrella canopy, we first print the individual fabric panels, then sew them together to make the canopy. After that the canopy is strung onto the umbrella frame. Depending on the design, “pattern matching” may be required if you have lines or shapes that need to connect from panel to panel. The more intricate the design, the longer it will take. This is a manual labour process so production time may be a little longer than normal.

Umbrella Printing - Set-Up Fees

Each time we have a unique, or different, panel design, new print screens or films need to be made - depending on what sort of umbrella printing process we’re using. Why are we telling you this? Because making print screens and films impacts cost, so you may want to adjust your design depending on the size of your print run:  Are you planning to print 50 umbrellas, or 500 umbrellas?

If you’re going to do a small print run of 50 umbrellas, you may want to limit the number of unique panel designs somewhat, or try repeating your design on multiple panels. This will keep your umbrella looking flashy, while only requiring a few print screens. On the other hand, if you’re going to print more than a few hundred umbrellas, go for it!

Stock Umbrella Fabric Colours & Pantone Matching

We have over 100 different umbrella fabric colours in our inventory, and can usually match your corporate colours exactly. Alternatively, if you have a specific PMS colour you’d like matched, we can do that too – not just for canopy fabric, but also for frames and handles. Minimum order for PMS matching umbrella canopies is 500 units as we need to dye an entire bolt of umbrella fabric to do this.