Most people ordering branded workwear for the first time say the same thing: "just put the logo on the front". Fair enough, but where on the front, how big, and does the same answer work on a fleece, a hi-vis vest and a cap? A few minutes of thought here is what separates kit that looks designed from kit that looks like an afterthought.

Start with the question nobody asks

Before choosing a position, decide what the branding is actually for. There are really only two jobs:

• Identification — so a customer, a site manager or a member of the public can tell who this person works for. Needs to be visible up close and from the front.
• Advertising — so people who are not your customer yet see your name, from across a car park or the other side of a road. Needs to be big, and usually on the back.

Most businesses want both, which is why the common answer is a small chest logo plus larger back branding. But if you are a customer-facing team working indoors, the back branding may be wasted spend.

The standard positions

Left chest

The default, and for good reason. It sits in natural eye line during a conversation, it works on almost every garment, and it looks smart rather than shouty. Typically a small logo, roughly the width of a business card, positioned below the collar and in from the placket.

Use it for: polos, shirts, fleeces, softshells, jackets, tunics, tabards.

Right chest

The usual home for a secondary mark: an employee name, a job title, an accreditation, or a second logo. Balances a left chest logo nicely and is a cheap way to make kit feel bespoke to the person wearing it.

Full back

The advertising position. Company name, what you do, and often a phone number or website. This is what gets read while your team is up a ladder or kneeling on a driveway, and it is the single highest-value placement for trades that work in public view.

Keep it simple. A name and one line of service description reads from distance. A paragraph does not.

Upper back / yoke

A smaller version of the back placement, sitting across the shoulders. Useful when a full back print would be too much, or on garments where a large area is impractical.

Sleeves

Good for accreditations, secondary logos or a small repeat of the main mark. Visible when someone is working with their arms raised, which is more often than you would think.

Caps and beanies

The front panel is the obvious position, with the side panel and rear as secondary options. Caps carry branding at head height, which is why they work well on outdoor sites.

Getting the size right

Sizing errors are more common than placement errors. Two rules cover most of it:

• Chest logos: smaller than you think. A chest logo that is too large reads as loud rather than professional. If in doubt, err down.
• Back branding: bigger than you think. The whole point is legibility at distance. A timid back print wastes the placement.

Also consider the garment itself. The same logo sized for an XL jacket will look oversized on a small polo, so sizing sometimes needs adjusting across a size run. We will flag it if that applies to your artwork.

How the decoration method affects placement

Embroidery and print behave differently, and that influences where each works best.

• Embroidery suits smaller, high-detail-tolerant positions: chest, sleeve, cap front. It gives a raised, premium finish that lasts through repeated washing.
• Print and transfer suit larger areas and more colours: full backs, big front prints, detailed or photographic artwork.

A very common and sensible combination is embroidered chest plus printed back. Our embroidery vs print guide goes into the trade-offs in more depth.

A few practical mistakes to avoid

• Very fine detail embroidered small. Thin lines and tiny text do not stitch cleanly at chest size. Simplify the mark rather than shrinking it.
• Ignoring the garment colour. A dark logo on a navy fleece disappears. Have a reversed or single-colour version of your logo ready for dark garments.
• Placement that lands on a pocket or zip. Chest pockets, zips and seams all limit where decoration can sit. We check this at proof stage.
• Different placements across the team. Decide once and keep it consistent, so the crew looks like one company.

Write it down once

Once you have settled on placements and sizes, record them. It saves repeating the decision every time you order for a new starter, and it keeps kit consistent as the team grows. We keep your logo setup on file, so repeat orders match what people are already wearing. If you are formalising things more broadly, our company uniform policy guide covers what else belongs in writing.

Ready to get your logo on kit? See embroidered workwear, or send us your artwork and we will proof it before anything is stitched.