How are Pathtags Made?

Welcome to the Pathtags Creation Tour! Here you will learn how a tag is made. You'll learn what you will experience each step of the way in the order process.

Pathtags are custom made for each customer. When you order a starter kit, it is the first step in a manufacturing process. Here is how an order works, and how your tag becomes a reality.

Making The Order

So you have a design done and you're ready to place your order. People often wonder "How long will it take?". Believe it or not, we deliver tags to your door within 8 weeks and sometimes as little as 5 weeks. Some of this depends on your participation - we'll cover those parts as we go along. This example uses a real-life tag that you will find in our gallery. The tag came out great and is a good example of a couple of things to keep an eye on so we're going to use this specific example.

This design was done by the owner. It's a good design and does not violate any copyrights. Owners are responsible for obtaining any rights or permissions to use graphical elements of tags. At our option, we will refuse designs we do not feel comfortable producing.
When ready, the owner placed an order at our Starter Kit Order Page. They provided their shipping information, set the total quantity for their order (hint: additional tags added at the time of starter kit purchase are discounted over the typical cost of refill kits, and 50 tag add-ons are only available in Starter Kits), uploaded this art from their hard drive and made payment for their order.
When uploading art, it's very helpful if you provide Pantone Matching System (PMS) codes for your colors and pay attention to small detail - it will be simplified into raised metal if it's too small. To help you choose PMS colors, a rough screen approximation of the colors can be found at this link. Note that the colors are still only an approximation. PMS codes are used to communicate coloration in a common "language". Each computer monitor displays colors a little differently - without this common language... noone would ever know what to expect for color.

We Receive The Order

Paid orders pop up in our back end order processing system. A sneak peek is pictured here - it's not as pretty as our main site :) Using our processing system we will review the design for any obvious problems. If we need to, we will email you to get clarification.

Barring any issues, we send the original artwork in to be turned into a production blueprint. This usually takes 1-3 business days. The waiting begins - but it won't be long. Keep a close eye on your email account. You will receive a notice when the blueprint is ready for your review. The process can't proceed until you review the returned blueprint.

Your Blueprint Is Ready!

When it's ready, your blueprint will be posted for your review. You'll get an email notice when it's ready.

This image is the actual blueprint that was made from the original. Look at it closely - notice any small changes?

First - the color is a bit different. Not every color exists in the PMS color language. In this case, the closest approximation was used in blueprinting.

Also - the words "Change the World" were too small to make colored. They were changed to raised metal. They will be perfectly legible in the final project. Now you are probably noticing too that the light gray represents "raised metal". Tags are made by stamping a design into iron, plating the iron disk, and coloring by filling recessed areas with enamel. This is a method similar to what is called "cloisonne". Raised metal rims have to be made to hold the enamel. Notice the words "Pay It Forward" were just black in the original? In the production-ready blueprint, raised metal outlines have been added to those letters to hold the enamel. The bottom words are just too small to accomodate both raised outlines and color enamel filling. Keep in mind - this design will be produced on a disk about the size of a quarter. What looks big in design is often too small to accomodate in production. This is why all designs go through the blueprinting process.

Review & Approve Your Blueprint

To review your blueprint, log into your account. You will see your templates listed on the right side of the page. There, you'll see an entry for the tag you just ordered. It will look similar to the view at the right. Scroll down in the area and you'll see the Blueprint Review text. Click the small icon of your tag to view the full 500x500 pixel blueprint.

If the blueprint looks good, just click the green checkmark to log your acceptance. We'll get the notification and you're tag will be in production at the factory within 24 hours. After that - get your patience ready, it'll be 6-8 weeks before your tags arrive on your doorstep.

If the blueprint is not up to your expectations, just write a note in the provided field and click the red "X" button. We'll get your notes and will contact you to discuss tag revisions. The quality of your original artwork is very important for the final blueprint. You may be asked to modify your original artwork to accomodate changes.

The Pathtag Stork Comes!

After a few weeks of patiently waiting on pins and needles for the final product of your own personal metal masterpiece - the Pathtags Stork comes. Well... at least the postman does! And you'll receive not only your shiny new tags, all individually wrapped for their protection, but a velvet bag to put a bunch of them in and carry with you and your first four collector clips. By now - you probably have gotten several emails from excited collectors asking to trade. Even if you didn't turn your tag on for trading yet! Now that you have your tag, you're ready to start enjoying all the great features of the Pathtags Community. Take the Community Tour to learn about all the great features of our online Community site.