Café branding: a real example with stickers, T-shirts and umbrellas

This café branding example is from autumn 2025: a small café in central Riga ordered 2,000 die-cut stickers, 25 staff T-shirts with DTF printing in two spots, and 10 umbrellas with a single-colour logo – all in one order. Total cost came to around EUR 620 excl. VAT, with a production time of 8 business days from artwork approval. The client asked us not to name them or publish photos of the fitted-out premises, so below we go through the process, the numbers and the decisions that matter most in a package like this.

Starting point and the quote

The client came to us with one vector logo in an .ai file, one corporate colour, and a question: "What do we actually need for our first season?" The request came in on a Monday, and we sent a quote with three line items the next business day.

We deliberately didn't include everything that could possibly carry the logo in the quote. Priority went to what the guest sees every day: packaging stickers for takeaway drinks, staff T-shirts, and terrace umbrellas for bad weather. Business cards and flyers were left for the next stage, as the café was still finalising its menu.

Why one combined order instead of three separate ones

When all three items are handled together, the logo only needs to be prepared once for all the technologies involved – die-cutting for stickers, DTF printing, and screen printing for umbrellas. That means one round of artwork approval, one delivery and one invoice instead of three.

Stickers: 2,000 pcs with die-cutting

We chose glossy vinyl, round shape, 60 mm diameter – big enough to look good on a cardboard cup lid or a paper bag, but not so big that it would wrinkle.

We recommended glossy rather than matte material, since the stickers come into contact with heat and moisture. Matte film looks calmer, but it picks up stains faster when condensation forms on cold drinks. If the café wants a matte look, laminated matte film is the more practical choice – it costs around 15–20% more.

More on sticker materials, shapes and minimum quantities can be found in our sticker printing section.

T-shirts for baristas: DTF or screen printing

25 T-shirts is a typical quantity where the client needs to be told about the difference between technologies. Screen printing becomes cost-effective from around 50 pieces upwards, since a separate screen is needed for each colour; at 25 pieces, this setup takes up too large a share of the price.

That's why we went with DTF: a logo on the chest (about 90 mm wide) and a smaller logo on the left sleeve. A DTF transfer withstands machine washing at 40°C if the shirt is turned inside out, and lets you print a full-colour image without any extra charge per colour.

The T-shirts were ordered in two cuts – unisex and women's – in sizes from S to XXL. We always ask for this breakdown in a table, since once an order goes into production, sizes can no longer be changed. You can browse model options in our T-shirts and apparel printing section.

Umbrellas: 10 pcs with logo on two panels

Umbrellas are an item where clients often overestimate how much printing they need. We ordered 10 umbrellas from our catalogue with an automatic mechanism and a single-colour logo on two opposite panels. The logic is simple: at least one logo is visible from any angle, but the printing cost doesn't quadruple.

Fine details and thin lines under 1 mm don't come out cleanly on umbrella fabric, so we simplified the logo – removing the tagline underneath and keeping just the mark with the name. We make this kind of artwork adjustment before production and show it to the client for approval.

Costs and timelines

Prices are indicative and depend on quantity, material and the number of printing colours. For example, if the sticker run is increased from 2,000 to 5,000 pieces, the price per piece drops by roughly a third; if 60 T-shirts are ordered instead, screen printing becomes cheaper than DTF.

Timelines on this job were as follows:

We delivered the whole package in one go on business day 8. If any item is needed sooner, we can deliver in stages – in this case, the stickers would have been ready as early as day four.

What we'd do differently

Two things we handled smarter than usual on this job:

• Colour sample before the full run. The corporate colour was dark green, which looks different on vinyl than on fabric. We prepared a sample on sticker film and on T-shirt fabric, the client chose a compromise shade, and there were no complaints afterwards.
• Spare T-shirts. At 25 pieces, we recommended ordering 2 extra T-shirts in the most common sizes – for a new staff member or in case of damage. Making just 1 T-shirt separately a month later costs more per piece than including it in the same run.

One thing we'd tackle earlier next time: menu cards and table numbers. The client ordered these separately three weeks later, which meant repeating the artwork setup. It's worth planning such items upfront – see business cards, cards and flyers.