Custom Die-Cut Stickers and Window Decals for Brightwaters, New York

Standing outside your own glass

A shop owner usually works out what the window needs by standing on the sidewalk in front of it, looking in the way a stranger would, and deciding which of the things stuck to the glass are doing a job and which are only taking up room. That is where a decal order tends to begin. Hours on the door. A logo at eye height on the main pane. A small mark near the handle telling people which side to push. We print and cut that kind of work for shopkeepers in Brightwaters, one sheet of artwork at a time.

Die-cut means the cut line follows the artwork instead of boxing it in. A logo with a curved edge, a lettered arch, a shape with a notch taken out of it: each comes off the cutter as that shape, with no rectangle of background around it. On glass, where whatever is behind the sticker shows through, that is not a cosmetic detail. A square of white around a round mark reads as a mistake from across the sidewalk.

Five neighbours inside three miles

The geography here is unusually compact. Bay Shore is 1.3 miles away. West Bay

Shore is 1.5. West Islip is 1.9, Baywood 2.6, and North Bay Shore 2.8. Five separate places we also cover, and the furthest of them is still under three miles out. That has a practical edge for a shopkeeper. A second counter, a friend's storefront, or a stall a mile and a half down the road can sit on the same order as your own front window without anything changing about how the artwork is handled.

Our storefront at 205 East Main Street in Huntington is 13.0 miles from

Brightwaters in a straight line, off to the north west. Everything is printed and cut at that one address, and pickup there is free if you would rather collect than have an order sent.

What a square inch costs, and why the count changes it

Die-cut stickers are priced by the square inch, and the rate per square inch drops as the quantity climbs. At 1 to 24 pieces the rate is 35 cents. From 25 to 49 it is 30 cents. From 50 to 99 it is 28 cents. From 100 to 249 it is 26 cents. From 250 to 499 it is 24 cents. At 500 it is 22 cents.

Take the size a shopkeeper often lands on for a door mark: 2.5 inches by 2.5 inches, which is 6.25 square inches. At 500 pieces the rate is 22 cents, so each sticker works out at $1.38 and the run of 500 comes to $687.50. The arithmetic is dull, but it is worth doing before you settle on a size, because adding half an inch to each edge changes the area more than people expect.

There is an order minimum, and it is not a price floor. An order qualifies at 10 or more pieces, or at $10 of merchandise, whichever it reaches first. One large decal for a single window can meet it on value alone.

Sizing for glass rather than for paper

A decal read from the sidewalk is not sized the way a label on a jar is sized. The useful test is to print the artwork on ordinary paper at the size you are considering, tape it inside the glass, then walk to the far edge of the sidewalk and look back. Hours blocks almost always want to be larger than they look on a screen. Logos almost always want to be smaller, because a mark that fills the pane stops the customer seeing in. If the piece goes on the inside of the glass facing out, say so when you send the file, because the artwork has to be laid out for that.

Artwork, and what makes a clean cut line

The cut path is drawn from the outline of your artwork, so the outline is the part that deserves attention. Shapes with clean, closed edges cut cleanly. Fine hairlines, isolated dots, and thin serifs on small lettering are where trouble starts, because a sliver a fraction of a millimetre wide has very little holding it in place. The usual fix is not to redraw the logo. It is to add a modest outline around the whole mark so the cut follows one simple perimeter, with the delicate parts sitting safely inside it.

A first order usually has four pieces in it

Shops that have never ordered decals tend to arrive with one item in mind and leave with four. The hours block, which is the one people actually stop and read. The logo for the main pane. A push or pull mark by the handle, small and often overlooked, and the one that saves the most daily irritation. And something temporary: a change of opening, a new line of stock. Sizes and designs do not have to match across one order, and those four rarely want to be the same size anyway.

Four ways this order tends to arrive

The owner with one window and one door. Two pieces, both small, sitting in the lower bands at 35 or 30 cents a square inch. Check it against the order minimum before the sizes are settled.

The owner replacing something that has been on the glass for years. The original artwork is long gone and what exists is a phone photograph of the window. That is a starting point, not a file, and it is worth saying so up front.

The owner opening a second spot nearby. One artwork, two addresses, different counts at each. Total the pieces first and see which band the run lands in before splitting anything.

The owner whose logo was drawn for a printed sign. Sign artwork is often built at a size no window needs, with detail that will not survive being reduced. Send it anyway. Simplifying an over detailed file is far easier than inventing one that does not exist.

Questions we get from shop owners

Can one Brightwaters order carry several different designs and sizes at once? Yes. The hours block, the logo, and a small push mark by the handle can all go on one order. Each piece is priced on its own area in square inches, with the rate coming from the quantity band the run falls into.

What does the 2.5 inch example actually cost a Brightwaters shop buying 500? A 2.5 by 2.5 inch sticker is 6.25 square inches. At 500 pieces the rate is 22 cents a square inch, which is $1.38 each and $687.50 for the full 500.

Our door is barely a mile from Bay Shore. Should the order still be addressed to the Brightwaters 11718 ZIP? Use whatever address your mail already arrives at. The ZIP is simply how a package is routed, and sitting 1.3 miles from one neighbour makes no difference to how the job is printed or priced.

We only need twelve decals for the front door. Does a Brightwaters order that small still qualify? It does. The minimum is met at 10 or more pieces, or at $10 of merchandise, whichever comes first, so twelve clears it on count alone. At that quantity the rate is 35 cents a square inch.

If a Brightwaters shop orders 100 window decals instead of 250, how much does the rate move? From 100 to 249 pieces the rate is 26 cents a square inch. From 250 to 499 it is 24 cents. Two cents sounds like very little, but multiplied by the area of each piece and then by the count, it is worth deciding deliberately rather than by accident.