Artwork requirements for custom pet products are looser than most brand teams expect. You do not need production-ready files to start. What you need is enough reference material for a factory to understand your brand without guessing, and the honest answer is that a logo and a couple of reference images are usually enough to get a first mockup back.

Last updated: September 2026

What do you actually have to send?

A useful starting package is smaller than a spec sheet:

• Your logo, in the highest quality version you have. Vector is ideal. A large PNG is workable. A photograph of your signage is enough to begin a conversation.
• A color reference. Brand values if you have them, or a sample of something already printed correctly. This is the single most useful thing you can provide.
• Any style guide pages that govern how the mark may be used, especially minimum sizes and clear space.
• One or two reference images of the look you are after, if you have a direction in mind.

That is genuinely the list. From it, PrideBites produces a free custom mockup, typically within about 48 hours, with no cost and no commitment.

Does vector artwork matter?

It matters for the final production file and it does not matter for starting.

Vector art scales to any size without degrading, which is why a factory wants it eventually. But a brand that has only a raster logo is not blocked: the mark can be redrawn, and that redraw becomes part of the mockup conversation rather than a prerequisite for it.

Where raster artwork does cause real problems is at small sizes and on textured surfaces. A logo that looks crisp on a website can turn to mush when it is embroidered at one inch on a collar. If your only file is a small JPEG pulled from a slide deck, expect the first mockup to start a conversation about redrawing rather than about colors.

How does the product change what the artwork has to be?

This is the part most teams do not anticipate. The same logo behaves differently on different substrates, and the constraint is the manufacturing method rather than the file.

• Plush toys. Shape carries more than detail. Fine linework, small text, and intricate patterns do not survive being rendered in fabric at eight inches. They get simplified or printed. Color count is a real cost and sourcing decision.
• Collars, leashes, and bandanas. Narrow printable area and a repeating field. A wide horizontal logo often works better than a tall one, and a mark that reads at a glance beats one with a tagline.
• Bowls. A single-color mark or a laser-etched treatment. High-contrast, simple shapes.
• Apparel. The most forgiving surface for detail, and the least forgiving for size, because a dog shirt has far less usable area than a human one.

The practical consequence: pick the product first, then adapt the artwork to it. Teams that lock a single artwork treatment and then try to force it onto five product types spend the most time in revisions.

What if the character or mark is complicated?

Send more references, not fewer. If a character exists as a 2D illustration, a costume, and a 3D render, send all three. The differences between them tell a factory more than any single file does, because they show which features are essential and which were interpretive.

If a physical version already exists, photographs of it from four sides are worth more than a style guide, because a physical version has already solved the problem of turning a drawing into a three dimensional object.

Who decides what the final product looks like?

You do, at the mockup stage, and that is the whole reason the mockup exists.

The mockup is where interpretation questions get settled: how a face is rendered, what gets simplified, how proportions read at the size you chose, which of your brand colors survives in fabric. Settling those on a mockup costs a conversation. Settling them on a sample costs a production cycle, and settling them after production costs the run.

PrideBites handles the whole path from brief to doorstep, so the design interpretation happens in-house rather than being handed back to you as a file problem to solve.

How do artwork decisions affect the schedule?

Mockup rounds sit in front of production, and production is 6 to 8 weeks, with custom plush varying by complexity. That window excludes shipping, which adds about 5 to 7 days by air ship, about 12 to 15 days by air freight, or about 30 to 40 days by ocean freight. PrideBites ships via UPS and DHL.

What that means in practice: the artwork stage is the least costly place to spend time and the most expensive place to rush. A first project realistically needs three to four months end to end, and the mockup rounds are the part you control. Sending a complete reference package on day one is the single easiest way to protect the schedule.

Frequently asked questions

What artwork do I need to start a custom pet product?

Your logo in the best quality you have, a color reference, and any style guide pages governing the mark. Vector art is ideal but not required. From that, PrideBites produces a free custom mockup, typically within about 48 hours, with no cost and no commitment.

Do you need vector files?

Eventually, for production, but not to start. A raster logo can be redrawn, and that redraw becomes part of the mockup conversation. Raster art causes the most trouble at small sizes and on textured surfaces such as embroidery, where fine detail degrades.

Why does the product change the artwork?

Because the manufacturing method sets the limits. Plush construction cannot hold fine linework at small scale, collars and bandanas have a narrow printable field, bowls suit simple high-contrast marks, and dog apparel has far less usable area than human apparel.

Who adapts the artwork to the product?

PrideBites does, and the mockup is where you approve or change those decisions. Design interpretation happens in-house as part of the turnkey process rather than being returned to you as a file to fix.

How much time should artwork take?

As much as it needs, because it is the least costly stage to spend time in. Mockup rounds sit ahead of a 6 to 8 week production window that excludes shipping. Sending a complete reference package at the start is the best protection for the schedule.

Getting a mockup made

The fastest way to find out whether your artwork works on a pet product is to see it on one. Send your logo, a color reference, and a rough sense of which product you have in mind, and you get a free custom mockup back with nothing committed.

PrideBites has made custom pet products for brands since 2013 and handles design, production, and fulfillment end to end. The market and resell overview covers where a first product fits in the wider program. Start a project when you want a mockup, or reach the team at Sales@PrideBites.com or (424) 256-0102.