Self Service FAQs
Product Specs and How to Submit a product
- Your design file must be a PNG image file, 14” W x 16” H, 300 DPI, RGB Color Mode
- The artwork will need to stay 1” away from each edge, so your artwork print area will actually be 12” W x 14” H
- The background should be transparent and the print will work best if the edges of your artwork are crisp and clean
- To get started, please download this template and open it in Photoshop
- Once you have the PDF template opened in Photoshop, please place
your artwork within the bounding box - Any artwork outside the bounding box cannot be printed, so please keep all artwork within the bounding box
- Once you have placed your artwork, please hide the layer called “TEMPLATE (HIDE)” and then export the final file as a PNG
- Once the PNG file has been exported, you will upload this PNG file during the process of submitting a t-shirt through the Self-Service Creator Hub.
To see a walkthrough of how to submit an apparel product through the Self-Service Creator Hub, please watch this video
- Your design file must be a PNG image file, 14” W x 13” H, 300 DPI, RGB Color Mode
- The artwork will need to stay 1” away from each edge, so your artwork print area will actually be 12” W x 11” H
- The background should be transparent and the print will work best if the edges of your artwork are crisp and clean
- To get started, please download this hoodie artwork placement template and open it in Photoshop
- Once you have the PDF template opened in Photoshop, please place your artwork within the bounding box
- Any artwork outside the bounding box cannot be printed, so please keep all artwork within the bounding box
- Once you have placed your artwork, please hide the layer called “TEMPLATE (HIDE)” and then export the final file as a PNG
- Once the PNG file has been exported, you will upload this PNG file during the process of submitting a hoodie through the Self-Service Creator Hub.
To see a walkthrough of how to submit an apparel product through the Self-Service Creator Hub, please watch this video
- Your design file must be a PNG image file, 14” W x 16” H, 300 DPI, RGB Color Mode
- The artwork will need to stay 1” away from each edge, so your artwork print area will actually be 12” W x 14” H
- The background should be transparent and the print will work best if the edges of your artwork are crisp and clean
- To get started, please download this t-shirt and crewneck artwork placement template and open it in Photoshop
- Once you have the PDF template opened in Photoshop, please place your artwork within the bounding box
- Any artwork outside the bounding box cannot be printed, so please keep all artwork within the bounding box
- Once you have placed your artwork, please hide the layer called “TEMPLATE (HIDE)” and then export the final file as a PNG
- Once the PNG file has been exported, you will upload this PNG file during the process of submitting a crewneck sweatshirt through the Self-Service Creator Hub.
To see a walkthrough of how to submit an apparel product through the Self-Service Creator Hub, please watch this video
- Your design file must be a raster PDF, 7" W x 3" H, 300 DPI, CMYK Color Mode, with a white or transparent background
- Please note:
- Artwork is cut off 0.25” from the top and bottom of the mug
- Artwork is also cut off 1.5" away from the mug handle
- To get started, please download this mug artwork placement template and open it in Photoshop
- Once you have the PDF template opened in Photoshop, please place your mug artwork within the white 7” by 3” bounding box
- Any artwork outside the bounding box cannot be printed, so please keep all artwork within the bounding box
- Once you have placed your artwork, please hide the layer called “TEMPLATE (HIDE)” and then export the final file as a PNG
- Once the PNG file has been exported, you will upload this PNG file during the process of submitting a mug through the Self-Service Creator Hub.
To see a walkthrough of how to submit an mug product through the Self-Service Creator Hub, please watch this video
- Your design file must be a PDF file, 300 DPI, CMYK Color Mode. The file must have a .25” bleed on all sides.
- Be sure to keep all text and important imagery at least .25” away from the cut line. This is shown on the downloadable template files as the “Safe Zone”
- You will also want to keep important text and images within the dotted line of the Safe Zone in order to prevent trimming
- The area outside the cut line is the “Bleed" and everything in this area will be trimmed off.
To Get Started: - Please download the provided PDF poster artwork placement templates below and import them into Photoshop
- Choose which template to download depending on whether you will be submitting a Landscape Poster or a Portrait Poster:
- 11” x 17” Landscape Poster Template
- 11” x 17” Portrait Poster Template
- Once your artwork has been placed on the template to your liking, just export the final print file with the "Template" info layer hidden as a PNG file
- Once the PNG file has been exported, you will upload this PNG file during the process of submitting an 11” x 17” poster through the Self-Service Creator Hub.
To see a walkthrough of how to submit a poster product through the Self-Service Creator Hub, please watch this video
- Your design file must be a PDF file, 300 DPI, CMYK Color Mode. The file must have a .25” bleed on all sides
- Be sure to keep all text and important imagery at least .25” away from the cut line. This is shown on the downloadable PDF template file as a “safe zone”
- The area outside the cut line is the “bleed” and everything in this area will be trimmed off
- To Get Started:
- Please download the provided PDF poster artwork placement templates and import them into Photoshop
- Choose which template to download depending on whether you will be submitting a Landscape Poster or a Portrait Poster:
- 18” x 24” Landscape Poster Template
- 18” x 24” Portrait Poster Template
- Once your artwork has been placed on the template to your liking, just export the final print file with the "Template" info layer hidden as a PNG file
- Once the PNG file has been exported, you will upload this PNG file during the process of submitting an 18” x 24” poster through the Self-Service Creator Hub
To see a walkthrough of how to submit a poster product through the Self-Service Creator Hub, please watch this video
- For a vinyl sticker, you will need to upload two separate files
- The first will be the artwork file, which must be a PNG image file, 4” x 4”, at 300 DPI, CMYK color, with a transparent background
- The second file is the cutline file, this will be a simple magenta line that will indicate where the cut, or edge of the sticker, will be. The cutline layer must be a PNG image with a transparent background
- To get started:
- Download the PDF sticker placement template here
- Once you’ve downloaded the PDF template, you’ll want to import it into Photoshop
- Place your artwork in the "Artwork" layer and make sure all your artwork fits inside the circular magenta "Cutline" layer
- To export out the "Cutline" layer, click the "eye" icon on the "Artwork" layer to hide the artwork, and then go to "File" > "Export" > "Export As" > "Export" and do not change any of the current settings. The "Cutline" layer will then be exported as a 300 DPI .png file that you will upload during the sticker submission process
- To export out the "Artwork" layer, click the "eye" icon on the "Cutline" layer to hide the cutline, and then go to "File" > "Export" > "Export As" > "Export" and do not change any of the current settings. The "Artwork" layer will then be exported as a 300 DPI .png file that you will also upload during the sticker submission process
You can also watch this paper product video for a walkthrough of art placement on the template and the .png file export process
Creator-Sourced Products and Digital Products
- Once you have logged into the Creator Hub, click on “Start a Project” and then choose “Creator Sourced Product”
- You will then be taken to a page with information about applying to source a product as well as the royalty information about selling creator-sourced products
- When you are ready to start the application process, click the “Apply to Source a Product” button
- Please fill out all fields marked with an asterisk, as well as other applicable fields, to tell us about your product
- This application is designed to collect the information we’ll need to determine if it’s something our warehouse can store and ship to customers
- It will tell us what the proposed product is, what it would be made out of, where it will be manufactured, how many you hope to order, and how you would like to sell it
- Please note that if you are sending inventory to our warehouse, it must arrive ready to ship to customers. So if there are multiple components, they must be kitted before arrival. If you are sending apparel, the individual garments must arrive folded and ready to store on our warehouse shelves.
- Please also note that DFTBA will charge a receiving fee of $100 per SKU for all approved products that are sourced and provided by the creator, as noted in your Self-Service Term Sheet
- Creator-sourced products also cannot include any hazardous, organic, or consumable materials
- If you have a type of product in mind you’d like to source, but don’t know where to start, you can check out our Manufacturer Book (which can be accessed by clicking “Creator Resources” on the Self-Service Hub homepage) for helpful resources and contact information of trusted vendors
- Once this form is filled out, please submit the form, and our Creator Services team will review it and then email you with the next steps within 3 to 5 business days
- Once we’ve reviewed your application, please note that we may email you back to suggest some changes
- Once your application is approved, we will give you the go-ahead to order the inventory for the product, along with a suggested order quantity range
- To avoid storage fees, we will aim to keep no more than 6 months’ worth of inventory in the warehouse at a time
- After your product has been approved for purchase, we’ll ask you to fill out the New Creator Sourced Order - Warehouse Intake Form
- This form will collect information about the shipment of physical inventory so that our warehouse can best prepare for its arrival and properly receive the inventory
- At this point, our teams should have everything we need to get your product page set up in the DFTBA store and ready for your audience to place orders so we can ship out your creator-sourced product
- Once you have logged into the Creator Hub, click on “Start a Project” and then choose “Digital Product”
- You will then be taken to a page where you will upload your digital product. This page also includes important information about pricing and royalties, as well as specifications for uploading your digital product
- Upload specifications are as follows:
- You can upload any files you like, compressed to a ZIP file. Up to 20 MB. If your digital product is larger than 20 MB, please reach out to creators@dftba.com regarding next steps to get your digital product uploaded to our main DFTBA Shopify store
- For the product imagery, please upload a high-resolution JPG or PNG file or files. We will use these images to create the images for the product page after submission
- After you’ve uploaded your files, please fill out the required informational fields below this section, which will include information about what you’d like to name your digital product, the retail price of your digital product, how you are going to promote the digital product, the launch date, as well as if you want your product to be available as an Evergreen, Limited Time, or Limited Quantity digital item
- If you need more information about inventory and launch types, please click the link below “Availability,” and you’ll be taken to our Launch Types Guide
- You’ll now want to fill out the product description field, to describe your product to your customers
- If you have any other requirements for your digital product, please fill out the field “Anything else?”
- Once you’ve filled out everything on this page, click “Submit Product” to submit your digital product
- Once submitted, our Creator Services team will review the submission. If edits need to be made, we will reach out with suggestions
- Once the submission is approved, we’ll set up the product page and your digital product will be available for purchase and download by your audience
Account Management
- The creator hub is built on a Shopify site and we use a checkout process to accept product submissions
- For this reason, it feels a bit like buying something online, but don’t worry, the site isn’t set up to accept money, so you won’t be charged for anything at any point in the submission process
- For posters and stickers, we will invoice you at the beginning of each month for expenses incurred during the previous month, but you won’t owe anything until then
- Once you submit your product through the Creator Hub, our Self-Service Creators team will get back to you within 3 to 5 business days letting you know the status of your submission
- During your submission, please select a launch date that is at least 14 business days after your product submission date. This gives our team time to process your submission, test your artwork, set up your product page and ensure everything is ready for your launch.
- We request that you make no more than four product submissions per quarter, but that number can also be adjusted based on sales of your existing self-service products
- In other words, high sales will give you the flexibility to launch more products
- Please contact us at creators@dftba.com if you have any questions or concerns here
- To calculate your Profit Per Sale use this formula: (Royalty Percentage x Retail Price) - Cost Per Unit = Profit Per Sale
- We pay out royalties once per month
- At the beginning of each month, we will send you a royalty report for the previous month and you will be paid no later than the 15th of the month
- For all sales of your print-on-demand apparel merch, the manufacturing costs are first applied against your royalty rather than invoiced
- This means that your royalty from each sale of a print-on-demand apparel item will first be used to pay off the manufacturing cost of the print-on-demand item, and then the remaining balance will be paid out to you as your net royalty payment
- We will invoice you at the beginning of each month for poster and sticker orders that were placed during the previous month
- We do offer a wider range of products and assign a project coordinator to creator partners with a certain level of sales
- We love to see increased sales and we want our creators to grow with DFTBA
- While there is no exact formula for when creators are eligible for an expanded level of service, which includes a dedicated Product Design Coordinator and the ability to source other product types, we generally evaluate those expanded service levels when annual sales are above $50,000