This is one of my memoirs about the creation of the Embrilliance Platform. I hope you enjoy my trip down memory lane!
-Brian Bailie
It was on an ordinary Thursday in December that we released the program predecessor to the Embrilliance Platform. That was 15 years ago, on December 16th, 2009.
But let me back up just a bit…
I’ve now been writing embroidery software and using embroidery machines for over three decades. I’m slowly working on a memoir about it all. Through all the years, and all the products, features, designs and challenges, the thing I look back on with the greatest fondness is the impact these products have had on the people who use them. They count on these products. These products are embedded in their lifestyle. You, the people who use the things we make, are the reason for making them. That’s why we continually push to new levels of creativity. We try to make embroidery easier for all, both hobbyists and professionals. And it works. It must, because you count on it.
That brings me to an interesting phenomenon:
Designer’s Gallery (later called Studio) launched in August 2000 as my first retail program. It sold well, and still has so much use, that even today many people around the world use it daily. People are using these products for decades.
Original DG Cover Art
And you know what? My products never had annual licenses, subscriptions, dongles, computer limits or activations.
This is software that hasn’t charged an update fee in a quarter century. The interesting thing about that is that I’ve never said I wouldn’t (unlike others). I am still not making that promise (who knows what the future will bring?) but we’re about to put out several free updates of our most popular products.
Back to the Embrilliance Platform.
The platform was first marketed as B.L.E.S. (BriTon Leap Embroidery Software) in Brisbane, Australia by my friend, Gary Walker, owner of Echidna Sewing.
The author finds a friend in Oz. Photo courtesy of Bill Goodall.
It was made to help with new embroidery machine promotions. He wanted something where he could have more input regarding the direction and marketing of the product.
Bring on Essentials
For my part, I wanted to make something more affordable for owners of entry-level embroidery machines, and provide essential software features that most embroiderers needed.
Partial view of Essentials CD wrap.
I wanted to do it without charging for extras that would never be used. The market had tons of overpriced, grossly bloated, and frankly ridiculous packages. The market didn’t need another one of those. It needed something targeted to the work the embroiderer was doing that day, week, and month. I did not want my product to sit on a shelf in a fancy box with a broken dongle, along with an install disc that couldn’t be updated. I didn’t want customers to have to fly into the airport hotel location to get a ‘good deal’ on it. I wanted people to have easy access to a reasonably priced tool that everyone could learn to use.
“Oh, and by the way,
there should be a Mac version!“
Postcard Mailer introducing Convert It, Mac!
I did this because I met many thousands of embroiderers while I was teaching embroidery in our stores, and on behalf of Baby Lock and Echidna. I worked with people on how to make the things they wanted to make. I saw firsthand how difficult things were for them to accomplish seemingly simple tasks. And the education situation was nearly impossible, as the industry was fragmented, and products worked wildly different from one to the next. Not only that, but none of them followed design principles of more widespread software: Even computer ‘gurus’ were lost because of the overlapping difficulties of embroidery as a medium, and the bizarre software UI created by sewing machine companies to support their machine sales (not to support the embroiderers!)
Photo courtesy of Peggy Ledford
Essentials Suited the Brand
This meant that the software had to be machine-brand neutral: It needed to work with all machines across all sewing formats. Embroiderers increasingly had more than one machine, and very often had multiple brands. It was wildly wasteful to have to learn brand-specific software for each one. But it’s not that easy: The number of people who have discovered all the machine formats count on one hand. (And at that, perhaps without a thumb and a digit or two.) I found myself bringing on Tim Larson, inventor and co-founder of the Amazing Designs products. Between us, we herd all the stitch formats into Platform. It’s a constant, ongoing, hacking challenge, as these change annually. Pricewise, those updates have always been … you guessed it … Free.
Embroidery For the Rest of Us
Indicating the change from machine-company provided software.
The brand Embrilliance was already established with our Thumbnailer product. I started working on Mac by hiring an old friend, David Blanton, to help create those versions. Back then, Apple and their users demanded the native application experience, so we made a ‘real Mac’ product suite to complement our native Windows version. They may look a bit outdated today, but they’re still native and drawn by the O.S.-es. I can’t promise that forever, especially if these companies remain in such scatological disarray. We may have to unify to a single look-and-feel, following Adobe and others. It would be a shame, though. Anyway…
4…3…2…1…
By late 2010 we had the Embrilliance platform put together. At the start of December, we launched a beta. Finally, during a full blizzard, on a cold Friday that happened to be Christmas Eve, we launched Essentials.
A white Christmas in Albuquerque
Not only was it an immediate hit, but the family enjoyed a rare White Christmas in New Mexico. And Janis W., if you’re out there, during that immediate rush of orders, yours hit my system first. Thank you!
When Essentials was released, you all understood what it did, and how it made your embroidery processes easier. It did what it was intended to do – make all the essential embroidery tasks easy.
And Now for Something New
For much of its life, Essentials has had a dozen native fonts, and this was done to keep the price down. The idea of the truly scalable fonts, taking them and modifying their very stitch properties as you re-sized the lettering, was original. Digitizing strategies for that feature had to be invented. And then there was auto-compensation, auto-fill, etc. All new ideas, and all things that worked seamlessly in the background for the user. In most cases, the user is never aware of how much handholding they get. Mind you, I had to make these fonts in a digitizer of my own making (for Interactives) to create these features.
‘Remove Hidden Stitches’, which can function automatically, allows designs to overlap. In a world run by graphic designers, they could not understand the issue. But the embroidery medium is different than graphics. It uses physical thread, not pixels. Again, you, the regular user, may remain blissfully unconcerned because it ‘just works’.
The BX Boom
Later came the BX installer and ability for users of any level to simply type in what they wanted to say, regardless of who made the font. That process had to be invented and integrated into the Platform, adding more complexity. We added Auto-kerning of stitch-based fonts (I told Lisa Shaw that it could not be done, but then wound up making it work anyway, a story she teases me about endlessly), multiple re-use of stitch-based lettering fonts, various density and interpolation technologies. And yet, the user still does not know (or need to).
Hundreds of font-makers now distribute the BX installer.
Squeezing More Out (In?)
One day Lisa and Deb Jones asked me about making Subway Art in Embrilliance, using the templates. We adjusted the setup and feasibility over time and now the envelopes include baselines and other variations that are beyond what anyone ever had in embroidery. Did you know you can draw your own lettering template? Have you seen the ACE (All Caps Envelope) fonts? We’re still inventing, still evolving, still more…
When the Students are Ready
Along came Erich Campbell, the embroidery font guru, typographer, and commercial embroidery master. He’s too shy to talk about it, but he’s this century’s most awarded digitizer.
Erich’s patch seen in Better Call Saul, Season 2
He’s ‘As seen on TV’ in hits such as Breaking Bad. Mind you, I’ve always loved fonts and typography, but Erich is beyond the hobby level. Together we’ve added a ton of new technology: Branching, Alternates, Size Alternates and Font Extensions. And his love of designing fonts has rubbed off on the whole staff here, so now everyone is involved in the process.
Keeping the MonogramWizard product alive.
In 2018 we acquired Needleheads and Monogram Wizard from longtime friend Chris Murphy. He wanted to retire to his fishing boat, but those fonts needed to find a more permanent home than the beer cooler. Since then, Erich, Lisa and I have begun curating and re-creating the fonts in the Embrilliance native format. Some of what we’re about to release include some completely re-drawn letterforms, with clean lines, minimal Bezier nodes and added glyphs to fonts that you love. Parlor, anyone?
Making Connections
We’re also adding another free invention to continue with font development, and that’s connected script. These are native fonts that have built-in markers to allow the letters to flow together as seamless cursive writing. This enables you to type and sew without spending time trying to line up letters, so they look even. It all happens automatically, so if someone hasn’t read about it here, they may never know it had to be invented before it could be a thing.
What’s New?
Today is not only about Essentials. We’re adding some favorite fonts to Fonts 1 & Fonts 2. Check out the product page, blog and newsletter for more details about the new fonts:
Essentials
ACE Barrel
Bold Cursive Connected
Brush Script
Curly Q
Curtis Script – This is the FFA font, if you are looking for it.
Philly Connected
Varsity Flair
Fonts 1
Connecting Script – The old Meistergram-inspired font that Pottery Barn used to put on stockings.
Sweet Script Connecting
Vacant
Fonts 2
Awesome Dots
Parlor – The most requested MonogramWizard font.
Worms
That’s all for now, but not forever, as we roll on past 180 free updates in the Embrilliance Platform these past 15 years!
Cheers,
-Brian