Yes, most Morbi tile factories can make tiles from your own designs. The surface is printed by digital inkjet machines, so a new pattern needs a print file, not new screens or rollers.
That makes custom graphics practical on a normal order. It does not make them instant. A custom design needs good artwork, a trial run, your approval and usually a larger order per design than a catalogue item.
What can be customised, and what is harder
It helps to separate the printed face from the tile itself. Changing the face is easy. Changing the body, size or texture means changing the press, the glaze line or the kiln settings, and that is a bigger job.
- The printed graphic, such as a marble vein, wood grain, stone or pattern, is the easiest thing to customise.
- The colour tone of an existing design can usually be adjusted on a trial run.
- The finish, such as matt, glossy, satin or a textured "carving" effect, depends on what glazes and punches the line already uses.
- A size the factory does not already press needs a new mould, and many plants will only do it for a large order.
- A different body, for example porcelain instead of a ceramic wall body, means moving the order to another line or another plant.
What the factory needs from you
The factory's design team will ask for high-resolution artwork at the finished tile size. A low-resolution image from a website will print soft or blurred. If you do not have a designer, many factories will develop a design from a reference photo or a physical tile you send.
Ask for the number of faces. A face is one printed variation of the same design. Natural-stone looks need several faces so the floor does not show the same tile repeating every metre. A design with too few faces looks cheap once it is laid.
Expect a trial run, often called a strike-off. The factory prints and fires a few tiles of your design on its own line and sends them to you. Printed colours on screen and fired colours on tile always differ, so approve the fired tile, never the PDF.
Once you approve, keep one signed sample at the factory and one with you. That sample is the standard the production run is checked against. Our guide on getting tile samples from Morbi covers how to send and track them.
Minimums, timing and ownership
A custom design ties up line time for a set-up and a trial, so factories usually want more of it than a catalogue design. The per-design minimum is set by each factory. Our article on the tile MOQ in Morbi explains how container and per-design minimums work.
Allow extra time. Made-to-order production commonly takes 3 to 6 weeks after the advance and approved samples. A custom design adds the artwork and trial stage before that clock starts.
Agree ownership in writing before you send artwork. Designs travel fast in a large cluster, and a good one can appear in another factory's catalogue within months. Ask for a short written agreement that the design is yours, that the factory will not sell it to anyone else, and for how long. It will not stop every copy, but it gives you a clear position if your design turns up elsewhere.
Some factories charge for development, some fold it into the order, and some waive it for a repeat buyer. Ask for it as a separate line in the written quote so you can compare plants fairly.
How we help
We shortlist plants whose lines can run your design, manage the artwork and trial stage, check the strike-off against your brief, and put the exclusivity terms in writing. During production we check the run against the signed sample. If you have a design in mind, book a free sourcing review.