Question: Our printing doesn’t seem to be getting better, what are the best ways to go about improving our printing abilities? Answer: My two cents? Stop being penny wise and pound foolish. Saving twenty dollars and buying a gallon of inexpensive but inferior emulsion is a terrible idea. Inferior emulsions don’t have the resolution…
Maybe it is because we do a great deal of creative and difficult printing, or maybe I was a jerk in a past life and this is my karma, but for some reason I get to see a whole lot of bad art for t-shirts. The worst of it often is not only bad, but…
I’ve seen spelling error’s that have been viewed by as many as a dozen people and nobody catches it. This has to be one of those type of errors. “Purpose” is not only spelled wrong, the word spelled correctly is directly under it. Ouch. Ouch. Double ouch. However, I sayeth that thou should casteth no…
That green leaf in the photo isn’t arty, it is wrong. It is out of registration. Why are things out of register on your prints? Oh, let me count the possible ways… It wasn’t registered properly by the press operator. Start with the obvious, believe me I have seen folks do crazy stuff when all…
At ISS Long Beach in January Tom and I did some seminars in the SanMar classroom on printing on Garment Dyed shirts. A few of our words of advice: use good platen adhesive to promote good registration, and re-apply more often than usual. At my shop we mostly use Albatross Brush Tac and then some Albatross spray when…
Today we have a guest post, including a sobering video, from our buddy Paul Riva (Apparel Graphics in Oakdale, CA) regarding shop safety: It pays to play safe. Today I was informed of an incident in the shop. Nobody died, limbs are intact and there were no trips to the ER… this time. As the video…
If you hang out with any emulsion company, you will hear them talk about the importance of each step of the reclaim process. EVERY STEP. I have seen so many forum posts about how degreasing is a waste of time. C’mon people! The screen is the most important part of screen printing, let’s treat it…
ISS Long Beach 2016 was a total blast and of course the Know-It-All’s were there, creating and capturing the action. Here are some of the sights and sounds from the show. Enjoy!
Do you utilize actions and scripts in your art department? If so, have you really automated your process to the fullest extent? Over the years we have implemented many scripts and actions throughout our workflow but we certainly have not taken a broad approach and completely redesigned our process. Why not? Time! Yes, it would take time, patience, and…
We were asked by SanMar to create and print a design with their new Port & Company® – Essential Pigment-Dyed Tee – PC099. Distressed graphics printed with discharge ink would always be my first choice when working with pigment-dyed tees as the soft hand and subtle “grunge” is a natural fit for the washed and faded look inherent to the garment. The…
