I recently met with a perspective customer.  He was questioning the quality he was receiving from his current print provider and brought a couple of samples to get my take.  His issue was with the heavy “hand” on the white discharge ink in his printed designs.  “It looks great but it feels like shit, until you wash it, then it feels great”.  I took this as my opportunity to both educate the perspective customer and defend one of my screen-printing brethren.  I explained to the gentleman that if you want super bright white discharge printing you must use an ink with a heavy pigment-load.  Pigment in discharge ink, especially white pigment, has texture when printed but once the garment is washed the texture goes away.  If you are selling these shirts at retail and believe that this texture will hinder your sales than you should opt for a commercial wash post-production.  This process will cost.  Is it worth it?  The conversation went on but I ultimately explained that his current printer was doing a good job.

There is so much bad printing out there that when I come across a competitor’s work and it actually looks good, I don’t knock it.  If I can compete in other areas I do, but I won’t play on a customer’s unwarranted dissatisfaction.  As a bonus, this illustrates to the customer that you are a classy and trustworthy kind of person.  Score!