The Ink Kitchen

Andy Anderson is one of the best printers this industry has ever seen.  I love that his approach to printing is art/craft first and science second.  Andy’s latest article in Impressions is well worth the read.

Screenprinting shops are notoriously filthy and disorganized.  Most screen-printers seem not to mind (including most managers and owners).  Why is this?  It’s unprofessional, it’s gross, it’s unsafe, it creates an underlying tension that stresses everyone out (whether they know it or not).  I wonder if one were to quantify all the lost productivity caused by filthy and…

I should start by saying that I do not consider Motion Textile to be a discharge printer, but we’re pretty damn good at discharge printing.  To clarify, I’m saying that there are printers whom primarily print waterbase/discharge and do so very proficiently, efficiently, and profitably.  I think the only way to get to that place is…

Brands of the World has been an invaluable resource for me for many years.  Ever been desperate for a specific brand logo in vector format that for some reason your customer just can’t get their hands on (after all the Coca-Cola logo is only available in lo-res jpg format) and yet they still want the print to look perfect and…

It is a thrill to see your printed shirts in public, whether just somebody rocking it walking down the street in some odd place or maybe on a famous person in a public place. Yesterday Shawn Thornton of the Boston Bruins hockey team was rocking our Farmers Kick Ass shirt at a charity event. Not just…

Recently a long-time customer called to say that we had misprinted an order.  The issue was that the yellow ink on this print run did not match the yellow ink that we had used in multiple print runs previously.  In such cases we always request that our customer send back a sample from the mis-printed print run,…

A pesar de ser un show digital, la impresión digital directa no ha impedido otras formas de decoración, ni ha parado la innovación de otra manera. La transferencia es una de las técnicas que tienen más fuerza, aquí vemos nuevas formas o mejoras para las transferencias. Éstas resisten la migración del tinte o pueden ser…

FESPA digital 2014 had all kinds of decoration innovation and another we saw was old school toner based transfers, with a bright white toner for dark garments.

Although a digital show, direct digital printing has not stopped other forms of decoration, nor stopped innovation in other forms. Transfers were one form going strong, here we see new forms or improvements for transfers that resist dye migration or can stretch with the new fabrics, apply to odd shaped substrates (shoes!) or machines that enable quick…

Why a car in an environmental post? We rented this Audi A1 to make our factory tours while at the FESPA in Germany. Great sporty car, no problem doing 110 MPH or more on the Autobahn. However, its diesel engine also had this baby getting almost 60 miles per gallon. It also has innovative environmental features such…