The other day I received these promotional Nano samples from our friends at Hanes. I was impressed, for once, to receive decorated garment samples from a manufacturer which actually incorporated tasteful design and quality printing. Well done Hanes, well done.
I love simple yet effective printing techniques. Overprinting semi-opaque inks creates a level of transparency which reveals a percentage of the underlying color. It’s simple, but not as easy as it seems. A surprising amount of consideration went in to determining print order, flash positions, ink formulations, etc., to pull-off the effect.
A good customer recently sent me a quote request for a large volume program. Due to the size of the program, pressure from the “end user”, and because it was “commodity printing”. I was told that the job was going out for bid and that I needed to be very competitive. Being put in a bid situation is…
We’re pretty high-tech around here (well, at least by textile screen-printing standards). I’d love to say that our screen coating methodology follows suit and show off pics or video of a bitchin’ auto-coater, but I can’t. When it comes to screen coating, we still do it the old school way. It’s not that I don’t…
Part 2 of 5 about fashion trends in the screenprinting world. Hanes reports increasing interest in the soft fabrics of their Nano collection, whether t-shirts or hoodies. This is true of both unisex and women’s shirts. Thinner fabrics are gaining traction, and their lightweight Nano hoodie has particularly been a favorite. Folks seem to know…
Most retail lines understand the value in premium garments over basics and will thusly charge accordingly (think hoodies over tees, etc). Why is this not so with printing? We all know that it requires more work and costs more to produce a full color print over a single color print and most of us charge accordingly…
Guest Post by our good pal Brett Bowden of Printed Threads in Tejas. A few extra comments were added by the IK. The trend of foil has lasted longer than any of us thought it would. We added foil application to our toolbox at some point when one of our clients approached with an order…
Ah yes, the SGIA 2014 show. In Part 1 I made the point that boring can be ok. Putting solid machines and solid supplies on display is not such a bad idea. I’m usually skeptical about new wondrous devices and magical supplies that will solve all my problems and make me a millionaire anyway. Put…
Besides a way to make money, printing shirts is a way to do some good. We do shirts for my local Amnesty International chapter and they make money that pays for stamps and all kinds of things for the volunteers to do human rights work. Recently we did some dye migration testing and did some…
I just can’t stand to see an automatic press running dog slow because of a double squeegee stroke. Aside from special effects printing, water-base/discharge, the occasional quick fix on a small run, or a specialty substrate, there is rarely a legitimate need to run a double squeegee stroke. Today however, we are running a basic spot…
