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Soft feel T shirt prints and foil

Steve — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:07:18 +0000

When screen printing Mixed Martial Arts T-shirts soft prints are nearly always a requirement. Screen printed foils are currently a common request.

So we are now offering foils using a phthalate free adhesive, when used in combination with waterbased inks no foil resist additives are required, the additional heat pressing also adding some colour intensity to discharge prints. It has taken some time to get the correct screen mesh, pre curing, heat press pressures, temperatures and pressing times correct, but we now seem to have relatively quick production time and a consistent final result.

T shirt printing by advertees

Good single colour Screen printing deals

Steve — Sat, 08 May 2010 16:38:43 +0000

As previously mentioned in this blog short runs of screen printed T shirts are best kept to one or two ink colours if cost is a consideration. Each design colour in screen printing requires its own screen, and film. On a run of 300+ shirts these costs seem relatively small, but on a smaller run of 50 T shirts these costs are not very well absorbed. This can result in some very shocked responses from people requesting 4 colour front and back prints across 50 T-shirts.

Yet good promotional T shirts do not require the whole colour spectrum to make an impression, a good bold single colour graphic in one place on the shirt is often more memorable, and more eye catching than multiple multi coloured graphics in every position imaginable. So perhaps less is more? and a lot cheaper too.

On this basis Advertees are now promoting cheap single colour printing T-shirt Deals on short print runs of 50 and 100 shirts. The emphasis is on quality of print and T shirt as we think promotional should not mean disposable, Advertees think cotton is to precious a resource to be used in such a wasteful way, this is also a reason to avoid building diposability into a promotional design, people will wear a T shirt they grow fond of until they are thread bare, this is obviously very good long term promotion. So rather than supplying a cheap disposable product, Advertees have been able to bring the cost down through the quick set up times they are now able to achieve.

Screen Printing foil on T-shirts

Steve — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:39:16 +0000

Advertees will finally introduce foil to the range of screen printing techniques on offer, just a few more trial runs using different screen meshes and pressing times and we are good to go. This is not the most environmentally friendly technique as foils are supplied on a carrier which is discarded, but the effect is not one which can be achieved by any printing inks we have tried so far, and as the number of requests we recieve about foils has grown in recent years, we thought it was time to give it a proper try out. The technique is very well suited to our set up and is ideal for printing alongside water based inks.

Our first try out was using gold foil as part of a rough raster graphic, to see the effect of cracks, splatters and half tones. The details came up well, and therefore screen printing has obvious benefits over the cad cut foils. The process was certainly not as time consuming as we had anticipated.

So our first impressions are good. Our next graphic will be a vector graphic. Clean edges and a super smooth finish is no doubt a harder look to master, but we are confident this will be achieved very soon. The only real problem we had was trying to photograph the print for this blog, this design was printed on an ocean blue Gildan Ultra, but the foil has played havoc with the camera, hence the sky blue and other variants on display here.

Foils and glue are available from Textile and graphics

e mail: textileandgraphics@yahoo.co.uk

Tel:+44 116 253 0090

Web: http://www.textileandgraphics.co.uk

good advice available on all products supplied.

Are Retensionable frames worth the time and money??

Steve — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:24:45 +0000

Possibly the only reasons any screen printer can give for not introducing retensionable frames to their workshop would be the costs. And all the time involved in maintaining mesh tensions. Having used Newman frames for nearly a year now, we can only wonder where we would be without them. Retensionable frames have surpassed all our expectations with many unforeseen benefits being added to the list of ‘fors’ and the ‘against’ list has now been thrown in the bin. First and foremost we invested in Newman screens for faster set up times, using the pin registration system. This has worked like a charm not only in reducing set up times, but also the knock on effect of a better organized art department who now take full responsibility for the artworks placement on the screen.

More accurate placement of artwork on screens also allows for more control of halftones, high mesh tensions allow for finer meshes when printing water based inks, these two things combined have allowed us to produce screens extremely quickly, with very predictable results. We are never left trying to compensate for screen errors on press, our T-shirt printers are now faster, and much happier. The times where these improvements really make themselves known are on repeat orders where retensionable frames were not in use, this 3 colour water based discharge print previously had to be registered by eye, and then, after the first print, adjustments were made with great haste for fear of ink drying in the screen. Once up and running many adjustments were made to print and flood speeds to compensate for dot gain, or not enough ink down. This week we put the screens in their predetermined positions filled them with ink and printed a test print which was spot on registration. The job was then printed with zero fine tuning of print flood speeds. A retensionable frame removes so much frustration on press (especially when working with water based inks in the summer) that the time required to maintain them is more than worth while.

This print was produced for The Alarm who are presently touring the UK.

Advertees spring clean complete

Steve — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:19:37 +0000

February into March is always spent making preparations for the busy season, and this year has been a good one in terms of getting things done. Machines have been fully overhauled replacement valves, o-rings and a good dose of grease make a big difference to overall performance.

We have also made a stretching table for our Newman Frames (it consists partly of old aluminium stretch and glued screens) which now enables us to achieve a consistent 40 newtons without any of the mesh distortions that can so easily occur when stretching by hand. Nearly all of our stretch and glues have been auctioned off on e bay, all of them sold within 2 days (it seems there is an army of eager screen printers out there looking for used kit). We kept some screens back for possible projects similar to the Newman stretching table, as box aluminium seems to have so many uses. But in terms of screen printing it is now Newman roller frames exclusively , we love them.

With equinox and the cold weather now officially behind us we are feeling very optimistic about the weeks to come.

Growing interest in water based screen printing.

Steve — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:41:58 +0000

Slowly there is a growing awareness to the advantages of a water based screen print. Customers are also showing a certain amount of understanding regards its limitations, and prefer to be flexible in their requirements rather than lose the obvious benefits of a soft dyed in the cotton print.

The more use we make of water-based inks, the more we realise some of the benefits offered from a production point of view. In the first 2 months of 2010 we have seen significant growth in customer enquiries specific to water based inks (and surprisingly further enquiries from fellow screen printers) .

This is an incredibly positive start to the year, even to leave the environmental benefits out of the equation, screen printing with these products sees added customer satisfaction and a very high rate of return custom. Many of the prominent online T shirt printers have now stated they offer this service, lets hope this continued growth in interest and use of water based inks will lead to faster product development, and availability.

Screen printed T-shirt for Enochian Theory

Steve — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:30:00 +0000

Prog Metal Band Enochian Theory recently supplied a very challenging design to us. We immediately thought the design would be suited to the waterbased bleaching method known as discharge. The distinctive artwork was created by Robin Portnoff for the bands most recent album, and we are very pleased to have had the opportunity of reproducing this illustration as a screen print on T shirts.

Prior to this design we had never attempted a 6 colour simulated process using water based discharge inks, a job like this can present so many problems (colour is especially difficult to control), but when it works the final result cannot be compared to any other method of getting designs on to a Tshirt. The result is a fully ironable, breathable print. The earthy tones which are an inherent part of discharge prints, match this particular design perfectly.

The newly installed TAS dealt with this job brilliantly. We are already starting to wonder how we managed pre TAS. This job was run without flash cures, so an incredibly quick print run and a good energy saving. Newman screens also played a very important part of getting this job done without any hiccups.

Enochian Theory are now on their way to the Prog Power festival in Holland, with some UK shows on their return. Be sure to check out the bands web site, and myspace pages. There is also some great you tube footage. We like them a lot, a full 10 out of 10 from us. If you want to support this hard working band, buy their album, and if you like what you hear why not get the T shirt too.

Formaldehyde Free discharge printing on T-shirts

Steve — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:01:52 +0000

Screen printing light colours on to dark T shirts is unlikely to become environmentally friendly any time soon (our recommendation to anyone who has a strict environmental policy is to print on to lighter T-shirts using clear water based inks) but discharge screen printing is one of the options being touted as a better alternative to plastisol inks. The majority of manufacturers supply a solution which contains small traces of Formaldehyde, they also uses heavy metals. These formulas are notorious for their unpleasant odours, and the required wash before wear label is a no no for most retailers.

Magnacolours have produced an alternative to these products, a discharge ink free from Formaldehyde and heavy metals. The NF formula performs very well, t-shirts printed with this ink can be worn immediately, the print has a soft hand and good colour. We have used then when printing by hand and on the auto, they are very user friendly in both situations. The draw backs are the same as those experienced when using products that use Formaldehyde . Very long curing times are required (but no flash curing, so not necessarily less energy efficient), and we think there is also an unpleasant odour, despite the manufacturer claim “No harmful or distracting odors in the workplace”.

The ink only has a limited life of 4 hours, but an organised workshop should have no problem dealing with this. The lifespan of the ink does create waste, if ink use cannot be determined accurately. We think discharge is not a suitable solution for smaller orders.

So overall the Non Formaldehyde inks seem to be the right choice when discharging T-shirts.

Some of the reasons to choose NF discharge.

• No formaldehyde added during discharge process.
• No harmful or distracting odors in the workplace.
• Garments can be worn immediately after printing-without washing or warnings.
• Super soft finish with excellent color fastness and durability.
• PVC, Phthalate and APEO free formulations. Meets all key international environmental
standards, see Technical Data Sheets for details.
• Superb discharge and color development on suitable garments.
• PC color mixing system support.
• Low viscosity inks print easily on manual and automatic presses.

Frenzy in the ball pool

Steve — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 09:09:37 +0000

This T shirt design from Chris Lanyon speaks for itself. A four colour screen print using opaque waterbased inks from Grafco. The colour came up good and bright, but we think we could have put more ink down with a coarser screen mesh.

Cheap T-shirt printing can be good

Steve — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:09:10 +0000

Making money go further is likely to become a necessity in the very near future for many businesses, but promotion of your business can not stop, it is an essential part of any company who wish to maintain growth, so how can we save money on a promotional T-shirt run. Here are a few tips on saving money when ordering promotional wear.

Use a white T shirt. White T shirts are cheaper, they are also easier and quicker to print than coloured T shirts. To achieve bright coloured prints on Black T shirts a white underbase is required adding to your set up costs. White T shirts can be printed in vivid colour and make use of water based inks at no extra cost, water based ink is ideal for large print areas as it is soft to touch and can be ironed, large designs do not cost extra.
Keep the design simple, every colour in your design adds to the cost of production, one or two colour designs are the most effective and memorable, it could be worth your while investing in a good logo design, it may save money in the long term, the extra costs of reproducing a complex design on vehicles and signage are worth considering.
The number of print positions on a shirt. This is where you can easily double the cost of your promotional Tshirts. Do you really need to print the sleeves and the more popular than ever web address on the hem of the t shirt? A front and back print is more than enough to get your message across, and a strong brand should be found easily on the web if promoted correctly.
Take a good look around at whats on offer, get a full breakdown of prices, screen printers have a bit of a reputation for forgetting to mention additional charges such as screens and artwork. Many screen printers have good offers on larger print runs especially on white T shirts, we always have them in stock and they present no print production problems.

Remember, single colour large T shirt graphics can be extremely effective, katharine Hamnett is testament to this. We always give the first screen free of charge on orders of more than 10 shirts, so even a short run of T shirts does not need to break the bank. Cheap T shirt printing does not have to mean poor quality T shirt printing, less can be more, good design is key.

Glow in the dark T shirt print

Steve — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:41:41 +0000

Glow in the dark ink is a combination of a pigment (looking like a strange planet in the picture above) and a binder, either plastic or water-based binders can be used. For the best results the ink needs to be printed through a coarse mesh to allow the large phosphorescent particles to pass through the screen. It is also advisable to put down a very good white base as an under-print.

This T shirt design by Simon Allan makes great use of this technique.

You can purchase the angler fish T shirt from Nogunarmy.com plus many more excellent designs.

T shirt printing special effects

Cornwall film festival

Steve — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:57:02 +0000

Yesterday saw the start of the Cornwall film Festival (I intended to write this post before the event) running from the 6th to the 9th of November and showcases Cornwalls talented film makers, as well as featuring some international films.

This years Screen Actions, is a two day event for young people, combining workshops, screenings and partys, last year saw 300 young people take part from schools all over Cornwall.

Board shorts is the Festival’s board sports film event, held at the Sandsifter Bar in Gwithian on the 8th November. As well as screenings there will be live music from Mark Kermode’s skiffle band The Dodge Brothers and local DJs Sir Vinyl of the Fattest.

This is a great event and although I am unable to make any of the screenings this year, we were fortunate enough to be able to supply some printed organic T shirts, we used water based screen printing inks for all the designs. The designs were created by A-Side a graphic design and illustration studio based in Falmouth Cornwall.

New T shirts and Hoodies from the Rebus Collective

Steve — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:35:00 +0000

“The Number One Cornish clothing label” The Rebus Collective release new Screen printed T shirts and Hoodies. Rebus love their Graffiti, Hip Hop and street clothing. This collective of DJ’s, artists and writers are responsible for some seriously interesting happenings in Cornwall, the likes of which we have rarely seen before. Beat boxes, break dancing and graffiti alive and kicking in Cornwall.

Hoodies printing

Need a logo designer? Or just advice?

Royzy — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:00:29 +0000

When you walk down the street it is easy to spot and recognize a good logo, because that is what makes a good logo. A good logo is easy to remember, recognize, describe and should be effective without colour, at any size and preferably look great on a t shirt. The terms sound quite simple, but are not in reality and it is essential to research thoroughly before setting yourself upon such a task.

Whether you are looking to hire a logo designer or just want some advice on designing your own, be sure to check out these five friendly and very talented designers.

1. David Airey

David was one of the first really interesting and responsive designers I discovered online. He has some great articles on his blog and even shows his workings and the processes he went through for various jobs in his portfolio. Click on the image below to check out the process he went through for this example.

An example of David Airey's work.

http://www.davidairey.com/

2. Jacob Cass

Jacob is another designer who has a real dedication to helping people with informative articles and responding to comments. He seems to have a keen eye for current design trends. Even at just 20 years old and part way through university, he is well up with the best of them.

An example of Jacob Cass's work.

http://justcreativedesign.com/

3. Graham Smith

Graham has over 20 years of experience in commercial design and it really shows in his work. With so much experience, he is sure to have a great knowledge when it comes to design. Be sure to check out his extensive portfolio.

An example of Graham Smith's work.

http://imjustcreative.com/

4. Brian Yerkes

As well as owning it, Brian is the creative director of Brian Joseph Studios. He is well known in the creative networking area online and has a friendly writing style and some good tutorials on his personal site.

Examples of Brian Yerkes' work.

http://www.brianyerkes.com/

5. Chris Spooner

If you check out Chris’s portfolio, you can see how versatile he is, from logos to web, to print. He has some great tutorials and plenty of relevant resources on his design blog, including how he made the MyNitelife logo below.

Example of Chris Spooner's work.

http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/

There are so many amazing designers out there, so make sure you look around and do your research. A lot of great designers can be found through the designers above if you have a good look through their sites.

Have fun, and good luck.

Roy Nottage

5 colour index separation and waterbased ink

Steve — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:57:54 +0000

Colour separation requiring gradual tonal change. This kind of gradient would normally be achieved by a uniform halftone as it is easier to achieve smooth results, but we thought we would give indexing a chance.

Although indexing is not recommended for a subtle gradient, it does eliminate the problem of moire or screen clash, and when we are using coarse screens for a waterbased print this is very useful, we processed this design at 160 ppi and placed it on a medium mesh so we do not put too much ink down, but if your screens are coated well you could put the same half tone on a 34 mesh count if required.

The random dot will go on any mesh count with no moire, but how smooth is the gradient when printed.

Well take a look, obviously where the colours are similar in tone the transition is barely perceptible, you can see the dot on the dark blue to light blue gradient but we think it is still a very good result, it would have benefited only very slightly with the addition of another blue, we do not think it is worth the extra screen on a shorter run of shirts.We are certain the crew at global surf adventures will be more than happy with their T-shirt print.

index separations for waterbased T-shirt printing

Zest series introduce more designs

Steve — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:54:15 +0000

Zest series of St Ives Cornwall introduce new designs to the range, these brightly coloured T shirts and bold designs from young designer Kieran Whitefield are already in demand, visit Zestseries and buy the T shirts on line, you can also take a look at some of Cornwalls homegrown freestyle BMX video.

Waterbased T-shirt printing

21st Century Tiger

Steve — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:17:37 +0000

Three colour waterbased index print on organic T shirts.

A partnership of the zoological society of London and Global Tiger Patrol is 21st Century Tiger. Raising funds for wild tiger conservation globally and supporting more than 30 projects across six countries, their contribution is now over £1 million. The 21st Century Tiger web site is full of information and a must to read.