t shirt printing cornwall » Photography

Tony Plant scores another cover shot

Steve — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:50:12 +0000

Another cover shot from surftwisted photographer Tony Plant. Taken in the dead of winter on the south coast in freezing temperatures, Tonys commitment to photography from the water paid off. Take a look at the surftwisted web site for more surf photography from around the cornish coast.

and finally, the surftwisted launch.

Steve — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:22:43 +0000

It has been a long time coming, but finally, a new website has emerged from Twisted Towers, it features surf video and photography from contributors around the UK and Ireland and promises regular posts about the people and the waves of the UK. Although still not featuring a shop, so the Surftwisted T-shirt will remain an elusive piece of clothing for the forseeable future. We wish them the best of luck.

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.

Twisted T-shirts, elusive exclusive merchandise

Steve — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:21:36 +0000

Suftwisted are in the process of a radical change, an interesting site is threatening to emerge from twisted towers in the very near future. The killer site is going to take bevel, emboss and shadow photoshop filters to the next level, no text or photograph will be left untouched.

In depth profiles of team riders can be found at the site already if you are willing to take the time to find them, but no sign of any merchandise for sale so far, the twisted merchandise is becoming very exclusive kit, and as a result the price is being driven sky high.

Advertees’ errant designer renamed

Steve — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:20:14 +0000

Running a busy screen printing business with half the pre press department missing is not the easiest thing in the world. So we were very pleased to hear Julian (now known as Hulion) is safe and sound and enjoying the sites of Bolivia, this means there is a very good chance he will arrive back in blighty on schedule, and slot right back in to the daily grind of colour separating, screen making and design. We have requested he bring back a T-shirt for research purposes, and make notes for an in depth Blog post about his trip.

Surftwisted Organic T shirts and site revamp

Steve — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:38:14 +0000

Lots of talk about a big surftwisted revamp, it is rumoured Mr Plant is working hard on a killer site. The blog will undoubtedly remain anarchic and nonsensical as ever, but there is talk of the surftwisted main web site becoming one which has direction, organisation and focus, with contributions from sane and rational people. People who are not presently considered dangerous.

You can visit the twisted blog and have a go at name this spot Competitions, which are run on a semi regular basis, or even enter the tri annual shelf fest if you feel up to it. Better still, buy yourself a surftwisted T shirt! If you can figure out a way to purchase the Twisted merch, there is presently no online shop or retail outlet, you will need to track down Tony Plant, and if you are lucky, he will give you a screen printed organic T shirt in return for some cash. Good luck if you choose to pursue this.

R and R in Bolivia

Steve — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:39:39 +0000

Bolivia is not a well known spot for rest and relaxation, but this is where our designer has taken off to. We are not 100% certain if Julian has flown yet. Since booking the flight a few weeks ago it has been called off and then put on again a couple of times due to ‘unrest?’. If our designer does fly tonight we can look forward to a couple of interesting blog articles and some very pretty pictures on his return, assuming he does return!

I do not think this is the Copacabana Barry Manilow was referring to, and I am pretty certain Julian is going no where near this place either, but here is an opportunity to post some classy lyrics on our T shirt printing Blog.

Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl
But that was 30 years ago, when they used to have a show
Now it’s a disco, but not for Lola
Still in the dress she used to wear, faded feathers in her hair
She sits there so refined, and drinks herself half-blind
She lost her youth and she lost her Tony
Now she’s lost her mind!

At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa….don’t fall in love

(Copa) don’t fall in love
Copacabana
Copacabana

I thought ALL! of Bazzers songs were upbeat and happy, I was wrong.

Some favourite art and design sites

Julian — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 08:56:16 +0000

We`re all looking for inspiration. This is a small collection of some of our frequented haunts when things have run a little dry.

Design by Humans.

Slaterock

This is set up as a T shirt market place. Artists advertise their work to the public and, in competitions, DBH members vote for the best. The winners receive a big cash wad and feel pretty good about themselves – deservedly so, there is a lot of very thoughtful/skilful design work in here.
I said a lot, I meant to say a huge amount.

Ekosystem.

Is about street art of all types with a great gallery and blogs chock full of lovely images.

Paintalicious.

Natalie Shau

This blogzine throws the spotlight on contemporary art, with the emphasis on the macabre/burlesque.
There are some great links on this site, to some fascinating work including that of…

Gez Fry.

Gez Fry

He is a very good Manga-esque fantasy illustrator. Both characters and settings are superbly executed and highly imaginative.

Ticklebooth.

Craig Welch

This is a video site with links to a collection of what the site’s bloggers consider the best in online videos.
Dark, light, morbid, funny, take a look at any of these and you’re in for wonderful visuals as well as entertainment.

Kontra.

Kontra

Kontra (Francisco Garzon) produces a very ‘connected’, hybridisation of graffiti, techno and comic styles.
His colourful website has an unusual design – reminiscent of a much sprayed and postered wall.
He has an easy talent with complex imagery that floods the mind. Instant inspiration.

Cuban posters

Bachs

Here are celebrated Cuban posters, mostly from the 60’s and 70’s, in all their colour and vibrancy.
Revolution, cinema (take a look at the posters by Bachs – ‘ The Great St Trinians Train Robbery’ for one), politics, public holidays, human rights; it’s all here.
Lots of juicy blog links.

Jacob McMurray

Jacob McMurray

The Jacob McMurray blogspot shows a selection of the work of this Seattle based designer, publisher and curator. Book, poster, and exhibition design are all included and provide varied refreshment for the tired eye.

Pit Pilot Magazine Cover

Steve — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:11:48 +0000

A break from T-shirt printing for one moment to congratulate Tony and Troy on a fantastic cover shot. It seems a while ago now but finally some pictures from the Surftwisted Indo trip are starting to emerge. Apparently there was some doubt as to the true nationality of the twisted team rider, the name Troy Sinclair and Tony Plants surreal approach to all things, sparked a search for the supposed ‘Scottish’ surfer in an effort to ensure an authentic british rider was on the cover. More details within the pages of Pit Pilot. As yet this is all unconfirmed babble from Tony Plant, I look forward to a realworld perspective when I buy the magazine.

Sunflower

Steve — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:14:05 +0000

Despite all the rain, general gloom and the end of summer things have remained busy, so a the second installment to the epic waterbased articles project goes on hold, and in its place a late arrival outside the workshops, nearly all the sunflowers here are long passed their best, and then out comes this little beauty, and a little blue sky to top it off. Looks like Tony Plant may get the Pit Pilot cover with an Indo shot too, well done Tony and respect to surftwisted. Catch up soon.

T shirt printers loving flowers.

Index Separation Method for Screen Printing

Julian — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:02:50 +0000

This article is from our design and pre press department (Julian) and explains the index separation process.

‘We often get called upon to produce colour prints from photographs or complex illustrations involving gradations of tone. There are several ways of achieving this, including transfer printing and direct to garment (DTG) printing. The most commonly used techniques for screen printing however, are index and simulated process. The following is an insight into index separations.

We have taken this photo of a handsome rooster and opened it in Adobe Photoshop.

The first thing to do is to decide on the print size and to make sure that the image is at a suitable resolution for screen printing.

This one is going to be a proud 11 inches and 160 ppi is good for retaining subtlety and detail without being too fine for the screens.Next we convert the image to index mode (image/mode/indexed colour).

With the preview box un-ticked, We open a colour table (palette/custom) and progressively pick out colours from the photo that we intend to be the final ink colours used in printing this minor miracle of the avian world. Here`s how it`s done.The first little colour table box we leave white. As we are going to be printing with 6 colours on white shirts, we now have 6 boxes to fill. The first box (after white) will give us the green which is mostly apparent in the fuzzy background foliage. Click in the box, then go up to an area of pale green on the photo. Click here and the box in the palette turns this colour. Click OK on the select colour box (which has suddenly appeared) and the first colour is done. For the next box in the colour table, choose the bright magenta from somewhere in our boy`s comb. The rest of the colours are a rich ruddy brown from his neck feathers, bright red from his wattle, pale yellow from his beak and that inscrutable black from his little alert eye (actually any black will do).

Click OK on the colour table.Click OK on the indexed colour box. Hit Alt+Ctrl+0 to get a view at actual pixels, et voila! Your indexed rooster. You can see the difference between the original and the indexed versions if we get a close up look at that eye.

What`s clear here is that by indexing an image, we turn it into wee contiguous blocks of discrete colour all of which we will separate and then magically re-combine to form a multi-colour print to thrill the onlooker.First we have to separate those colours. How can this possibly be done? Here`s where you need some extra software, specifically an index separation plugin such as Screenprint Separator. We simply export the index image through SS (as an illustrator file). After a cup of tea and a one of Lucy`s delicious pancakes we go to Adobe Illustrator and open up the file just exported from Photoshop.

What we have now is our incomparable bird on screen with all the index colours fully separated on their own layers. At this stage other material such as vector graphics or lettering can be added to the design. The separations can now be printed out individually as pure black, onto film, with printer`s registration marks. To cut it short, each sep gets transferred onto a screen to be printed through onto the shirts with the appropriate colour ink and Bob`s your Uncle. Needless to say, the client is overcome with emotion.’

If you found our design department enlightened you in any way with this article please leave a comment

Sunshine and clean waves

Steve — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:46:49 +0000

At long last a combination of sunshine, swell and easterly winds, a great bank holiday weekend had to be extended a little to make the most of these conditions. Surf photography by Tony Plant.

Organic Tshirt printers

Surftwisted Indo

Steve — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:08:41 +0000

Well it has been a while now, the surf twisted Indo trip is in full swing. The word is Tony Plant and the crew have “eaten like kings and done lots of diving”. They are now heading off to a different location in search of some waves and surfers, to take some photos, do a bit of filming, and perhaps some more eating? We are looking forward to seeing the results and producing a new range of T shirts for 2008. Take a look at some of Tonys colder UK surf photography.
Advertees promotional clothing

Transatlantic Row

Steve — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:23:05 +0000

Another attempt is being made by Andy Clark to row the North Atlantic, this time accompanied by Pete Lumley a photographer from Mousehole. This is hopefully third time lucky for the sevenoaks Atlantic challenge, which has not been so lucky on previous attempts. The two rowers are planning a quiet send off from New York, they will row past the scilly isles in favour of Mousehole, where they hope to be greeted some time in August.

T shirt transfer printing by Advertees

Blackwater Studios

Steve — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:30:19 +0000

In addition to T shirt printing Advertees also exhibits photography and art within its design studios, we have been showing surf photography by Tony Plant for some time now and will continue to show the stunning large format prints in 2008. Joining Tony’s work this year will be paintings by Lucy Brown. Lucy’s large pastel and acrylic paintings are fresh and fantastical stories. A colourful happy world where kangaroos go snorkelling, and chickens converse with fish, these pictures have something for young and old alike. We welcome anyone who wants to call in and take a look.