Grady and Rj came through last week for another round of screen prints.
Their last job was a one color white discharge print on Charcoal Gray Next Level 6210 60/40 blend. This round of tee’s had a 4 color pastel graphic just in time for summer fun in the sun.
We started with great art.
They had their designer do an incredible summer island treatment on the ypr logo with 4 different pastel colors. we scaled the graphic to a size that would fit on the smallest to the largest garment. They Choose to go with the same brand of t-shirt as they did on the last order, and added tank tops to the mix for variation.
The ink makes the print.
there was some deliberation in regards to the ink. People are often drawn to Water Based Ink when I show them a sample, but always seem hesitant to choose that ink. They think the pigment will fade. Truth is the new ink technology make’s water based ink extremely wash fast. these print’s often last longer than the tee itself. at the end of the day they decided to go with water based ink to keep the light weight feel of the next level shirts. We Pantone matched the inks, and started press set up.
Time to burn some screens.
Water based ink requires adding a stencil hardener to the emulsion after washout. this prevent emulsion breakdown due to water saturating and softening the stencil over the course of the job. after that set up is the same as always. burn and expose screens, register colors on press, test print, print.
Water Based ink loves to dry in the screen.
Water based ink can drive even the most same manual printers crazy because the ink wants to dry in the screen. We have a specific system when it comes to setting up and printing W.B. ink. These tricks require 2 people but prevent ink drying in screen. and keep our hair from premature pigment loss.
These babies look sick.
When all is said and done the prints look bright yet comfortable without that thick plastic feel that plastisol ink gives. I hope you guys enjoy rocking them at the beach as much as we enjoyed sweating in the shop to print them for you 🙂
