OUR PROCESS
You will find that we have some of, if not the absolute highest standards of quality control in our industry.
Starting With The Art
We have in house graphic designers who process uploaded art to make it print-ready. Screen printed artwork needs to be “broken down” and color separated, to allow the art to be “rebuilt” color by color on your garments. This process can be tedious in some cases, and must be carried out very carefully. Artwork also needs to be modified sometimes to create a “base layer” for the ink to sit on in order to make it more vibrant on dark garments. The base layer is often slightly smaller than the colors on top in order to leave room for error in the printing process, this is called “choking”. Many shops choke their base layer a significant amount to make printing run smoothly, you may see this on some of your own clothing, however we have worked hard, over a long period of time to develop a printing process in order to minimize the amount of choking needed. This leaves a cleaner, tighter looking print that will stand out against any other.
Color
While we are separating we look very closely at artwork with unspecified colors, and mindfully choose pantone colors that will translate appropriately to the print. Colors can look very different between different mediums and it is important to take this into consideration. Many other printing companies use a limited amount of “shop colors” that may not come close to what you had in mind. Whereas we have built up a literal wall of every pantone color, and consistently mix and refill each color at no additional cost. Many other shops also resort to digital printing or even CMYK screen printing that result in dingy, dull looking colors. We take color accuracy, and vibrancy, very seriously and always strive to meet our own high standards.
Printing
After artwork is separated and approved, it moves to production, where the garments are first counted in and paired with their screens, inks, and documentation before moving to press. Each job is set up on press according to its own specifications, and test prints are first run to approve color, coverage, print size, registration, etc… These test prints are brought to a representative to thoroughly check each detail before approving a second print to be made on one of the customers garments. Then one of these is brought back to the representative to do a second, and final approval before continuing production. While the job is on the press, the Press Operator and Press Helper are checking each garment and print, maintaining the highest consistency possible.
Shipping
Screen printed shirts need to be heat treated in order for the ink to cure, in order to do this each garment is placed on a long dryer when it comes off the press. At the end of the dryer we have employees recounting each order and triple checking for registration, coverage, and other issues before moving the order to the next location, or ultimately boxing up the order and shipping it off to our happy customers!
