New article from Marshall Atkinson and atkinsontshirt.com: Last week I spoke to a shop owner that completed a rush contract screen-printing order.  It was a simulated process, two location job for a repeat customer.  They do work for them constantly, and this particular job had to go out in a hurry.  The client’s artist sent them the art, with each of the colors for the files already separated.
Because of the rush, and the fact that the client sent separated art, the shop neglected to send an art approval confirming the image.  The art department didn’t think to verify the separations matched the provided mock up.  The problem the shop faced was that an item in the design separations was the wrong color.  Nobody caught the mistake until it was out the door and already on an UPS truck.  Ut oh.
So what do you do now, my client asked?

Lon Winters believes there are two truths in this industry:
1. Garbage in, garbage out.
2. If you control the screen, you control the process.
The president of the Graphic Elephants screen printing studio and Print This industry consulting firm has developed a reputation for high-end, specialty applications after a couple of decades in the business, but he’ll tell anyone that even the most complex jobs are all about the basics.
“Once you control the process, then you can start to manipulate,” he says, “so that’s what we do: take pieces within the process and start manipulating them to get a varied result with the different thicknesses and ink deposits, glitter applications, and foils.”

In a recent article published by Impressions magazine, Kieth Stevens gives us some tips on how to properly use a squeegee.

I visit hundreds of print shops a year — teaching, training and sharing. I also visit a few trade shows and distributors’ open houses. One thing I see in the trade shows and open houses that I rarely see in professional print shops is printers who are pushing the squeegee instead of pulling it.

Now, I’m not saying that there isn’t a time and place for pushing — I sometimes push the squeegee instead of pulling it when I need to move an image a tad in that upward direction in order for my registration to line up correctly without having to re-adjust the entire screen. However, those times are more the exception rather than the norm.

What are some considerations for choosing UV-safe bulbs, and how important are they for my screens? This was a question posed by a Printwear reader, and here is Kieth Stevens’ response:

The design is completed and approved. Your customer has selected the type and color of the shirt. Now it’s time to create a product that reflects the comp you provided to the customer.

The conversion from art to separations is the first important conversion needed to achieve this goal. The most popular programs used in the apparel screen-print industry are Photoshop (raster program), Illustrator, and CorelDraw (both vector design programs). These programs provide the opportunity for a skilled separator to create excellent separations. To achieve the best results, the artist must be diligent to deliver some minimum requirements with the design before going through the separation process.

MagnaColours has announced the opening of its training arm, MagnaAcademy. Designed to develop skills and in-depth knowledge of water-based screen printing for printers of all levels, MagnaAcademy offers courses composed of modules that can be taken online or at the company’s headquarters in South Yorkshire, England.

New article from Marshall Atkinson and atkinsontshirt.com: 

gig e-con-o-my noun •  "A labor market characterized by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work as opposed to permanent jobs." Most businesses don’t think that they fit this description.  However, as markets become more unpredictable, many different companies are faced with working this way.  

In an article that was recently featured in Screen Printing Magazine’s October/November 2016 issue, and on Screenweb.com, Keith Stevens gives us some tips on printing on today’s modern fabrics. Here is Part 3 of the article.
Popular, profitable, and often a pain in the neck to print, the latest fashion fabrics can present quite a challenge to shops accustomed to printing standard plastisols on all-cotton garments.

New article from Marshall Atkinson, atkinsontshirt.com: Speed. What is the average production turn-time your shop? Remember Rocky II, the movie? Sure, 1979 was a long time ago...but I'll bet you remember this one.  Rocky fights a rematch with Apollo Creed, and has to go through an uncomfortable change to defeat the champ.  The trick is simply to become a faster fighter.  

William Shorter shares tips and insider information on Haze Removal, by taking a look at identification of different stains and ghost images and the best methods for their removal.