Anatomy of a Shirt

Below is an article done for Images Magazine UK about one of our more challenging shirts.

Artwork

Art was completed by one of the best in the industry. Jeremy has a great eye for t-shirt layout on top of his ability to draw freehand. His text layout is second to none and we’re very fortunate to have him in our corner. The shirt design was created in photoshop using a Wacom tablet and done in multiple layers.

Separations

This was the first shirt design we sepped manually. Before this design everything was done with automated software. Automated software works well from a production standpoint, but it can leave your prints looking washed out. I practiced sepping the design several times until I was happy with each channel. It was a great learning process that resulted in a very colorful print.  The shirt is extremely vivid when compared to past prints.

Screens

We used high mesh, high tension screens from shur-loc. The base, green, blue, red, yellow, and white were all done on 230 mesh. The black was on a 305 to help pickup that extra detail. We were limited by our 8 color press at the time so we had to blend the yellow, red, and black to create the brown in the design. The screens were created using the M&R STEII which also is a big factor in the awesome detail.  We’ve invested heavily in great equipment to provide the best shirt for our customers.

Press

The printing was done on an 8 color sportsman. It’s a great press, but being limited to 8 heads, and 2 of them being white leaves a lot to be desired. Everything was printed wet on wet and we really had to consider the amount of dot gain on the black and red screens. During the separation process I created the channels so they looked good in photoshop, then dialed the black and red screens back a little as I knew there would be build up. In the end I was very pleased with the result and proud of what our 8 color sportsman produced.  The print ran smooth and the shirts looked outstanding.

Overall

This was a great design to begin with and I couldn’t wait to print the shirts! It was well worth investing the time to sep manually. The washed out look of automated seps was non existent in the print and I was extremely pleased with the outcome. For companies starting out I would strongly recommend purchasing a press with at least 8 heads. This was a challenging print that wouldn’t have worked on a 6 color machine, but the 8 heads did it justice.

 

 

Shirts to Check Out

1305775 Under Armour Tee – The performance tee that started it all

1305776 Under Armour Long Sleeve – The long sleeve version of the shirt that started it all

A4 Performance Shirts – Performance Shirts similar to Under Armor, but friendlier to your wallet!

 

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Recent Review

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