Happy birthday to the Helvetica font, 50 years old.
www.october.co.uk
tshirt printing, screen printing, embroidery
There are¬â€ a lot of great T-shirt graphics around¬â€ at the moment but they may not be sufficient in an increasingly competetive market. Ink techniques can be used to pull a range of visuals together into a coherent family of ideas, but a subtext or theme behind the artwork is important. Identifyable message and direction in a collection does seem to be translating into improved retail sales – maybe these days a bunch of nice pictures just isn’t enough?
The Quest is over a fifteen year search for quality urban headwear has ended in our discovery of the lost hats of Atlantis. During that time we repeatedly informed new fashion brands that we could not source a range of hats that we were proud of; those days are over, with the introduction of corduroys, pin-striped flannels, colourful knits, herringbones and distressed military styles amongst many others what are we going to go looking for now?
t shirt printing, screen printing, embroidery
There were two distinct possibilities: I was either sitting in a large trifle, or I had soiled my tweeds. The former seemed unlikely in a Toyota Landcruiser, so it was time to look worried and prepare my excuses. I turned to the T-shirt printer behind the wheel, an old friend. The thing is Dave and I began. What do you reckon to these heated seats he interrupted, keep your danglers toasty in a heavy frost. I breathed a sigh of relief, fiendishly clever those Japanese engineers.
Dave pushed Johnny Cash into the tape deck and we were bowling along nicely, talking about when Chelsea stormed the Trent end, the difficulty in finding a well fitting body warmer, women and the toilet seat conflict, and then he hit me with it, something more uncomfortable than a heated seat. Paul, what do you charge for 5000 two colours, onto black?
I shifted uneasily on the leather, it squeaked, and then I squeaked ‚é„é²Well it all depends Dave, on whether we were supplying the garment, if it needed a high white, maybe it´s got a tricky half tone, you know, all that sort of thing. I tailed off, felt guilty and then realised something important it isn´t me and Dave as competitors against each other, it´s me and Dave against the rest of the world. We inhale the same thinners, our hands glow a similar red, and at night while the Buyers at high street multiples sleep and dream their evil dreams, we both sometimes lie awake, the noise of the dryer still in our heads.
So I told him and it turns out he´d be way cheaper than us, and we got to talking about the wild difference in price in the market for a two colour print onto 5000 T-s, you could pay a commission printer 18p, or a broker supplying the garments ¬£2.00. We wondered how many sectors have that kind of percentage discrepancy for supplying the same end result. Five quid a screen, thirty quid, free screens; eighty quid a disk or a tenner emailed in from Poon Tang; zero percent on the garment or a hundred, free samples or non-refundable full price, and carriage what´s that?
So how do we come to these decisions? Finger in the air, a competitors price list, bullied by a customer into a cut price corner, yeah we do all that and then flip a coin, best of three. But how often do we start with a salary that´ll keep the kids in jaffa cakes, and then work backwards through a time and motion study to the price it HAS to be. It´s not me being mean mate, and I know you´ve been buying from us since we did the Frankie Says T-s, but it´s just the maths nothing personal.
Now in a minute I´m going to suggest what many will consider collateral plot loss, but just so you don´t think I´ve gone totally Tom and Jerry, I´m not recommending we turn into solicitors – I know we´ll never start the clock and charge when someone wants to spend two hours explaining their new range of printed dog sporrans for Highland Terriers. We´ll never ask for ¬£25 a letter, or invent a word called disbursements (from the Latin meaning to steal a man´s pants and wave them in his face).
But we could, brace yourselves, agree to always charge for screens, an amount for artwork, some carriage, mark up the garment, a little something for ink or thread changes.
The equipment engineers don´t have a problem with it:
Wake up – £40.00
Break wind (small test blast) £22.00
Break wind (full throttle with 4 note changes) – £44.00
Truckers Special en route- £4.50
2 hours – Leicester Forest East – trap 2 – £175.00
And so on
How did their industry manage to standardise all that stuff, and why can´t we are they cleverer than us? (don´t answer that). Is the answer that we need to get together somehow, and have a bit of a chat? And I don´t mean a golf day obviously the sight of one more embroidered polo and a lightning resistant umbrella and someone´s going to get a club up the rough. I don´t know maybe a curry in the glamorous hot spot home of the Printwear exhibition,
Birmingham.
We don´t have to tell each other how much we want to charge for the blood we sweat, but we might at least agree to charge for every drop. And you never know you might be after a second hand spot curer, I might need 50 screens, and someone might really understand discharge inks, all these discoveries could be made. There will be those who will think they´re giving away vital secrets, and if you are head of the MI6 T-shirt division you have my sympathy. I understand that if Al Qaeda figure out you have negotiated a 2% discount off a case of spray tack, it could destabilise the free world.
So what do you think, 50 Cobras and poppadums all round pass me the lime pickle mate.
www.october.co.uk
t-shirt printing, screen printing and embroidery
Chateau Roux have made it to their first birthday, and to celebrate they’re giving away individually numbered goody bags worth £20 to the first 100 customers. It’s been a successful year for the Soho inspired new label, living proof that it can be done – have a good one! www.chateauroux.co.uk
It´s not often new brands go to these lengths, but Chateau Roux have we used modal fabrics, heavily distressed, cut into custom fits, with washed out water based prints amongst plastisols and discharge effects. And it looks like it´s going to pay off fast emerging new band The Automatics didn´t just like the external designs, they were intrigued by the inside printed text, and placed their order. In Loaded magazines top ten must have T-s this summer, might be a good idea if you take a trip to http://www.chateauroux.co.uk
www.october.co.uk
t-shirt printing, screen printing and embroidery
The UK textile trade is dead. We don’t make anything here anymore; it’s all gone off shore. We couldn’t compete with the prices, minimum quantities have come down, and the quality of overseas design and manufacturing has improved.
It’s true, but there are still pockets of home grown resistance, plotting in un-marked industrial units, inserting the subversive ‘made in Britain’ label, and quietly exporting to the world.
A few spring to mind, but our work most recently with Baraj is particularly interesting. The t-shirt is part made, then deconstructed and re-built, incorporating layered fabrics, and well thought out stitching detail. Each T is then individually hand printed with overlaying colours, creating additional shades and ink textures. No two shirts are quite the same; this combined with the above processes means they command a premium value, and fit neatly into a full range of tailored men’s and women’s wear.
We’re seeing new UK labels, without fail, every week – small, flexible outfits, with strong design, commercial awareness and a decent chance. It’s not over yet….not by a long way.
www.october.co.uk
t-shirt printing, screen printing and embroidery
The collection from October Textile will not only see the introduction of new garments and fresh photography, the new look book, due off the press mid December 2006, features the first in a series of both Organic and Sustainable products.
Six core styles, three in bamboo and three in 100% organic cotton, will be introduced with more fabric weights and styles to follow April 2007. We intend to convert our entire Children´s and Baby Wear collection to organic within the next 3 months, and eventually our entire product line will incorporate organic fibres.
The ORGANIC COTTON label by October is a stock collection of the highest quality blank garments produced in 100% pure organically grown cotton. It is certified by the Control Union World Group, to the Organic Exchange 100 guidelines and the Skal International standards for sustainable textile production, which verify conformity with organic regulations of Europe, Japan and the United States. The cotton is cultivated in the Aegean region, wholly without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, in Living Soil that has been free from any toxic substances for at least 3 years and enriched by organic compost and other organic matter. This means that the soil and water supply are cleaner, which in turn protects the local population and wildlife. The resulting cotton fiber is processed into fabric without the use of harmful chemicals or bleach.
The SUSTAINABLE label centers round naturally sustainable BAMBOO which is gaining popularity in the fashion world due to its light, almost translucent yarn that has a natural quality that feels like silk, but with the practical advantage of being machine-washable.
This natural fiber is hypoallergenic, absorbent, and is naturally anti-bacterial so will not hold odor. It also is the most sustainable of the natural fibers, reaching a mature height of 75 feet in just 45 to 60 days. And, because of its natural antibacterial properties, it needs no pesticides.
It regenerates naturally through an extensive root system that sends out an average of four to six new shoots per year and can be harvested repeatedly.
We are simply following in the footsteps of other forward thinking companies that are trying to lessen the impact they have on the environment. We´re not here to preach or convert just to do what we can to conduct our business responsibly and encourage others in our market to do the same.
Sadly there was no large bag of cash under the tree for me this Christmas, merely a male grooming kit, some mints and a pine needle straight through my novelty slippers, the ones that light up and play Silent Night to all my family, a really, really big thank you. And so one returns to ones desk, organises the bills into three foot piles, and turns one’s thoughts to.SALES. We need more of them, they need to be more profitable, more sustainable, and we need them yesterday, but what to do?
Now I’m no Victor Kayam, I’m unlikely to make millions with my genius sales techniques; although on the upside I won’t be buying a company that makes a device to de-fuzz your cardigan. On that basis let’s begin by looking at what I’m fairly sure are the ‘what not to do’s’ in the sales department, although I confess now, this is merely opinion.
The unnecessary use of business speak. This seems guaranteed to disturb any sane customer if you find that you have run an idea up the flag pole and it has failed to fly, if it has gone south, fallen out of bed and refuses to wash its face; if you have been forced to park the Porsche, if your skill ball is in the long grass, or worse still you are stuck behind the eight ball, it may be time to re-evaluate your logistics and your solutions. If you insist on using business speak though, it is important to get it right – don’t as one of our customers recently did ask for a ‘ball pool figure’.
And this is merely the beginning of a worrying trend that can only end in one dark place.the irrelevant use of Latin. You may have the best product in the world at the cheapest price, but if your modus operandi vis a vis the quid pro quo comes up in conversation, unfortunately I will find myself, reductio ad absurdum, unable to buy from you.
While we’re about it, can I mention a personal hatred of mine? Because I would like to warn against an epidemic malaise that has also crept into the world of sales, namely the moronic interrogative. This is the ascending ending of words initially transmitted in the mid nineties by people returning from their Australian holiday. Now everything is a question; if you tell me that a T-shirt costs £1.00, I’m not sure if it does, or if you’re asking me if I know how much it costs makes it harder to know what to buy.
So hopefully we’ve lost a few affectations, now what should we avoid when talking to customers?
The telephone is a tough one, and there are of course companies still using it as a vital sales tool it might just be me, but calling up and asking if they can ‘speak to the owner of the business’ seems a certain way to get the phone slammed down faster than if you were heavy breathing. In the unlikely event you do take that call and say ‘Yes, I am indeed the owner of the business, and I find myself with a surplus of cash I am desperate to spend on a new phone system, preferably a really expensive one that allows me to monitor calls for training purposes (?)’ it seems to go wrong anyway. One of two things may then happen at best you’ll get someone from the ‘lost the will to live department’ reading from a card, at worst, and I can hardly write it, you’ll get the stepped sales technique. You know the one, where they say, ‘If I said to you I could treble your sales in the next week, would you be interested’ (to which you’re supposed to say ‘Yes’), ‘And if I told you we could achieve that at no extra cost to you or your company, would that sound good’ (‘er, Yes’), ‘So I must be right in thinking you would like to buy the Get Loaded for Nothing Software we have on special offer from the agent who miraculously happens to be in your area right now.’Well actually NO, because if I want to get talked to like a complete idiot I’ll go and see a school leaver in the local computer retailer.’
There are other obvious ones to avoid, like appearing for sales meetings with trousers that are 2 inches too short this isn’t fair really and we should all be able to express ourselves as we see fit, but trying to sell fashionable fitted T-s while wearing a pair of Coco the Clown’s old strides is tricky. Whipping out your holiday snaps and incessantly talking about yourself can also be bad news.I know of 3 T-shirt printers who have installed spy holes in their doors to avoid a particular rep, who can talk at length about realistic replica military figurines. And there is of course ¬â€ the classic ‘Well I would never ever criticize the competition, it really is bad form, but that lot down the road are an absolute shower.
Still, top marks to these sales Gurus for enthusiasm. I watched one once erect his Nobbo board in a ‘let’s inspire the sales team’ meeting – brandishing a black marker pen he flambuoyantly illustrated the axis of an important looking graph. He then said ‘Time…Sales…’ and drawing a red line skywards with a pelvic thrust shouted ‘WOOF’, thereby depicting how successful they would be – they were unfortunately bankrupt the following month.
But what then do we do to get it right?
I’ve been racking my brains, trust me my wage bill has gone up, but apart from the avoidance of the above, all I come back to is the blindingly obvious basics always returning calls; getting quotes out as fast as possible; honouring those quotes when it comes to invoicing; listening carefully to questions and answering them accurately; always taking responsibility for mistakes, especially when it’s not our fault; genuinely thinking about how to make potential customers more money; always being available without pressurising, playing the numbers game sooner or later they’ll buy, and more than anything, and this is just my opinion, being the kind of salesperson the customer would be happy to have a few beers and a Mexican with, and then get stuck in a lift.
Is there more to it than that, are there any excellent techniques?…..’Good morning caller and thank you oh so much for choosing Sincere Industries International. You’re through to Sinclair and I’ll be your sales advisor today………and can I facilitate any other issues you may have Mr Patronised, no, in which case it only remains for me to say, thank you for being part of my Wednesday…’
With the exception of a very strange evening in Rotherham in 1982, commenting on the ink technique used on a woman’s T-shirt is usually an unsuccessful method of introduction. In the unlikely event you’re reading this though Mandy, my apologies; I was young and knew nothing of transvestism. Generally you see, ink just isn’t considered exciting used as an ice breaker in the Home Counties you can expect a ‘Clear ‘Orff’, bring it up around my neck of the woods and you can look forward to spending the remainder of the evening wearing a stiletto. And yet strangely I find myself interested in the stuff, so forgive me, I must go on.
Ink, it seems to me, becomes interesting when things start to go wrong. Let me tell you a true story, picture the scene the Olympics, and we’re down by the river. There they stand, the modern gods Redgrave and Pincent, their proud and chiselled features look up to the flag as the national anthem begins. And is that, could it be, a tear in Steve’s eye at the realisation of a boyhood dream? Or is it just the rain, which is unfortunate because the red stripe beneath his gold medal is beginning to run, oh dear. there’s red ink all over his white lycra, the national shame of it. Ink momentarily became of interest, and the good news was we picked up a red and blue stripe job ‚é„é¬ every cloud.
The tough thing about ink is it often leaves you stuck between two difficult positions:
2) Expand your horizons ‚é„é¬ come up with some amazing new effects that no one else can replicate, and then wonder why you’ve grown a third testicle.
It was on such a boundary pushing morning that I had one of my greater triumphs. Attempting to print some Hermes like silk scarves and wrestling with a weird water based cocktail, the customer arrived to collect his order. ‘Not a problem’ I shouted, ‘Just going through the dryer now’, to which came the reply that is guaranteed to spell disaster. Do you mind if I come and watch’. I hardly heard him over the noise of a fan I was fiddling with the unit was filling with smoke due to giving the water based ink a damn good grilling. I could hardly see where I was going, I needed extraction, and fast. Cranking the fan to warp 5 we waited patiently for the scarves to emerge. They emerged alright, at 90 miles an hour out of the side of the factory. Sucked up the ducting they were spat out from the 8th floor we stood together and watched their silent decent to the street below where they were run over, by a bus. Wouldn’t have happened if I’d been playing safe with sensible ink.
Speaking of playing safe and the importance of ink, I’m reminded of a printer whose relationship ended when his girlfriend noticed a clear print of the union flag on his non-smiling cheeks. He’d been having his squeegee sharpened by a screen rep on the flat bed can’t go into too much detail, but yet again, ink changing lives.
Not convinced that ink can be interesting ‚é„é¬ OK, it’s time to go through the menu; I know all you printers will yawn and trip over a cable so just play with your micro reg while I spell it out for our less inky friends:
Plastisol – the printer’s friend – fag in one hand, squeegee in the other, singing Clash songs and balancing a tin of spray tack on your nose; this stuffs easy. Good opacity, prints wet on wet, crisp edges and doesn’t block the screen – this one won’t make you look stupid, and also comes in all kinds of fluorescents, phosphorescents, suede’s, lycras you name it. Down side, rubbish texture, even with a bag load of soft hand additive, but are you going to tell the customer?
Water based – this is for when you tell the customer – maybe not so sharp and graphic, blocks the screen, can get more smoke in the factory than a bunch of beagles on a day out, but run your hand over the T and feel that texture – self love is not a crime.
Glitter/Metallics/Shimmer – my favourite request with these was when a customer asked me if I could get an extra flake of glitter between two others in the print. I tried that while one of the lads cut their brake pipe – you need a coarse mesh to get the suspended particles through which can make the print a bit edgy, but other than that it does what it says. Careful not to go out in Soho after a day on the shimmers though, unless you look good in a leather cap.
Discharge – I know, not even a nice name for a punk band – basically it’s like a bleach, but not only removes the colour in a reactive dyed shirt, but then replaces it with whatever pigment colour you fancy – magic. Great for bright colours onto dark backgrounds while keeping the texture oh so soft.
Foil – print a glue, then heat press the foil of your choice – gold, silver, rainbow, holographic…there was a time when Aliens were landing in Leicester, which was knocking out so much of the stuff it was visible form outer space. Sadly all that shines is not gold and they left after 10 minutes.
Puff additive – or 5 litres of Larry (Grayson) as it’s known in the game – whip it up with your plastisol and watch your print rise like Delia’s souffl√© into a lovely high build. Don’t go mad though – if it goes up like Hovis it’ll also wash off the shirt, so go easy.
Nylobond – You want what? Ink onto a coated nylon? No problem Madam, couple of scoops of this stuff and it’s sticking like ink to a blanket.
I know print people, there are more..what about leather inks,mmmm, but enough’s enough and it’s time to hit the isolator switch. Still think ink isn’t fun? Come on I gave it an extra flick of the wrist when I stirred it for you – any complaints and next month it’ll be ‘The Public Sector Borrowing Requirement and where Britain went wrong!’
I watched a printer once spend just over an hour hunting for a spanner. We’ve all done it; I myself spent almost a month on a quest for the mystical alan key, not sure if I’d ever see my family again. At the time there were four of us in the print shop, and after a few sums I realised that if we all made an effort to camouflage our tools, we could get rid of nearly £16,000 a year – and this didn’t include scratching our backsides or staring into the middle distance. So if you’re going to make a commitment as I have to cash evaporation, whatever you do don’t get one of those wall mounted tool organisers.Perhaps even more elusive though is the artwork film, the transparency – the clue, is in the name. Now there are some loons out there who believe in filing your artwork after the job…nonsense. How on earth are you going to waste a morning searching for something see through if Mr Anorak’s put it back in its correct file? The best bet is to leave all artwork lying around – hopefully it will then either be damaged by thinners, or blow under the dryer and get frazzled. Remember, artwork films are £15.00 notes, don’t look after them and you’ll never get trapped on some nasty retirement boat in the Mediterranean.Which reminds me, that beautiful sea green a customer will want you to match one day. Now we’ve all had ink reps wandering in banging on about colour matching systems, scales, recipes – does the sign out there say ‘Delia Smith’s T-shirt Shack?’…. I don’t think so pal. Any self respecting printer is an alchemist, who can mix ink with one eye shut in a dark room. Using advice from his Uncle Frank who was a squeegee legend, the force, and a sprinkle of monkey dust, it should take a few days, and culminate in one knife of black too many and a nice concrete colour. That way you can waste a load of time and blow fifty notes worth of ink – double points.
It’s the mastery of these dark arts that makes us screen printers misunderstood, and sworn enemies of that lot in the office. They have a nasty habit of wanting systems, production plans and job sheets, or paper aeroplanes as they’re known in the game. These are all the enemy of the sworn loot blower – you can’t start a job and then happily discover half the stock is missing, use the wrong artwork and deliver it late if they’re sticking job sheets all over the boxes. We like to have a chat about what colour the bloke had last time, ‘He had expanding base in the blue’….’what are you on about, we used discharge, water based and glitter’. These debates would vanish with a CRM system, and we just don’t talk enough as it is.The above however are mere appetisers on the frittering menu; for the main course ladies and gentlemen, we have Screen Surprise. That’s the look on your face when you watch your emulsion drop off, your mesh rip, the image over expose, the screen block, the pin holes appear and the fourth colour won’t line up with the other three (one of which is on back to front). Now this can all be avoided by taking your time and following the old step by step procedures, so this is the one area where a mad panic is required to guarantee success – if we can lose sixteen large spanner hunting, just think what we can achieve with a dodgy bulb in the light source.
The other great advantage with screens is you may be working with people who know what they’re on about. If the management are from an embroidery background, no bother, you merely inform them that the fandango rod has sheared off the Geneva wheel, and some wizard who’s time sheet begins ‘Got out of bed ¬£100, brushed teeth £200′(and that’s before the dreaded travelling time)needs to be summoned immediately. But if the Gaffer has ever had ink on his or her hands, it’s not as easy, so avoid the haze remover and deploy the ghost image tactic; it’s hard to argue with.Play your cards right though and you won’t need any of these cunning business strategies. Merely choose the right garment distributor and you need never worry about where to stock pile your cash……..’Yes the computer did show we have two thousand T-shirts in medium, in the banana yellow, and we did realise you needed them to print for an event which has now passed. Sadly we only had my Grandad’s vest, which is regrettably now on its way to Norway. Would you like a tracking number?’
On the off chance you can’t find this calibre of supplier though, I’ve tried and tested the above ploys over seventeen years, they’re guaranteed.
Next month, how did I get in this mess, and where’s the fire escape. Until then, check your trainers for ink before you go to the in-laws.
Ask any kid what they want to be when they grow up, and they’ll obviously reply a garment printer or embroiderer. Sure, there are one or two eccentric little Herberts out there who have their mind set on fire fighting and space travel, and I must confess that for a time, I wanted to be a Wizard; limitless power, a large wand and you get to wear a dress, no questions asked. But in the main, the lure of ink and thread is just too great, isn’t it?Well sadly, no. Fact is if your pride and joy expressed an interest in mesh counts, you’d have them straight off to Dr Fruitcake for a thorough inspection.So we have a problem; to begin with, nobody ever dreams of being one of us. And is doesn’t end there. You grow up, and for reasons you don’t understand, chance encounters, lost bets, you end up with a squeegee in one hand and a disk in the other. Now what do you tell people?
I was at a dinner party recently, which seems to be a kind of middle class going round to your mate’s house for tea, and had the good fortune to be sitting next to an Accountant. Standard ice breaker, I enquired about his employment status. Two hours of self promotion followed; his humble beginnings, the hardship, the victory over almost insurmountable adversity, and the inevitable rise to number crunching superstardom. Damn he was impressive, and throughout I nodded, cajoled and looked interested – I’m English and can do no other. It wasn’t easy for him, but eventually he had no choice but to ask me what I did for a living……pause….’I’m a T-shirt Printer’, I said……and he said…..’Hmmm’…..and turned his attention to a profiterole.
For him, our dark art wasn’t even worth a word; all he could manage, was a sound. I considered letting the tyres down on the new Mercedes he’d been explaining to me, but that would be small minded, petty and achieve nothing. As he waited for the RAC, I heard him making other sounds, ran my hand across the water based print I was wearing, and smiled.
There’s a job going at my place at the moment, for a T-shirt printer, and how am I supposed to advertise that? No kids want to be one, and anyone who is one, may not relish the thought of staying one, ‘Don’t leave me here to die with ink on my hands Billy, say you’ll come back for me one day…’
I might as well see if I can find Yoda in the jungles of the Degoba system, unless of course, we look at it a different way.
We are at the very least purveyors of momentary happiness. The Doctors, the Teachers, and maybe even flat tyre boy, save a life, educate a child, and then to ease the strain pull on that favourite T, and just for a second, feel good about themselves. We add the colour, they feel the texture, their friend compliments them on their choice; only grains of sand I know, but that’s enough for me.
At best we’re a mobile gallery, the last place the masses go to buy art; a vehicle for social and political comment; a billboard to shock, inspire and increase awareness; it was only a fraction of a fraction of a small percent, but we ran the world, and freed Nelson Mandela.
Now you might say that’s an overblown delusion of grandeur, you might even say ‘Hmmm’, but if you think I could have a point, and if you can print T-shirts because it matters, give me a call. I might have just the job for you, and maybe, we get to be Wizards after all.
Author:
Paul Stephenson
paul@october.co.uk
www.october.co.uk
t-shirt printing, screen printing and embroidery