It’s such a simple concept and it’s doing a lot of good. California based Sevenly make lifestyle products that help fund charity projects in 7 areas of need across the globe. They sell each product for 7 days and give $7 of every product sold directly to that week’s charity. Their ultimate goal is to help people, fund worthy causes, and offer the magic kick some charities need to keep changing the world.

Their total donated to charities since June 2011 is over $450,000 USD. Pretty impressive stuff. Just as impressive, is their merchandise – namely their “Cause Tees”…

If you’re a charity and would like some printed T-shirts or hoodies, then come chat to us!

email: sales@iconprinting.com

phone: 0207 183 8431

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Aren’t these printed totes by Alphabet Bags great? Simple, bold graphics printed onto canvas tote bags make fantastic promotional hand-outs or gifts. This kind of product also makes a great online seller for web based boutiques. We supply these kinds of tote bags for as little as 59p each in a range of colours and sizes. Get in touch to find out how little it costs to print onto these bags. We can screen print, use DTG printing or transfer print, we have something for every budget.

Plus it’s free UK delivery on all orders over £100!

email: sales@iconprinting.com

phone: 0207 183 8431

1. Web Images

Using images from the web can be handy, but note that most of the time these images are very small and set to only 72 dpi (very low image quality). Web designers use the lowest resolution and size possible so that their pages load fast while keeping the images looking good. Due to this, the image downloaded is designed to look good at the relatively small size it appears on screen and not printed out here in the real world. When it comes to screen printing, these forms of photo images should be avoided altogether – but vector based images are absolutely fine.

As shown above, many internet images are very pixelated and blurred.

2. Details

Try to avoid very small negative spaces as they can fill in or “bleed”. Ink is a fluid and therefore spreads a little bit by nature. So a very small negative space (such as the words “Screen Printing” – shown in the image below) can be filled in by the ink that surrounds it pretty easily. However, there is no hard and fast rule for avoiding bleed on small type/detailing, so every piece of artwork will be evaluated on a case by case basis. However, a good general guideline is to use fonts at or above 12 points and lines or outlines stroke size larger than 0.3 pt.

The fine or “light” version of this typeface is not a good choice, the hairline box detail also wouldn’t print.

3. Illustrator Effects

Illustrator has some cool effect options, but you’ve got to be careful when using them – especially when creating artwork for screen printing. Try to avoid drop shadow or gradient effects. These often look good (at first glance) and add dimension, but they complicate your file by mixing image types and this type of effect doesn’t translate to the screen successfully. If you do want a slight shaded area effect or gradient within your design or logo, it will need to be made up of a series of very small dots (when viewed close-up) that from a distance, create the look of a gradient or difference in tone. It is more time consuming, but the outcome is a much better print.

4. Transparencies

In Illustrator, when two shapes overlap and the one on top has opacity set lower than 100%, the color of the shape below it will affect its color. For example (see below), when the circle on the bottom is red and the one on top is blue with 50% opacity, the overlapping portion is violet. But when it comes down to printing, it almost never works out like that due to unpredictable ink transparencies and intermingling pigments.  If you’ve got a red + blue = violet type scenario, use a spot color violet instead of transparencies.

5. Problem Colours

Inks have varying degrees of transparency. A few color ranges are very transparent and do not look good when printed on a particular colour under base – whether that’s another ink layer or your actual garment colour. This can leave areas looking splotchy, washed out and generally poor. Darker blues tend to be one of these and, unless you’re printing on to white garments, avoid using them. Another one to look out for, is bright fluorescent inks, they too are very transparent and tend to lighten up and lose brightness when printed on an under base.

If you have any questions about your artwork, we are here to help! Drop us an email or just give us a ring -

sales@iconprinting.com or on 0207 183 8431

Now for a little background information – as how they go about things is pretty interesting. They are a vertically integrated company – which means not only are they a clothing manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer, but they also perform their own design, advertising, and (award-winning) marketing. They provide more than 10,000 jobs worldwide and produce one million garments each week at their sweat-shop free factory in Downtown Los Angeles.

Their site is well worth a look around, as throughout, there is a wonderful sense of personality and alternative thinking. Below is a screen shot of one of the best sections of their website…where they urge you to ‘Explore Our Factory’.

By hovering your cursor over the black and white image of their massive factory building, various departments appear highlighted – each one presenting it’s own related short video clip. Here’s where it gets cool, the video snippets are not exactly what you think they’re going to be. For example, their “Shoemakers” section video clip is on their “favourite pairs” – but not favourite pairs of shoes, but people within the company. You then get to meet couples who have met since working at American Apparel, also best friends and twin sisters…it’s really rather nice. And creative department video is brought to you by the studio dog, obviously much more insightful than a human being…and way more fun!

Check out our catalogue to see what American Apparel products we carry, or just get in touch with any inquires…

sales@iconprinting.com or on 0207 183 8431

1. Norse Projects. Nice site. Even nicer clothes.

2. Epic branding and implementation for the 99% Conference 2012.

3. Sock Monkee draw funny little characters. You can wear them too.

COTTON: Have You Picked Yours Carefully?

We carry a great organic brand called EarthPositive. They’re so good, they’re award winning and each garment is made from certified organic Indian cotton and are soft, cool and perfect fitting.

Here are a few pointers to remember:

1. When creating artwork to be DTG printed, always make sure your design is set to CMYK colour mode (not RGB).
2. The best file type to create a print from is either an Illustrator .ai or .eps file (a vector file) or a high resolution .jpg file – that is at least 300 dpi and saved at 100% of the intended print size.
3. For more information on DTG printing in general, take a look here.

So, this is how you save a 300 dpi image in Photoshop as a transparent PNG for DTG printing.

To make things a little easier, we’ve made you a lovely PNG template – click here to download and follow the instructions.

Now create your artwork. If you’re using a logo you’ve made, a photo you’ve taken or even an illustration you’ve created, make sure it’s not sitting on a white background (unless you want it to), as this will print. For example…

Once you’ve created your artwork, it’s time to save it. You can maintain the transparency on the file, as we’re able to print full alpha, but remember any transparent areas will show the colour of whatever shirt you chose to print onto.

Having used our downloadable template, your file will already come up as a .png so just rename it and hit save. Don’t worry about the layers warning that may come up, your file will still save fine. A small PNG options window will then pop up, just tick the NONE option and you’re done.

Any questions on DTG printing? Give us a ring!

0207 183 8431

This design was a 4 colour screen print, printed on a red crew neck, for an event celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday. Below, we’ve got a few snaps of the T-shirts in action – don’t they all look great in them!

If you have an event coming up, and would like some promotional printed items, please get in touch…

sales@iconprinting.com or on 0207 183 8431

Check out our Facebook page too.