Screen Printing - April/May 2016 - (Page 18)
The Top
ArT MisTAkes
And how To Avoid TheM
Thomas Trimingham
A
lot of shop owners get down on themselves when
errors happen in production, forgetting that a certain amount of variability comes with the territory.
Especially when you do a lot of custom screen printing,
the art, job setup, and printing parameters can be different
on every order you do. When no two jobs are the same,
it's not really a surprise if the artwork doesn't come out well
a certain percentage of the time and it doesn't necessarily
mean you have a problem in your art department. Sometimes, the best you can do is address the most common
issues in your shop and be prepared to troubleshoot others
as they come up. In a sense, your goal can be to raise your
poor prints from Lowresolution originals
1
This is an extremely common issue.
Clients continually supply artwork that
was designed for the web, found on
someone else's website, or otherwise
developed for internet display. Webbased art is 72 dpi at the actual screen
size, and was never intended to be
screen printed. When such artwork is
enlarged for a full-sized shirt design, it
will be pixelated as well as difficult to
prep and edit.
The best and most common way
to address this concern is to immediately contact the client and see if a
better version of the artwork is
available. Unfortunately, a lot of times
the answer is no, leaving you with
several choices. You can recreate the
design yourself or send it out to
someone with the skills to do the work,
attempt to edit it, or refuse the job.
If you are savvy with computer
graphic software, recreating or editing
the design will give you the most options in printing the job. Providing such
a service also gives you added credibility with your client. Just be aware of the
time that you will need to invest to
18
screenprinting
percentage of successes rather than focus on how many
errors are happening.
One of the top ways to accomplish more in your art
department is to look for areas that consistently cause
problems. These will be different from one shop to the next,
but certain issues are typically at the top of the list and
chances are that at least some of the five common ones
covered below are still plaguing your shop. The key to
making progress in these trouble spots once you identify
them is to focus on specific ways they can be avoided and
develop procedures to counter the issues before they show
up again.
make these changes. Many shops aren't,
leading to cost estimates that can be all
over the map. (See Figure 1.)
Most clients get nervous paying
for art time on a printing job and some
will go to a competitor if you intend on
recouping art fees to recreate their
files. Often, it's easier to estimate the
time and then bury the cost in your
quote rather than itemize it and risk
sticker shock that will stall the process
or possibly cancel the sale. This also
applies if you are sending the artwork
out to be recreated by a service. Make
sure the order size and value justifies
the cost of preparing the artwork so
that it doesn't have you upside down
just to finish the job.
FiGUre 1 KnOW tHE COSt
OF LOW-rESOLUtiOn ArtWOrK
Many customers submit low-resolution
files taken from a website or other
source not designed for screen printing,
but most don't want to pay you to fix
them. Whether you give the customer an
itemized bill or spread the costs across
the total purchase price, you should know
the time and/or money it takes to address
this problem.
4 hrs
$200
1
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Screen Printing - April/May 2016
Screen Printing - April/May 2016
Contents
Editorial Insights
Pressing Issues
New Products
A 5-Minute Sales and Marketing Plan
The Top 5 Art Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Stencilmaking in the Age of CTS
After the Print: Breaking the Logjam in Finishing
Distributor/Dealer Directory
Classifieds
Ad Index
It Looks Good on Paper
Screen Printing - April/May 2016
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