flexible and less likely to be uncomfortable for the wearer. A design solution for controlling ink volume may involve revising the artwork to a greater degree using outlines or gradient fills instead of solid fills. These edits will need customer approval and can affect the final look of the design. This means they are less common and are best used when the design is being developed rather than during the production phase. Art can be used as a creative solution to help avoid a heavy print if the design can become a vintage one that already lends itself to the distressed look. In addition to distressing or breaking up the vintage design, an interesting print location or size also will help direct the viewer's focus away from an ink coverage issue by making the whole product more visually interesting. The art issues for lightweight garments involve controlling the total ink volume and maximizing the softness of the T-shirt. If you start with a standard design, you may need to be cautious if the image area will involve a lot of ink. SCREEN & INK CONCERNS Considering the ink volume and overall feel of the printed design at the initial art development stage will provide a great head start on minimizing issues later as production starts. The ink type used during the screen printing process has a dramatic effect on the final product's feel. For the softest print, a lighter weight garment that it mostly cotton can use water-based ink. The advantage of using this ink type on cotton garments is that it tends to sink into the garment's fibers like a dye rather than sit on top of the surface and create extra texture. impressionsmag.com One of the most popular solutions for controlling a large imprint area is to break the design up using a distressed texture or a pattern. This allows the shirt to breathe, and for the print area to be more flexible and less likely to be uncomfortable. March 2014 | Impressions 35http://www.impressionsmag.com