Impressions - August 2020 - 40

think.
SCREEN PRINTING GRAPHICS & DESIGN

make.

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do.

Skillset Differences
for Designers
Scholastically trained graphic artists can adapt their abilities for
tasks that are specifically required in apparel-decorating shops.
BY CLAY BARBERA, CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Producing quality art for our industry, in
production-ready formats, requires real-world
knowledge and understanding.

Producing quality artwork is not as difficult as you may think. Our
industry values quality graphic-design skills just as much as any
"artistic" media. However, there's a difference: Decorated-apparel
graphics are relatively simple.
Talk to scholastically trained graphic designers (with the student-loan debt to prove it) about our industry and watch their
eyes roll at the mention of "basic vector art with limited nodes
and colors."This reaction probably happens because they spent
years - and tens of thousands of dollars - learning how to do
more, in their estimation.
With $3,000 software on a $4,000 computer, graduated graphic
designers can tackle the high-end, high-definition, complicated
graphics we, frankly, never see in apparel-decoration shops.Though
they may have followed a rigorous curriculum, many traditional
graphic artists simply were not trained to produce the practical,
down-to-earth art we use in our shops.
'Real-World Knowledge'
Designing skyscrapers, editing super-model photos and
P.40

creating the newest "StarWars"
villain sounds great. But just
like many other industries,
certain expectations must be
adjusted for a graphic-design
career.After all, not every carpenter builds mansions and
not every doctor does brain
surgery. Most print-industry
designers work in production
shops, and most of the artwork
they create is relatively simple,
efficient and easy compared to
the high-end variety.
Producing quality art for our
industry, in production-ready
formats, requires real-world
knowledge and understanding.
This is essential when considering Pantone colors for separations, letter kerning for a tie-off
stitch or weeding vinyl with a "dentist's tool."
A scholastically trained graphic designer spends a great deal
of time learning specific tasks that don't have applications in a
decorated-apparel shop. Extreme, high-resolution digital images
(1,200 dpi or higher) and editing skills are unnecessary for nearly
any decoration process. Digital rendering for computer screens
and televisions is a completely different concept than the vector,
low-color-count graphics we deal with in our industry. Even our
direct-to-garment (DTG) or wide-format printers rarely need to
work with images greater than 300 dpi. It's simply unnecessary
when printing ink on fabric.
Many of the jobs in our industry involve simple, single-color
line art.We're talking about one-color screen-printing jobs; vinyl
transfers; engraving; or embroidered, left-chest logos. Learning
how to adjust shadow angles for three-dimensional models - a
particularly favorite topic for graphic-design students spending
thousands per semester - is an unnecessary skillset unless you're
building a motion-picture scene.Video games and fantasy worlds are
fun to create, but impractical as they relate to any apparel-printing

I M P R E S S I O N S M A G . C O M AUGUST 2020

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7/16/20 10:44 AM

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Impressions - August 2020

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