Impressions - October 2009 - (Page 34)

HANDS ON >> SCREEN PRINTING >> HANDS ON TECH TIPS HANDS ON HANDS ON Production SCREEN PRINTING HANDS ON TECH TIPS HANDS ON >> Young Printers Think Green First Atlas Print of St. Augustine, Fla., brings eco-ﬁrst business ethos to screen printing. Editor’s Note: At the forefront of the green movement from their shop’s conception, the owners of Atlas Print, St. Augustine, Fla., knew it was necessary to be eco-conscious when it came to business and screen printing production. This environmentally aware printing company — founded by Michael Wilson, age 26, and Steven Bloom, age 22 — uses unique and efﬁcient production practices while printing for the fashion and artists’ markets. Below, co-owner Michael Wilson shares the Atlas philosophy on running an environmentally friendlier decorated apparel shop: A bulk, water-based adhesive system eliminates the VOCs (volatile organic compounds) released by aerosol spray adhesives, lasts longer and creates virtually no overspray. It was my ﬁrst screen printing job at a local shop that would forever change my stance on environmental production practices. I was taken under the wing of the owner, Paul Archetko, who was an exhippie and had been in the industry for years. Paul was heavily involved in local environmental causes, such as The Grandparents for Peace organization, which put on an annual Earth Day Celebration. I look back at that time in my life and see that it was Paul’s struggle in reconciling the old with the new that would greatly inﬂuence just what our shop (Atlas Print, St. Augustine, Fla.) is about today. I would spend countless hours blowing out screen after screen, unaware of just how hazardous the screen reclaiming chemicals were that I was using. The time I spent doing production like this ﬂooded my mind with ideas of what being ecoconscious really meant to me. Paul kept two iguanas in his storefront shop. Both eventually developed tumors and were released into the wild to enjoy 34 Impressions >> October 2009 Most people think of discharge printing as limited to producing subtle and even muddy colors, but careful curing of the new generation of discharge prints produces brilliant colors like this at Atlas Print. their last days of freedom. Eventually, Paul also developed cancer, and died in 2007 after a hard ﬁght with the disease. At that time, we already had Atlas Print open for six years. I was taken aback by the severity of it all — Paul was my mentor and an inspiration for me. I couldn’t say that there was a direct correlation between Paul working around chemicals for the majority of his life and then getting cancer, but it deﬁnitely made me think more about our practices in regard to our staff’s health. While Paul’s production might not have been the most eco-friendly, his passion for the support of a cleaner environment greatly impacted me. His legacy left me with the knowledge that we are part of a whole new generation in this business — a generation of screen printers with concern for environmental and social issues. THINKING SMALL VS. BIG For as many small- to medium-sized screen printers like us out there who gen- uinely care about the eco issue, there are numerous companies trying to ride the coat tails of this new “trend.” Thankfully, several of the big shops have been forced to clean up their acts through regulation compliances that are now heavily pushing forward with third-party certiﬁcations, so they are becoming more eco-efﬁcient. We are completely in support of these new benchmarks. However, the green washing can actually prove to be quite grey. To be truly green is a lifestyle that requires discipline and dedication both in business and personally. We see some contradictory actions in some of the practices of some industry companies. For instance, we recently purchased a water-based discharge system for our shop. While we felt it was great to support a company that heavily markets safer, more environmentally aware inks and other products, the shipping box that housed our new system was ﬁlled excessively with packing peanuts and shrink-wrap. While some of the larger companies impressionsmag.com http://www.impressionsmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - October 2009

Impressions - October 2009
Contents
First Impressions
FYI
Product Gallery
Green Shop Tour
Wovens: The Corporate Workhorse
Design & Digitizing
Production
For Screen Printers Only
Online Directory
Business to Business
Classifieds
Ad Index
On Design

Impressions - October 2009