Impressions - January 2014 - (Page 52)

Shop SPOTLIGHT QRST's Big-City Shop A Boston shop's success is rooted in its strong ties to the community. By Lauren Mitchell, Associate Editor QRST's At A Glance Company Name: QRST's Address: 561 Windsor St., Ste. A301, Sommerville, MA 02143 Founded: 1989 (Rinnig bought QRST's in 2001) Executive Team: Peter Rinnig and his wife, Ruth, as his sounding board Decorating Methods Offered: Screen printing, digital printing, embroidery Company Websites: qrsts.com (main website), capecodshirts.com, direct2apparel.com, cambridgeembroidery.com b ostonian Peter Rinnig's story is one of those "it's-funny-howthings-work-out" tales. The "born artist" got his education in painting and graphic design and, as a music lover, he spent his college years hanging with musician friends and bands, and following the Boston music scene. "After I graduated from school, my friends in bands would ask me to design logos and ﬂiers," Rinnig says. "And then 52 Impressions | January 2014 QRST's, Sommerville, Mass., serves Boston's many colleges and universities, local musicians and bands, as well as many area businesses. Shown is owner Peter Rinnig (far right) and his staff. All photos courtesy of Natalia Boltukhova ©Tiny Russian Studio eventually, as some of them were getting bigger, they started asking me to design T-shirts - and then they wanted me to print T-shirts." At the time, he was working for an Internet startup as an art director for marketing and promotions. But as he fell increasingly in love with his side projects, he kept accepting jobs. He soon found himself designing T-shirts for friends, their friends and their friends' friends. "I asked my dad if he knew of a T-shirt printer in Boston, and he said [his] college roommate owned a few buildings in Brookline," Rinnig says. In the basement of one of those them was QRST's - then operated by Peter Moller and Mike Smith. "I started going to them to have shirts printed as a customer, and then eventually, I was giving them tons of orders from bands," he says. "And it was like, 'Can you guys just teach me how to screen print?'" Moller and Smith agreed, even offering to sell Rinnig their manual screen printing press, as they were relocating and purchasing their ﬁrst automatic press at the time. Moller eventually left the company and Rinnig - having kept ties with Smith - bought it in 2001. DIVERSE DECORATING When Rinnig purchased QRST's, it was located in Cambridge, Mass. "They had one automatic press," he says. "It was 12 heads, of which four worked. Basically, when I bought [the company] I took the impressionsmag.com http://www.qrsts.com http://www.capecodshirts.com http://www.direct2apparel.com http://www.cambridgeembroidery.com http://www.impressionsmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - January 2014

Impressions - January 2014
Contents
First Impressions
From the Show Director
FYI
Product Gallery
ISS Long Beach Product Pick
ISS Conferences
In the Details
How to Make Your Website Into a Prospect Magnet
Tees Stand the Test of Time
Shop Spotlight
Embroidery Technique
Embroidery Production
Screen Printing Production
Screen Printing Technique
Digital Decorating
Classifieds
Online Directory
Ad Index

Impressions - January 2014