I had been looking around gigposters for all of my answers and even posted a few topics. So far everyone has been helpful, but for the most part everyone is pretty laid back when it comes to the technical parts of printing. The focus is more on the art it seems. From what I gather from this site, it is mostly made up of high volume shirt/garment printers. While I am only interested slightly in garment printing, things like screen making are fairly universal.
I am definitely a newbie and so far, much of my equipment is diy. It has mostly been a serious hobby, but I am being encouraged to start up a business. I hope to carve out my niche with short runs and specialty printing that either is expensive to produce on offset or not possible. I am looking to get started on purchasing more professional equipment as I get the biz rolling. I feel like I am off to a good start with my relationship to the local supplier and also how my print quality is going up. The main thing I am lacking at the moment is a solid business/marketing plan. This should be trivial as I am a graphic designer, we shall see.
Currently I am working out using specialty auto pigments. So far, so good. While there are things like pearlescents being offered by Nazdar and other ink companies, none of them get as bold as the auto stuff. In fact, the color cards that I have from Nazdar and Crescent Bronze, I can't really tell that they are pearlescent. At least in comparison to House of Kolor or SEM that is. That and I can get away with a much lower pigment load with the auto pigments.
