A new one for me...a Pantone tint as a logo color

[Frog]

Seriously, in all of the years that I have been involved in the graphic arts, I have never been told that 70% of a specific Pantone numbered color is the official logo color. Then, some of you probably guessed it, it's going on black shirts
On top of that, true to my usual market, we are talking one or two dozen shirts.

Geez I'm glad that it's almost time to retire!

[3Deep]

I don't do custom colors for very small jobs, I would have qts and gals of ink everywhere... I tell them up front stock colors and maybe a pantone match here and there if we have it.

Darryl

[royster13]

I have a client that uses 30% of PMS 1205 to get a ivory....

[Screened Gear]

70 percent of a pantone color? Never heard that but have seen it in offset. Never printed that way. I always went process with jobs so it really didn't matter how they came up with the colors they wanted. If its 70 percent of a pantone color you can get a pantone chip set for the percentages of pantones. I would guess your customer is not that smart or knows the pantone system that well. They most likely found a color they liked and then just adjusted the percent on screen until it looked right. I would have them approved the mixed colors and have them pay out the ass for it. My pantone mixes are $25 each (run size does not matter). For something like this you have to mix the pantone and then add 30 percent white ink by weight. so I would charge them more.

[Frog]

As I mentioned in another thread, since I do a lot of small orders, 200 gram (or even less) mixes are not unheard of in my shop. Same charges as for a gallon.

Kinda' the whole point of having a mixing system.

And Screened, most mixes take less than ten misutes, so I can make my shop rate easily at a lot less than $25, but hey, more power to you!

[Rockers]

I don't do custom colors for very small jobs, I would have qts and gals of ink everywhere... I tell them up front stock colors and maybe a pantone match here and there if we have it.

Darryl

Out of curiosity, what kind of stock colors do you offer? They come just straight from the gallon pot as ordered from the ink manufacturer or do you actually mix certain Pantone colors in house and offer those as stock colors?

[royster13]

Why do folks that work so hard to build their business, do things that drive business away?....For example no small orders, no special colours, no names/number, slow turn around. etc., etc....

[ebscreen]

Out of curiosity, what kind of stock colors do you offer? They come just straight from the gallon pot as ordered from the ink manufacturer or do you actually mix certain Pantone colors in house and offer those as stock colors?

Both here.

Stock for the colors we go through a lot of. Custom mix for the rest or if they aren't available or we don't like them.
Which brings up a point Andy made in another thread, ink manufacturers providing the mix for their stock colors.
I wish more of them did that.

[Screened Gear]

As I mentioned in another thread, since I do a lot of small orders, 200 gram (or even less) mixes are not unheard of in my shop. Same charges as for a gallon.

Kinda' the whole point of having a mixing system.

And Screened, most mixes take less than ten misutes, so I can make my shop rate easily at a lot less than $25, but hey, more power to you!

I charge that much so I don't have to do them that often. I can mix a pantone color pretty fast,  I just don't like doing it.

[Frog]

I have a client that uses 30% of PMS 1205 to get a ivory....

And do your screen printers print it as a halftone or fake it?

Why do folks that work so hard to build their business, do things that drive business away?....For example no small orders, no special colours, no names/number, slow turn around. etc., etc....

Don't paint with too broad a brush here, as some printers get enough work to narrow their field and still do just fine.

Heck, I used to do flat stock signs and shirts, and eventually dropped the signs. Sure I drovew away that business, but more than made it up with increrased shirt printing. Sam could be said of the way that some other shirt printers establish guidelines.

Besides, helps me fill some niche needs

[Screened Gear]

Why do folks that work so hard to build their business, do things that drive business away?....For example no small orders, no special colours, no names/number, slow turn around. etc., etc....

Great questions. quick answer: you have a business plan.

Long answer: you have done it long enough to know those areas "no small orders, no special colors, no names/number" don't drive your profits as much as others. Don't get me wrong you can make a ton of money in those areas if that is your target market and you get alot of that work and charge correctly. I don't do orders under 24, don't do names and numbers and my color mixes are $25 each. This does not hurt my business since those area are not my target clients.

It takes balls to turn work down but it takes brains to turn down the right jobs for your business.

[tonypep]

Over time you gather up enough colors. That said we have standards for Navy, Royal, Scarlet, etc

[3Deep]

@ Rockers we offer the stock pantone colors from Union inks, we have a union ink chart and we let them pick the color close to what they want.  I use to mix colors, but I had a shop full of inks that I never used again, we still do custom colors if the customer is willing to pay for it, we try to let our customers know every charge up front so there is no surprise.  We do have colleges that have to have a custom color for,but we have that mixed and bought by the gal...it just makes things a little easier on use.

Darryl

[tpitman]

The person who decided on 70 percent of a Pantone color for their logo is in for a lot of argument and disappointment from screenprinters and offset shops going forward. They'll get a printout somewhere of what they think is correct, and everyone will be bullied into trying to match it, whether or not it actually represents 70% of the Pantone color, since there's no Pantone swatch for that. Years ago when I was doing prepress and design for a printer, Disney Design would send a file down with a color laser printout. They'd b!tch mightily that the print job didn't match the color laser copy they brought in, and were too stubborn to accept that their friggin' color laser wasn't calibrated. We'd have to change their art to try and match the color laser. These weren't one or two color jobs. The same goes for people complaining that it doesn't match "what's on their monitor".
Small jobs like these are almost always time vampires that'll only leave you pissed-off and poor.

[Frog]

we went back and forth, and they now, at least, understand the situation, and will trust me to "just make our shirts look nice"

I will digitally output some 7546C, in both 70% and 100% as a rough guide (that I can also compare to the book), and then mix my ink with a little extra white. I'm sure that it will be fine