Hi jacked this Anderson Video....

[Screened Gear]

My first 4 months in business I didn't even do one halftone job. I turned down a few because I didn't have a rip. It wasn't until I got a customer needing 1700 shirts that I learned how to do halftones.

[blue moon]

When I first I took a class down in southern California and they "taught" us how to print 4CP and simulated. I asked the owner of the shop how much they do a year in sales. His response was 2. something million. My next question was how many years have you been in business. His response was 5. I then ask how many times in those 5 years and millions of dollars in sales have you printed 4CP and Simulated work. He said twice!!! That did it for me. I didn't "need" to learn it, it was just nice to do.

we print simulated about once a day. It all depends on your market. . .

pierre

[3Deep]

Pierre, to answer your question yes we could, but it would take more of a commitment from the wife and I which right now is just not in us.  Thats one of the reason why we don't get into some of the more detail stuff, just the locals, years ago I could sit down and spend 3 to 4 hours or more on art.  Now days quick fast and looks good is the ticket, I,ve learn over the years what my market can bare and which customers are a sure bet and those that kick tires.  I would not want a shop that had 50 autos running I think I would go stare crazy with trying to feed that monster, but I,m sure some folks on here would love to try.

Darryl

[Dottonedan]

Those that have a high stake in the sales of that design...know the difference between an average print and an award winner. Strike that. They want the award winning quality on every job you do for them. If its not on par, it gets revised. These are the customers that pay $150-300.00  for you to set up a 10 color print just for 3 sample shirts to get approved. Then once approved, the order is usually worth you setting up again tomorrow for the run. Often times you hide that sample cost into the price.

[tonypep]

And there are companies like my friends at JSR that print award winning quality graphics all day every day yet never enter any contests. It's all rock and roll to them and word of mouth is everything. To them winning awards gains them nothing. Just a different way to look at things.
www.jsrdirect.com
 And theres a lot more companies out ther just like them.

[Dottonedan]

I remember checking out that site. We have a member here that is an artist for them. Pops in only every so often.


Yes, I've told Pierre, we have many good shops in retail that print great prints every day as part of the norm. It's to be expected.
Many of these we will never hear of because they like flying under the radar of competitors. Only the customers get to log in and see the line.


If your lucky, you can catch them at a small show where they have the product out on display. even larger Co's don't even display out to the general attendee's. You must pass security 1st and show that you are a retailer before going into the "walled off booths.  Nike, Rebock, JCPenny's big retail places like that.

[tonypep]

If you're talking about Zelco he's not an artist but he's been there forever. Also worth mentioning are Liquid Blue and The Mountain. The way they see it the awards are judged and viewed by peers, competitors, and colleagues not customers.
That said I totally agree with Pierres direction.

[tonypep]

This is a discharge print (mock up) we did 4 ys ago that we'll reprise nxt year. Won't enter it but it will be impressive in the reception lounge. Print is 70 dpi 10 color discharge color no base. I don't keep up with the contests but curious if there is a category for it yet.

[3Deep]

Tony,  thats a good looking print, but if I was a regular Joe off the street I'd think that was a pretty simple print, being in the biz I know better and know that it took a lot of work to get it to look that good.  Question how do you educate customers on prints without insulting there intelelect, I get sent stuff all the time and know in seconds what its going to take to reproduce the art, but I have explain why the price is so high for your 36 shirt order.

Darryl

[jasonl]

This is a discharge print (mock up) we did 4 ys ago that we'll reprise nxt year. Won't enter it but it will be impressive in the reception lounge. Print is 70 dpi 10 color discharge color no base. I don't keep up with the contests but curious if there is a category for it yet.

which royal blue shirt will you discharge that on, i have had trouble with blues.

[Frog]

Tony,  thats a good looking print, but if I was a regular Joe off the street I'd think that was a pretty simple print, being in the biz I know better and know that it took a lot of work to get it to look that good.  Question how do you educate customers on prints without insulting there intelelect, I get sent stuff all the time and know in seconds what its going to take to reproduce the art, but I have explain why the price is so high for your 36 shirt order.

Darryl

Nowadays, I explain that screen printing is not always the best process for certain jobs (your ten color 36 pieces for instance)
I briefly explain about DTG, and either take the job and sub it out, (for lights) or suggest that the custy does a little more searching, but at least now knows what to look or ask for.
The brief education is generally well received, and has sometimes resulted in more practical jobs from them down the line.

[tonypep]

Mockup was incorrectly placed on a royal shirt. Shirts will be chilli red, texas orange mustard etc. We certainly don't offer it to the average Joe and a print like that has a 1,000 pc minimum and a steep sep charge. They have the money. People sail in from all over the world to attend. They went back to simple vector art and sales dropped significantly. Something like from 90% to 60% in comparisson to ticket sales. In this case they were leaving money on the table.
I always begin by mentioning money and minmums right from the get go (or rather the sales people do).
That qualifies them right there. A tour of the facility seals it usually. Once they see what goes into pre-press they get it......or move on to something more affordable.

[inkman996]

Most off the street uneducated customers try to compare what we do to paper inkjet printing, they simply cannot grasp why we cant do like some cheap lexmark printer can especially with todays technology. I will never forget trying to explain to a lady why her print would require four screens for a 4cp job, she actually said to me it needs to be done with 3 screens because that is how RGB is printed. WTF?