Just a thought about Seperations.

[Chadwick]

I haven't been at this ( screenpriting ) forever, but it's been well over a decade.
I have, however been doing art forever.

You want good seps?
You need good art.

So, having realised that many moons ago, I spend all my sep time fixing the art.
Then the seps are easy.

Just a thought.
 

[Dottonedan]

Good thought.  noted.

When I started out in this tee shirt biz, we did all of our art in channels from the beginning. So the seps were literally about 90 % completed once the design was done. It was part of the building process and is probably THE best method.

[Chadwick]

Yeah, exactly Dan.

A guy could spend a boatload of time trying to fix bad seps from bad art,
or,
just fix the damn art.

Hire an artist folks, they'll complain about the junk you send em, but they'll fix it.

[abchung]

Hire an artist folks, they'll complain about the junk you send em, but they'll fix it.

I am trying to expand my business to online. However, I am not an artist. So I just want to ask.

Is it better to send the customer's art to an artist through me or just tell the customer to contact the artist directly.

How does it usually work in the industry?

Thanks
Anthony

[Chadwick]

abchung asked a very profound question here.
I can't figure out how to answer it, because I deal with this sh*t everyday,
and it always depends on the situation.
Guess I can't pull a sales pitch.

No wonder we don't get enough work, haha

Artists needs to know;

an approximation of what you want it to look like, a description,etc...but if you wanna call the shots, you better show up with something or you waste our time
color(s) of substrate
color limit of print
size(s) of print
all TEXT that will be in it, don't f*ckin add more later..

There's more, it's late.
I'd bet that more than a few others will chime in.

[RisingSunGraphics]

Hire an artist folks, they'll complain about the junk you send em, but they'll fix it.

I am trying to expand my business to online. However, I am not an artist. So I just want to ask.

Is it better to send the customer's art to an artist through me or just tell the customer to contact the artist directly.

How does it usually work in the industry?

Thanks
Anthony

It depends on what you're doing.  As an artist, I personally despise working with the end customer because they tend to be incredibly uneducated on the processes involved in what we do and waste our time, which is very valuable to most of us considering we normally charge by the hour when designing.  Although I cannot speak for everyone, most artists I know don't like dealing with the end customer so this will be to your benefit.

If you have a good rapport with an artist, it's best you work out a nice pricing structure with them (the artist) that will allow you to make a little money on the artist's work as well as let the artist make money.  Consider your take a finders fee.  The only reason an artist would give you such a pricing structure would be because you send them a good amount of work.  Otherwise, you'll most likely pay the same that everyone else does and that won't allow you to make any money on your efforts.

Your end goal would be to want to employ a capable artist full time as freelance rates are vastly most expensive than having a full time artist.  Again, I say "capable" for a reason though.  Hire yourself a college grad with no book and no experience for the benefit of not having to pay them very much and, well...let's just say you get what you pay for in those situations.

[Command-Z]

Hire an artist folks, they'll complain about the junk you send em, but they'll fix it.

I am trying to expand my business to online. However, I am not an artist. So I just want to ask.

Is it better to send the customer's art to an artist through me or just tell the customer to contact the artist directly.

How does it usually work in the industry?

Thanks
Anthony

I've had clients do it both ways.

I prefer to deal directly with the end client when it comes to instruction, with the printer involved (CC'd) to help educate about the specs and process. Next best thing is when the printer just forwards the end client's instructions directly to me without trying to interperet the instructions.

As far as payment, it's up the the shop... for expensive, custom designs it's probably more appropriate for the end client to pay the artist directly. Copyright transfer comes into play here as well. If you want a piece of the action and want to add fees, then have the artist bill you.

[Command-Z]

I haven't been at this ( screenpriting ) forever, but it's been well over a decade.
I have, however been doing art forever.

You want good seps?
You need good art.

So, having realised that many moons ago, I spend all my sep time fixing the art.
Then the seps are easy.

Just a thought.
 

Absolutely, Chadwick. Even if I don't make the art directly in channels, I set up my layers and masks with sepping in mind.

In fact everything I do follows the thought, "how will I sep this?"

Problem is, when I do art for offset I think the same thing... then sigh in relief knowing it won't come to that. 

[abchung]

Thanks for the info guys.