Am I alone on this?

[farmboygraphics]

15 years in and I've only had 3 ink colors mixed for me for one customer. I watch videos from other shops and they have shelves covered with mixed inks, I have about 2 dozen go to inks. Is this typical or am I just not pushing myself?

[Frog]

You apparently just don't do much work for folks with art from designers who call for Pantone colors rather than your stock ones.

[zanegun08]

You are probably a-typical, but you are doing it the right way in my opinion.

Having a bunch of inks mixed is over-rated, we have a huge library of ink that is aging, 1/4 with phallates, 1/4 with out, 1/4 EKO, 1/4 Waterbase.

There are pro's and con's to both ways, but if you have managed how you are doing it for 15 years, by all means don't start mixing a bunch of inks for one time use.

We have shelves full of crappy colors that will not get used for years.  If it were up to me, if we mixed a custom color we would charge for it, which would include the cost to dispose of the extra ink, then after each order if it wasn't from a stock color list, we would dispose of the waste ink, which over time you could improve on estimating how much you need, and reducing waste.

[Colin]

It completely depends on who your market is.

For our shop: 2 autos - We do a lot of corporate work.  That means matching and printing a lot of pantone color swatches.  We also do a good amount of sim-process which means pantone.

We also do a good chunk of school work.  For this we also print pantone matches - and use inks right off of the ink manufacturer's color charts.  Locally that means Kelly Green and Crimson.

First manual shop I worked at, we had 15 regular ink manufacturers colors and a small shelf of "eyeball" color mixes.  We only ever had pantone matches mixed up once.

[bimmridder]

OMFG... (sorry, had to start that way) So many times I see folks out there doing the same thing I do, but differently. We all print. We don't do custom or walk in. Blah blah blah. We do Licensed sports apparel, and I crap you not, I have over 800 PMS colors on my shelves. I won't say I hate you, but I hate you.

[brandon]

You have a good thing going. Yes, every shop is different but you sound like you have a good set of clients as long as the cash flow is consistent. It is what we like about HSA inks over discharge ink now. Well, to be precise I should say HSA ink printed on top of discharge. But with our new turn around time of 48 to 72 hours being the standard we are giving our clients a choice of custom stock mixes. It's a good variety but still very easy to manage and cuts out a lot of hassle. Especially when shirts arrive in the morning and go out in the afternoon. Work it man! Good for you.

[GaryG]

I'd say as long as you aren't losing business by not mixing for a customer, more power to you.
We must have over 200 pc mixes over the same 15 years.

Do you just have a stock color card on the counter, or how do you get away with so few?

If I didn't mix regularly, I guarantee they would be dissatisfied. It may depend upon your bent to satisfy your clientele,
or shy to get into mixing.

[Screened Gear]

I have been doing this for almost 9 years and I am guessing I have only mixed 40 or so. I do easy mixes of standard colors more. Since I told my contract guys to take a hike, I have maybe done 5 pantones. I charge $25 per color but its a one time per design per customer. For good customers I use the $25 as a deterant but never charge it for them. I am much like you and have about 2 dozen colors that work fine for most of my customers. Honestly I only need white, black, red and royal for 75% of my customers. Most are just white or black. Its the contract guys that try to upsell pantones and more colors and locations.

[farmboygraphics]

Do you just have a stock color card on the counter, or how do you get away with so few?

If I didn't mix regularly, I guarantee they would be dissatisfied. It may depend upon your bent to satisfy your clientele,
or shy to get into mixing.

If someone says I want green, I ask what shade, then show them either the lime, brite green or forest. They pick one and that's that. I don't do any corporate or licensed work. Just run of the mill (for me) stuff. I'd say 60% of what we do is black and white prints. 

[farmboygraphics]

OMFG... (sorry, had to start that way) So many times I see folks out there doing the same thing I do, but differently. We all print. We don't do custom or walk in. Blah blah blah. We do Licensed sports apparel, and I crap you not, I have over 800 PMS colors on my shelves. I won't say I hate you, but I hate you.

It's all cool 

[zanegun08]

I have over 800 PMS colors on my shelves. I won't say I hate you, but I hate you.

I feel your pain, try over 3000 with crappy math, probably well over that

quarts are two deep, by nine wide, by two tall = 36 x 12 = 432 per shelf, and the photo is cutting out shelves, and the closet of ink, or the buckets and gallons you can't see on the inside, basically it is out of control.

Don't get into this situation, otherwise you are just putting money on the shelf that will never be used, it's out of control, and has been an ongoing ballooning thing for years, and we keep adding new ink systems and adding to the epidemic.

[SoccerMom]

     People are fickle creatures, and will agonize over the "perfect" color for days even weeks, I find mixing all like colors (multiple shades of blue for example) in a clean can and with clever sales pitch will be the magic bullet that keeps your shelves somewhat clean.

[jsheridan]

I have over 800 PMS colors on my shelves. I won't say I hate you, but I hate you.

I feel your pain, try over 3000 with crappy math, probably well over that

Barefoot, right on bro!

Start taking all your dark colors and mix them into black using a high pigment black. Lighter colors can make grays. Reds, yellows and blues make all your Browns and all those extra buckets of white mix together and use for those white on gray jobs or a crappy under base job.

The current coated guide has over 8000 colors in it..
I'd say half that was on shelves from floor to ceiling on two walls and floor racks when I walked into mirror image the first time. Ink girl was a wiz at color but the messiest person I've ever met, well Sam might from what I've heard his shop looks like.. Anyway.. Took us a month and two 55 waste drums to organize and clean it up.

[tonypep]

This how we roll with the dreaded plastisol........

[beanie357]

We have too many. But our market requires it. We make various quantities based on useage. Saves constant mixing. Schools show up several times a year, corporates are ongoing. Needing a pint, mixing, then 4 weeks later doing again kinda wastes too much time. If this is your market, you mix it, save it, use it. Figure out best storage.