Bad Prints Gallery

[alan802]

I was looking at some shirts at our local grocery store last night, and they have this whole section dedicated to t-shirts from local high schools, NFL teams, and the latest fashion tees.  I always look at the quality of the prints when I'm in a store and usually I'm appalled by the lack of quality that print shops have that do retail work.  I know some of this stuff is done locally, because I've seen bids for some of the local schools and the prints they want done, and it's pretty obvious that they go with the cheapest by looking at some of these prints.  I decided (maybe against my better judgement) to start taking pics of some of the worst offenders and starting this thread.  Let me know if this is a bad idea and we can scrap it.  I'm not going to post pics of shirts that I know the print shop who did it, so that leaves most of the local stuff out, but here are some pics of some "fashion" prints that I hope to hell that someone on this forum didn't print!  If so, maybe it will motivate you to do better work.  For most of these, pics won't do them justice, they are much worse than what the camera will show, so you'll have to trust me.

From a distance, not that bad, but get closer than 6 feet to it and you'll notice that someone didn't give a damn about registration.


Close up of the above print.


This one made me think I was going crosseyed because it was so blurry.


Close up of the above truck print, and no, the camera wasn't shaking, that's what it looks like in person.


This was the best of last nights contest, which isn't saying much.


Close up.

[JBLUE]

I took a stroll through Target yesterday and thought the same damn thing. Out of the thirty or so graphics I checked every single one was out of reg. Crazy how the quality is just crap. Yesterday we also went to a kids party at one of those rock crawling gyms. Their shirts had the texture of the concrete that we were climbing on. I talked to the owner and he just did not know any better. He saw my company shirt I was wearing and I now have a new customer.

[RICK STEFANICK]

Its funny how we are critical of other peoples work when i guarantee that a few just like it have slipped by each of us also.apparently these printers are doing something right because they have the client and got thru the qc audits..sorry, I just cant stand these kind of negative posts..

[alan802]

Its funny how we are critical of other peoples work when i guarantee that a few just like it have slipped by each of us also.apparently these printers are doing something right because they have the client and got thru the qc audits..sorry, I just cant stand these kind of negative posts..

Sure am sorry to ruffle your feathers, we can take this down no problem.  It won't hurt my fealings like this post has struck a nerve with you, so Frog and the gang, feel free.  That's one of the reasons why I did put in the post that it might not be the best idea for a thread but I am a bit surprised at the response.  I'm ok with taking it down if that's the sentiment from even one of the members here.

And I assure you, nothing like those have left our shop.  If these printers are considered successful by some then I'll just disagree. Maybe we should all just print as cheaply as possible and undercut everyone else to get our work in these types of stores and let quality fly out the window.  If that is considered successful then I guess we'll be unsuccessful.  It's clear the grocery store buys this type of merch based on price and not quality.

[jasonl]

I was looking at Old Navy the other day, and its amazing what some of their suppliers get away with.

[RICK STEFANICK]

no no  dont take it down. we are all professionals here and have a right to our opinions.thats what makes this board so great..sorry if it sounded like i directed it personally at you, sometimes i need to choose my words better. please accept my apology alan. you know some of those large printers are running 100-150 thousand shirts a day. they do q.c audits and with those numbers i guess a few get thru.

[Prosperi-Tees]

although I'm by far not a great printer but I also notice them at local stores as well and can't understand how they get thru and its not just one or two of the batch its the whole rack so it's not a qc issue its a printing issue. I like seeing them because it makes me feel like I'm on the right track.

[RICK STEFANICK]

i understand its a printing issue but those large chain stores like gap(old navy) etc. send in their own qc team that pulls audits on orders befor they are shipped. usually things like this are caught and the order is failed and must be gone thru and re audited befor shipping.

[alan802]

no no  dont take it down. we are all professionals here and have a right to our opinions.thats what makes this board so great..sorry if it sounded like i directed it personally at you, sometimes i need to choose my words better. please accept my apology alan. you know some of those large printers are running 100-150 thousand shirts a day. they do q.c audits and with those numbers i guess a few get thru.

I accept and please accept my apology.  I took it harder than I should have and overreacted.  I have no idea how some of the huge operations run, I can't imagine printing 100K shirts a day and knowing that I probably shouldn't talk poorly about the print quality like I do, but I just can't help it.  It's long been a pet peeve of mine to walk into a store and see absurd prints that may not be easy to accomplish and we might struggle to do them, so I refrain from critiquing those types.  But the prints that are so out of registration and you can tell the double or triple stroked something, or any number of printing no-no's really bother me to no end.  It irks me because there are a great number of us, particularly on this forum who think quality is of the utmost importance and we are getting passed over in favor of shops who just slather a couple colors on a shirt and shove it out the door before anyone can say it looks like pooh. 

I'd love to sit down with a purchaser for some of these stores and spend an hour with them and ask them questions.  I'd like to know if they personally EVER look at some of the shirts that are on their shelves or do they simply not care, or perhaps the most common reason is they have no idea what a decent print looks like.  I know I'm looking harder at these prints than anyone who buys them or purchases them for their business, but damn, some of them are so terrible that even an idiot can tell that's it's junk.

Along this same subject, I know I've mentioned this before but only briefly, but has anyone ever noticed or looked at the youth apparel like at the Disney stores in the mall or even Babies & Toys R Us?  Most everyone of those prints are top notch, they are way more indicative of something that would come out of our shop than 98% of what I see on adult shirts.  I have some opinions or theories as to why this is but I'd like to hear some of my fellow printer's thoughts on why this phenomenon exists.  Is it because the shops who comply fully with the new rules and regulations are just good print shops?  Is it because of the fact that printing smaller images on smaller pallets with bigger screens allows for better prints?  Or is it a couple other things that are a little more far fetched that cause this difference.  If some of you aren't aware or don't believe this phenomenon to exist, trust me, start looking at youth prints versus adult.  And it's not the obvious reason of Disney using top quality art and print shops, these awesome prints are in stores like Carters, Walmart, Target, K-Mart, Buy-Buy Baby etc.

AND...GO!

[Screened Gear]

I like this topic. I am not going to be able to add anything to it because I stopped looking at printed shirts in stores years ago. It is the samething I had to do when I was a designer for print. Just looking at a menu would drive me nuts. Out of registration, not centered, bad color choice, stolen - not legal fonts, you name it.

Good luck.

[JBLUE]

Its funny how we are critical of other peoples work when i guarantee that a few just like it have slipped by each of us also.apparently these printers are doing something right because they have the client and got thru the qc audits..sorry, I just cant stand these kind of negative posts..

Like Alan I can 100% say that this type of crap has not nor will not leave our shop. We do print for retail and it will not happen. If it does someone will be needing a new job. I know that the guys that do this print for almost nothing and dont care. You have to sometimes to do runs for these big box stores. We are not that way. They get good quality if we do the work period.

[Dottonedan]

This will sound bold, rude, Agressive, and unpopular, but I'm not one for popularity votes. I'm sure my counter parts might want me to stay out or not be so brash. Sorry. I feel I should say how it is.

Over a years span from a shop that is doing any kind of major production I am positive that "something has gone out that is what some might post as bad crap. If you are a major shop of mass production and claim it would never come out of your shop, you are either lying or unaware. One of the two.

I have been to the mountain and I have seen the promise land of tees and I am hear to say, it occasionally has some bad tees in it. I have been in many major shop and worked in a few top shops myself and even worked in a Disney shop. I know all shops that Disney uses and can assure you that even disney has crap on the floor occasionally. I know that first hand for a fact. We all want to believe it never happens in our shop.  Some say that if you never make a mistake then you are not trying hard enough. The bigger you get, the more you increase your opportunity to make mistakes. It's got to be a part of business. If I take on too much freelance, I make mistakes trying to meet all the deadlines. I know better, but occasionally I take on too much in one day. For me to say I am perfect and will never make a mistake is more than I want to be responsible for.

For the question of how buyers can let something like this go, here is te answer. They approve the Pre production sample and they may have the job revised 3-6 times before approving but once they do, they never see that job again for 3, 6 or 12 months later and if they see the bad product it's like a gamble. After the buyer has approved the quality of the sample, the shop can run the crap out of that print on press and speed up production, money money money. Speed speed speed.

The one time the buyer is in the store and looking at product on the floor can be 1 out of 10 chances. Some of the biggest shops might re-print a design 3 times in one month. over a year, you will see a crappy job on at least two of those re orders. I do feel that the smaller the shop, the more you have a chance of maintaining top quality control. I often said that I would rather own 10 small size shop across the country than to own 1 major shop.

[JBLUE]

I think for the most part we are talking about a good number of pcs in the run. When I can go into a store and see the same mistake through a size run it is pretty fair too say that the majority were F'd up. Have some gotten through us? I am sure a few have but not anymore more than couple even on a bigger run of 20k. Its all how you run your QC. If everyone is held accountable that had their hands on it then it matters.

[RICK STEFANICK]

I know the exact situation dan is speaking about because i have ran those large shops. The big difference is there is no personal factor involved, the owner of general manager is not on top of each order. he relies on the hundreds of employees to do their jobs on possibly 3 shifts. It is about speed and money but I dont think they say" well we are only being paid xxxx so lets run them xxxx quality"  and there is no excuse for quality that looks like that but it is what it is.

[3Deep]

I allso think as some of you that if you say you never let a bad print out your shop your lying or just didn't see it.  Lets look at it this way what you feel might be a jam of a print reggie tight as goats lips might not look good to someone else, that goes for all of us that think everything we do is perfect.  I ,ve seen some bad prints for sure and have did some myself mine you I work like hell for it not to be, I allso think we as printers put a lot of pressure on oursevles to product the best we can (and we should) but the end user sometimes could care less they just want a print on a shirt as cheap as they can get it.  The shop that prints a 1000 shirts and all 1000 is out of register and they didn't care now thats a bad printer or they didn't take the time to cure them correct and  you only get a one time wear before all the ink washes off.

Darryl
Good topic by the way!!!!