Hi There, We have just purchased our screen printing equipment and were planning to do just one colour jobs to begin with but we have been asked by two companies to print their tshirts (with a print run of 200 shirts) for each job...they have both got a 2 colour logo. I hope this doesn't sound stupid but I don't have a Photoshop package or anything., how do we get the artwork camera ready. We receive the logo in a jpeg format on to our computer...what do we do next? Apart from the obvious which would be to hire a free lance graphic designer...I am open to all suggestions!
Thanks in advance for your help.
You are going to have to seperate your colors out. If you have know software i.e Photoshop or Corel Draw... I would suggest having you screens shot by another company. There are several places that will take you art seperate it out and shot your screens for you. With the number of shirts you are printing I think you can afford this option. I'm sure someone here as outsourced screens and can give you some leads.
Hi There, We have just purchased our screen printing equipment and were planning to do just one colour jobs to begin with but we have been asked by two companies to print their tshirts (with a print run of 200 shirts) for each job...they have both got a 2 colour logo. I hope this doesn't sound stupid but I don't have a Photoshop package or anything., how do we get the artwork camera ready. We receive the logo in a jpeg format on to our computer...what do we do next? Apart from the obvious which would be to hire a free lance graphic designer...I am open to all suggestions!
Thanks in advance for your help.
Orla
Not sure what kind of experience you have, but it sounds like this is your first attempt at screen printing? You will need somebody to draw your logos in vector formats, and then separate the colors for you. Are you going to make your own screens? Have you made screens before? Have you printed at all before? If not, I would not recommend taking a paying job for 2-color shirts. There will be an extended learning curve for this (screen making and printing) and your first shirts will not be near as good a quality as they are once you get the hang of it. And you don't really want to start taking paying jobs until you are confident in your printing abilities.
You were right in your thinking. Start out with 1 color and get the hang of making quality screens and printing nice clean prints. Then take a shot at 2 colors.
Thanks for your advice. We have the screen-printing side of it up and running and have a number of our different prints/slogans in shops already - our problem is printing off actual logos - if that makes sense!
I don't understand why you took a 2-color job when you said up front that you only do 1-color jobs!?
90% of screenprinting work happens BEFORE you pick up a squeegee. Pre-press work will make or break you. You gotta have good design software and color separation capability, as well as the ability to output films.
When a customer brings you a crappy jpg you may have to re-draw it.
I recommend that you find a contract printer in your area to do it for you until you're 100% comfortable with the process yourself. Starting out there is nothing worse than not being able to meet a deadline or providing sub-par work, and a job of 200 could cause you tons of headaches. In your free time, try to do print the design, so you're learning, but don't risk losing a new customer with something over your head.
Yeah, you SAY you only want to do 1-color jobs, but then right off the bat "need help ASAP" making a 2-color job.
Be upfront with the customer and do not pretend to be what you are not. Tell them you are set up to do 1-color process jobs, but that you have been wanting to step up and do multicolor jobs... Tell them you'll give them a good price (close to cost) in exchange for them being your 2-color practice job.
They are happy about getting a good deal, plus you get to practice printing for free.
Looking for some help asap 
Re: Looking for some help asap 
