I would say either screen printing, vinyl or outsource one of those two options. If you are only doing small runs then vinyl may work for you. If your going with a higher quantity, then screen printing is where its at. I hope that answers your question. Best of luck to you!
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re: Best method for printing a 1-2 color "I Heart" t-shirt design?
my understanding is there is a type of vinyl (there are many types) that stretch and feel no different than a screen printed image. so, apparently, it's not all that ruggedly thick layer that we're familiar with from our football jerseys.
unless it's noted otherwise, i assume when people say 't-shirt' they mean 100% cotton.
i clicked on your link, mark, but i couldn't access any of the site other than the first page. maybe it's this old Plan B computer i'm on?
my understanding is there is a type of vinyl (there are many types) that stretch and feel no different than a screen printed image. so, apparently, it's not all that ruggedly thick layer that we're familiar with from our football jerseys.
unless it's noted otherwise, i assume when people say 't-shirt' they mean 100% cotton.
i clicked on your link, mark, but i couldn't access any of the site other than the first page. maybe it's this old Plan B computer i'm on?
Siser Easyweed and Spectra Ecofilm are both vinyl offerings that have a great hand and a nice look. Ecofilm's closer to the screen printed look. It's not thick at all, and doesn't have that athletic jersey look to it.my understanding is there is a type of vinyl (there are many types) that stretch and feel no different than a screen printed image. so, apparently, it's not all that ruggedly thick layer that we're familiar with from our football jerseys.
unless it's noted otherwise, i assume when people say 't-shirt' they mean 100% cotton.
i clicked on your link, mark, but i couldn't access any of the site other than the first page. maybe it's this old Plan B computer i'm on?
For what you want to do, I'd recommend getting a heat press and doing either vinyl or plastisol transfers. If you're just getting into this and aren't particularly familiar with how to work with vector art, I'd recommend plastisol transfers for your initial run. There's less of a barrier to entry with that method, and less headaches while you see if your concept will work for your market or not.
water based and discharge are going to cost more, and the only water-based transfer i'm aware of is made using proprietary processes by avery denison. in other words, if you want to use either of these processes, you'd have to outsource the entire production or do it yourself, and from what i gather discharge ain't no fun. the results are desirable in terms of having virtually no hand to speak of, but that not saying that's what your market cares about in that particular shirt (e.g., for what the design is they may not want to pay the extra cost for it).
i'm leaning towards vinyl even more so for you. i have to agree, it's your only option other than sublimation (and that's usually not the best option for most people) or heat transfers, but since the design would be on the large-ish side, or so it sounds, a transfer probably isn't the ideal method. it's do-able, just not what i'd say is your best bet here.
since you want to do onesy-twosies and maybe a few really small runs, i'd say that leaves plastisol transfers out as just being too cost prohibitive.
to further throw in on the vinyl side, you can do a lot of things with a vinyl set up other than just shirts. other than just the products you can make, if you wanted to offer a service, this is what i plan on doing when/if i ever get a vinyl set up: i'll set up at the large flea market here and sell whatever shirts people want of me, but specialize in school shirts which are generally pretty basic one or two colour designs, and print on demand and offer their names and/or a number on back. and decals, too, tons of people get those.
the idea is that you can do a lot more than just shirts with just about any of these processes, and the side stuff is worth checking out.
the results are desirable in terms of having virtually no hand to speak of, but that not saying that's what your market cares about in that particular shirt (e.g., for what the design is they may not want to pay the extra cost for it). i'm leaning towards vinyl even more so for you. i have to agree, it's your only option other than sublimation (and that's usually not the best option for most people) or heat transfers, but since the design would be on the large-ish side, or so it sounds, a transfer probably isn't the ideal method. it's do-able, just not what i'd say is your best bet here.
since you want to do onesy-twosies and maybe a few really small runs, i'd say that leaves plastisol transfers out as just being too cost prohibitive.
to further throw in on the vinyl side, you can do a lot of things with a vinyl set up other than just shirts. other than just the products you can make, if you wanted to offer a service, this is what i plan on doing when/if i ever get a vinyl set up: i'll set up at the large flea market here and sell whatever shirts people want of me, but specialize in school shirts which are generally pretty basic one or two colour designs, and print on demand and offer their names and/or a number on back. and decals, too, tons of people get those.
the idea is that you can do a lot more than just shirts with just about any of these processes, and the side stuff is worth checking out.
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