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How Does My Art<br />
Get onto Shirts?<br />
What happens to your awesome design once you send it to the printer? Do you<br />
send it off into “thin air” and a box of shirts shows up at your door a week later?<br />
Have you ever received something back from the printer and got pissed because<br />
the colors were off or the design was too small or in the wrong location?<br />
I have! And I wonder, what goes on over there?!<br />
That feeling of sending your design off into “thin air” is a common one. To alleviate<br />
that feeling, you need to get comfortable with your printer and make<br />
friends who can ensure your shirts come back just like you designed them. Talk<br />
to the sales reps at your print shop. Try to talk with the actual human being that<br />
is looking at your design and setting it up on the press. The idea is to understand<br />
what’s happening behind the scenes so you can be more efficient and<br />
confident in your designs. And make sure to get a press proof!<br />
So how exactly DOES your design get onto a shirt? It totally depends on the<br />
printing method. Are they screen printing or using some sort of direct to garment<br />
process? You can find a ton of information about this stuff at t-shirtforums.<br />
com but I’m going to outline the most common t-shirt printing methods:<br />
Fall Out Boy design by Horsebites<br />
THREAD’S NOT DEAD • Jeff Finley<br />
Screen Printing<br />
This is by far the most common way your art gets onto<br />
a t-shirt. Most graphic t-shirts in retail stores use this<br />
method. The print is achieved by forcing ink through a<br />
mesh “stencil” one color at a time. There are typically<br />
limitations on how many colors you can print as well as<br />
the print size. Today, screen printing shops are working<br />
to reduce these limitations by offering full color<br />
process printing (where they print a blend of Cyan, Magenta,<br />
Yellow, and Black to simulate a full color print).<br />
They’re also creating larger screen sizes to accompany<br />
the popularity of jumbo prints. Links: Jakprints.com<br />
and Storenvy.com<br />
Heat Transfer<br />
This is the classic iron-on method. Anyone can buy<br />
special paper and print designs onto it. Then an iron is<br />
used to apply heat and sort of melts the design into the<br />
t-shirt. Heat transfers can achieve full color, photo-like<br />
prints. These are ideal for one-off or small run orders.<br />
However, the prints crackle and come off the t-shirt after<br />
about 20 washes. I would reserve this method for<br />
the hobbyist. Check out these common questions for<br />
more info.<br />
Vinyl<br />
A<strong>not</strong>her, more obscure printing method is with vinyl. A<br />
machine is used to cut out designs on vinyl one color<br />
at a time. Similar to heat transfer, heat is used to apply<br />
the cut vinyl to the t-shirt. I’ve never used this method<br />
myself, but from what I have heard, designs printed in<br />
this method generally do <strong>not</strong> last and are very heavy<br />
to wear. This method wouldn’t be ideal for complex designs.<br />
Here’s a video tutorial to demonstrate the process<br />
of using heat transfer vinyl.<br />
Printing & Production 47
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