Lori Fenn is a true artist. Based in Phoenix, and after calling dozens of print shops in 3 different states, she finally found us. She told us that she had a 12 color poster job, 24" x 24", and that everyone she called either told her that they wouldn't do it, or it would cost her over $50 per print. As always, we stood out as being the diamond in the rough: the print shop that not only says YES to things most wont touch, but our prices were extremely competitive.
So, off to the races. We were able to cut these posters down ourselves to prep for this job, and given the larger-than-normal number of colors in this particular print, every stage of prep just seemed to take a whole lot longer. Mixing 12 custom Pantone colors, burning 12 'Tier 4' sized screens, registering each color...very time consuming.
The printing process is really a science: it doesnt matter if you are printing a 2 color or 200 color job: the process and steps are all the same, and if you have everything down pat, its like anything else: you get into a rhythm and slowly chip away at the creation process. The cool thing is that as you layer color on top of color on top of color, you are able to see the artwork develop in front of your very eyes.
This is why we, as printers, love what we do. Yeah, we print for other people, mainly using their own artwork that they have created, but to be able to have a hand in building the art from a production stand point; to create something identically to someone specifications by using the skills artistic abilities that we have: this is the true art of print!
Sometimes working with certain clients is a pleasure, and really makes our job as printers much easier. Working with Raymond and the guys at Raveready are those clients: even though their jobs are technically difficult and sometimes take a LOT of work and man hours, the fact that they are cool people and create a stress-free working relationship really dictates the ease of the job.
Most recently, we worked with their brand Hardcore Till I Die, and were printing a bunch of flags for some of their rave shows that were in town. These flags were 100% polyester, which is still possible to silk screen onto, but was a very large format oversized print. Our set up is slightly different than printing on anything else, but we have the system down to pump them out and make them look great.
The flags were flown around the entire festival and looked amazing!!
