The End of Another Year...

Hey Guys!

We know we know, it’s been a WHOLE YEAR, literally, since we’ve gotten a new post up on our blog but we’re looking to change that for 2017. Print Renegades has been growing and growing and we are SO busy (especially for the holidays) that posting on the blog has not been the priority that it should be. Now that we have a full time marketing and social media guy to assist in this, we will definitely be more up and out of our shells to bring you guys the new and improved Renegades!!

Since last December, we have expanded our team to include some new faces to keep production in our shop running like a well-oiled machine and to make sure we stay active on social media and the web. We’ve got a new kick-ass DTG printer, the Epson F2000, that we’ve definitely been putting through its paces these last 12 months and have got it running almost non-stop with our ever-growing job board for Direct-To-Garment print jobs.

Along with DTG business, screen print jobs have not slowed down a tick and we’re constantly pushing ourselves to work outside of our comfort zone from printing oversized flatstock to printing on materials we’ve never printed on before. Our aim is to always say YES! And as you might hear from our customers, we usually do!

Keep your eyes on this blog for a deeper dive into what we’ve been up to and what’s going on at Print Renegades in the future. We have a lot of new equipment were purchasing at the end of this year (tax breaks!!!) and another 1-2 employees we are currently trying to hire to be able to stay ahead of our job schedules, and were super excited to bring all of these new occurences to light coming in 2017. (its weird to write...wow!). Also, keep checking us out on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more behind the scenes stuff! (we post on those more than once a year, we promise!) :)

Hubble Studio Cocktail Napkin Printing

"Hi, I have a crazy question for you". Something that we hear on a daily basis by people who call our shop wondering if we can help them out with printing with some random crazy idea that they have. Having worked in the printing field for so many years, I understand how other screen printing shops think and operate: They care nothing more than profits. They want their days to be filled with the absolutely the most productivity backed with money as possible, and the least amt of time they can spend talking to someone about a job that they would never take on, the better. (this mainly stems from them not branching out and taking on odd jobs and thus, have no ability or skillset to do such things).

At Print Renegades, we are very different. We see things differently. We have a completely different outlook on business, our clients and our workflow. First off, we love to take on odd jobs. When we have the opportunity to accept a job that we have never done before, we take it head on!! We have professionals that help us figure things out that we can call if we have questions about ink types, mesh counts or ways to do things: but more than anything, we, ourselves, have amazingly creative minds to figure things out on our own: to take a problem, then a solution and draw a line between the two.

Aside from that, taking on jobs that are difficult and require extra work might not make us the most money, but they definitely help in our ability to be better printers and this is invaluable. We have had this mindset for years and years now, and Im sure you can imagine how many crazy odd jobs that we have had to force ourselves to figure out, how much better of printers we are now, after the fact. (which is constantly ongoing).

Here is an example of a job that we had to just figure out: Hubble Studios located in Downtown LA, wanted some cocktail napkins printed for an event they were having, and they only had a few days until their event. We swooped in and helped save the day by figuring out HOW and NAILING the production of these napkins. We were able to print 12 at a time, and when printing 2500 pieces, it is indeed time consuming but also leaves a great feeling that we were able to help someone out in time for an important event they were having. (which is kind of what we live for as workers in the service industry!)

Hand Pulled Art Prints for The Dreslyn

Chloe Parks is a graphic artist, set designer, and illustrator based in Los Angeles, CA. She is currently the resident graphic artist at LA’s TheDreslyn.com, a high end independent fashion boutique in the heart of Downtown LA, and her passion for art and design within the context of the fashion industry is growing daily.

The Print Renegades team most recently worked together with Chloe creating some really rad hand pulled Screen Printed 16" x 20"  posters. Basic color design, really rad end result!

These posters were printed using French Pop Tone paper (110# cover) with Permaset Ink, custom Pantone color matched, according to their specifications. Our favorite part about working with artists is their abililty to know exactly what they want, and we act as the medium to take what is in their mind and make it real. 

Print Renegades, producing hand made goods straight out of our shop in the heart of the DTLA Fashion District. 

Preppi Earthquake Prepardness Canvas Bags

We had the chance to work with a really unique job and a really unique company: Preppi. The bags were created out of the need for being prepared for an emergency...with style. These premium bags are hand assembled with a variety of select goods inside that come with the purchase of the bag: materials to which will help you during the first 72 hours of any major natural disaster.

The guys contacted us to help them print these bags. Because they recently had a really great write up in the New York Times, they were in demand and needed a few hundred of these in only a few days. We were able to come through and help them get these done.

The print was a jumbo 2 color print. The tricky thing with these was the alignment of them that needed to be absolutely perfect in order to not conflict with the position of the straps or the handle; but also so that they didn't fall off the edge of either side of the bag. This took us quite a bit of time to really perfect nailing the print location of these abnormally-shaped pieces of canvas, but once we got into the swing of things, they came out amazingly.

Glitter Ink Printing for Fun Society!

Fun Society Kids Clothing is a great start up clothing brand that focuses on the fun in a kids life, and the way that they can show that "fun" spirit as a design on a tshirt.

This last batch of samples that we made for them were very time intensive, labor heavy and customized to their specifications. As we were making them, we started to see their vision develop in front of our eyes.

For this batch, we used a very low mesh screen in order to print a pink Glitter ink onto the garments. Glitter printing is a special effects printing ink that can be used, but is difficult to get fine detail in the print. We didn't have any problem making these look great with the glitter print. They also got neck tag printing, and each got individually bagged and tagged WITH full color hang tags (that we also printed), so they are ready for the retail shelves immediately. Keep up the good work, guys!!

Hand Printed Apparel Hang Tags

Sometimes its better to do even the simplest of things yourself. DIY projects not only keep us more creative and at the top of our game, but also end up being very unique and really show with our style of work. Sure, we can have a

That's the thought process over at Tavin. This small bohemian retail shop is located in Echo Park in the heart of the trendy neighborhood that makes up Echo Park Blvd. This store is definitely inspired by world travel and a very unique style of apparel design in Los Angeles. Because they are a unique clothing store, they like to produce their hang tags with a hand made feel. That is where Print Renegades comes in.

We start with blank apparel tags (made of natural colored manilla colored cardstock) and we are able to print 14 tags at a time. We have to print on pallet tape so that we know where to align these cards, but once that's done, we are able to print away!

Each tag double sided, so each requires double the time and double the work, but because each of the 14 cards are different, we are able to produce a wide variety of cards with different photos and quotes on them. In the end, this is a quick and inexpensive way to have a very unique hang tag for a product that people love, especially when that product has its own unique properties itself!

 

Custom Printed Designer Tags

Sometimes even the most simple things take a lot of time and effort to perfect. Our friend, Shaina Mote, Women's fashion designer, extraordinaire, needed to re-up on her stockpile of printed custom tags for her new lines that she is sampling right now, and we were her go-to to get those done.

These tags were just strips of fabric, almost like edging or trim, but natural canvas style edging. She cuts it into strips and we print her custom tags right over top of them, then she is able to cut them and sew them directly into the garments when she produces her new lines. Its a really cheap and professional way for Shaina to get really nice custom tags made, and the way that we have developed printing them, its easy for us to churn out lots of these tags with minimal effort.

There are SO many ways to develop cheap and easy workarounds in the fashion world by using Screen printing as the medium, a way to avoid high minimums by other industries yet still keeping the quality as the highest priority!