Fortress Social Club Custom Xmas Cards

Before Xmas, we had the pleasure to print custom Christmas Cards for the Fortress Social Club guys. This Los Angeles based ensemble of highly talented musicians is always on the cutting edge, and this year they really wanted to send out custom printed Xmas cards to all their fans. Shawn Harris threw out the idea last minute and we had to scramble to make it happen for them, but we love to come thru for like minded artistic individuals as ourselves, and here we did.

Because of the quick turnaround time, we decided to print these cards FOUR to a page to limit the number of paper cuts that were needed. Cutting paper perfectly (making sure the edges are even, etc) is time consuming and if we can just do 2 single cuts (center & center), that would speed things up, even if it meant printing a few more pages.

First we aligned up the film to the paper, to assure the print will be centered on the paper.

Then, taking the film and creating registration marks in order to get every single sheet lined up in exactly the same place is KEY. We usually use registration guides, except when the border is very close to the edge, which forces us to just use tape.

Next, Pantone ink mixing is the key to making any paper prints look amazing. 2 Pantone colors were given to us by FSC, which we custom mix with our Pantone Color Matching System (PMS) books.

Finally, were ready to start printing. Getting everything prepared before the ink gets printed into the mesh of the screen is key, since once you begin printing, the time clock begins and the ink starts immediately drying. We have to make sure we thought of everything before printing begins. On paper, each color must be printed separately, then dried and brought back for the other colors. Here, were printing the green color first:

After breaking down and cleaning the 1st screen, we align the 2nd screen, throw on the premixed RED ink, and print away!

Finally, the paper gets dried after a few hours...we then machine cut each sheet into 4 separate pieces, making 4 FINAL cards out of each printed sheet here.

Movember Custom Printed Posters

We had the VERY unique opportunity to help out the amazing group Movember. These guys have a rad charity dedicated to various stages of Men's Health, and every November 1st they get everyone to go clean shaven, then grow their "MO" (short for Moustache) for the entire month of November, while simultaneously fund raising for supporting Men's Health.

We worked with the artist Shawn Harris on the art, which was perfectly print ready and sloppy, allowing a lot of wiggle room with the print style that we like. Print was 3 colors on 18x24 paper. We used a 100# cover stock Flavor's Gourmet paper (color Smoked Sea Salt) with color matched Permaset inks.

After printing, Shawn signed each one, then we hand numbered each one individually. After, we had to roll each of the 1300 posters into individual poster tubes (white glove rolled with tissue paper inside each one). 25 boxes of posters is never an easy task, but with the help of the Print Renegades crew, we got through it and they looked amazing!!

Movember is doing their opening kick off parties TODAY all around the country. The Los Angeles show is at the Whiskey A-Go Go in West Hollywood, CA. GO MOVEMBER!! #GENMO

Maniac! Tour Merch

Our buddy Shawn Harris is SO talented. He firstly started singing with The Matches (of whom we used to hang out with when they would bring their guitars out and play for the crowds exiting the House of Blues in West Hollywood before they were big). Now he teamed up with Jake Grigg from the Australian band "Something with Numbers" to create Maniac! They asked us to help them create some unique merch for their tour with Foxy Schazam...and that we did.

Their shirts were an interesting creation, but Shawn was adamant about having it look different, so we used 2 different colors of ink on the same screen to create a gradient pattern without having to use and print 2 different screens/colors. The result was brilliant!

Maniac Hand printed LA Canvas Posters

This post was from a year ago, but we thought it cool enough to repost.

Our friends in the band Maniac were recently featured on the cover of the latest LA Canvas magazine. They wanted to print some rad handprinted posters to match the art that they created for the cover of the mag. We let them come into the Print Renegade HQ to lay out the posters and go to town on their creative stylings. Heres a little bit of how they created these amazing hand printed posters. (hand spray painting the first color, then printing the 2nd). TRUE ARTISTS!!