Beyond 5 Tour Merch

Our friends at Beyond 5 are really stepping up their game. Driven by the roots of groups like "One Direction", these guys are just as talented as they inspiring. When they play live, their syncopated stylings are similar to how sports teams play together, being able to act as one unit but still sounding amazing as young kids do these days.

They recently embarked on a tour around Asia, just in time to get back to a sold out show in their hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah. We had the chance to print a few hundred shirts of different colors, sizes and decorations. All the garments used were 50/50 blend tees.

Each print was a 2 color print of their logo, some of which were just standard prints and some that were foiled. Soft waterbased inks were required, but the blend tees made it impossible to discharge. Also, since they wanted only a part of their image foiled, and those parts overlapped with each other, we had to print part of the design with a waterbased ink and other parts with oil based; in order to not have the foil stick to the entire image. (since foil sticks only to plastisol ink...).

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.

Custom Printed Wedding Invitations

The great thing about running a print shop is the VARIOUS types of projects that we have the opportunity to work with. Here at Print Renegades, we are always open to working with a wide range of different people on things that are out of the normal, since it not only allows up the chance to widen our portfolio but it also makes up better at what we are: not a normal print shop.

We had the chance to print some custom wedding invites for some friends who wanted something different, diverse and unique for their wedding: hand screen printed wedding invitations. For this, we used a thick 110# cardstock paper with high opacity waterbased inks, and we printed the invitations along with the directions AND reply-to cards as well...a set that were sent to the people invited to the events of that weekend.

These turned out better than imagined, and they received a really good response not only from the bride and groom who we printed them for, but also everyone who received them. They went down as a good keepsake for such a memorable life event.

SunDowners Motorcycle Club Tshirts

Last month we worked with the SunDowners, a motorcycle club based out of San Fernando Valley. They have a club house, a mysterious number of members, and arent to be messed with! Aside from just weekend rides and monthly member events, they also do a lot of charity work around SFV. Go community!

They approached Print Renegades in need of help with developing their brand and logo, so we helped them with every step of the way from design, branding and printing. The shirts were a 3 color print with soft discharge inks on heavyweight Tshirts. They were stoked, and invited us to one of their weekend rides. We heard street bike and Harley riders dont get along...well stick to the track races! :)

Risk Vs Reward Winter 2013

For the release of their Winter line for Risk Vs Reward Clothing, they had a bunch of new designs they were releasing at this years Unique LA craft fair in Downtown LA and really need to find the right printer to really nail each and every design. The owner, Dean, is very particular about the sizing of each image, the inks used, the colors of each design and making sure that every single element is paid attention to and no corners are cut.

Enter Print Renegades. Not only did we nail each of the designs, but we did it in record time, spending a few 18 hour days completing the designs so that they could ALL be ready for the start of the show on Saturday. Although it was rigorous and very difficult to work such long hours, the gratification that each of the designs brought as we completed them began to be the fuel that we used to continue on to finish them. It really made us realize that this work isnt just about the money or power, but more about being able to give every single client we work with EXACTLY what they want. Thats true craftsmanship!

Foundation For A Better Life Tote Bag Finishing

After we did all the printing for the FBL Tote Bag Printing, we were asked to custom tag, fold and bag each individual bag. Seems easy when its just a few, but with 5000 pieces its a feat that is more difficult than meets the eye.

First, we had to print each of the cards with "Gratitude" on them, and then punch a smaller-than-normal 3/16th hole in each. From there, we decided to use silver metallic twist ties to attach the tags, to make them look like Christmas gifts.

And finally, after each was tagged, folding and bagging each one was something straight out of China. We had a great time, with all of us assembly line style folding each bag, sometimes competing to see which team could fold stacks of 100 faster. (we were doing them in 4 minutes per 100). This was definitely one of these very self fulfilling jobs that makes you feel good once its all completed! With this job, we filled the world with more Gratitude! :)

MySpace Custom Halloween Masks

This last Halloween, we were asked by the people at MySpace Music to help with with a very customize project: Custom Printed and Cut Halloween Masks for one of their artists, Mellowhigh. Mellowhigh is a hip hop group composed of members of Odd Future, and they needed custom made masks for their record release party at the Henry Fonda Theater. What better people to take on such a task as Print Renegades??

Firstly we hand printed these masks using high quality waterbased Permaset inks on very durable 140# coverstock French Paper. The artwork was a little perspective askew, so was difficult to print, .

From there we made our own custom die (as you can see, its a little homemade) and hand punched out every one of these masks. From there, hot glue held on the elastic backing (staples are cheap and dangerous), and after making a few hundred of these, they turned out pretty amazingly. That just made us feel very confident about us taking on random odd jobs, and being able to make it better than we thought.