1. Pick Your Shirt Style & Color
First you should ask yourself, “Am I an indecisive person?” If you are, then stick with our tried and true options. The most popular shirts we print on are American Apparel and Gildan, both of which are sweatshop free. AA is cut slimmer and super soft while Gildan (and other more affordable options) tend to be boxier. Either way it’s easy on the conscience.
2. Pick Your Ink Colors
Once you’ve got your base style and color you need to pick some ink. We can print one to four colors. Price depends on the number of colors printed as every color needs its own screen. If you need a specific Pantone color we can match it. Custom mixes are $15 per color. Here’s some math: More colors = more labor = more expensive.
3. Figure Out Quantity
Two easy questions: How many shirts do you want and what sizes do you need? Because screen printing is an industrial process there’s some set up involved which makes it cheaper per shirt to print 500 tees than it is to print 50. Minimum number of shirts we can print is 24. Additional cost for XXL & 3XL.
4. Finalize Artwork
We can use a design you’ve given us or make something from scratch. If you have a finalized design (300 dpi or in vector format) we’ll give you a discount. If you have an simple idea, we’ll be able to work something up for you. If it’s a complex concept and you don’t have artwork we charge $65 an hour.
Things to Consider
Labor Practices: The world is small. Treat others how you would want to be treated. Two websites worth noting: Workers Rights Consortium or Clean Clothes Campaign are great resources to check before you buy because with your dollars you’re either supporting or ending oppression in the garment industry. Be informed. Garments that are produced fairly tend to be more expensive than those that aren’t.
Friendly File Formats: Typically we’re not fans of hierarchy, but in this case we make an exception. We prefer artwork made to scale and delivered in the following formats: Adobe Illustrator, EPS, SVG, Photoshop (300 dpi) and PDF. We can make jpegs work but you’ll sacrifice image quality. Please note that Microsoft Word is not on the list.
Fonts: If you are sending artwork with an unusual font, make sure to either send us the font with the file, rasterize the font (for bitmaps), or outline it (for vectors).
Spot Colors: Typically programs like Photoshop or Illustrator build color through varying combinations of CMYK or RGB. It’s nice on your computer screen, but not with t-shirts. With screen printing you can print four color process to achieve a limited color gamut but the process is better suited for spot colors. When making a multi-color screen print every color needs its own screen. When you designate objects in Illustrator to be a specific spot color (as opposed to process color) it is easier to separate colors out for film positives. If you have questions on how to do this just call us.
