I'm beginning to work with a new screen printer today, organizing a reprint of T-shirts for some upcoming John Doe shows. Last year I intentionally created a perennial design for JD that wasn't tied to a certain album or tour, so that he could sell them anytime. My strategy has worked, since he's been using the same design with different T-shirts & ink colors for about a year.
The design was based on his tattoos.
Here are a few things I need to suss out when beginning to work with a new screen printer:
- Communication style - is phone better? email? how quickly do they respond?
- Vibe - friendly? just-the-facts? accommodating? fussy?
- Pricing
- Turnaround time - especially important for band merchandise
- Specialized techniques - this time around I needed discharge ink, tag printing & had customer supplied goods
- Location - for timely pickup, and in this case dropping off customer supplied goods
So far, so good. I feel lucky to live in the East Bay where there are so many screen printers to choose from.