How screen printing works?

So how exactly does your logo get on a shirt?  In today’s Friday Feature we explore how, exactly, screen printing works.

Art Prep

When your design is approved our design department spits the artwork up into several black and white files, one for each color in your design.  These files are then sent back to our screen department to be imaged.
Simple spot color jobs are usually quick to separate.  Simulated process jobs, however, take more time.  On the jobs different inks are printed on top of one another to simulate additional colors.  Greater care must be taken in the initial prep of the file to make sure everything will print successfully.

Screen Prep

In the dark room, the art department’s files are applied to screens coated with a light sensitive emulsion.  At Dynamic Designs we use a direct-to-screen printer to apply opaque wax to the back side of the screens.  These imaged screens are then exposed to a bright light source.  While on the exposure table the opaque wax blocks the light from the graphics; while the rest of the exposed emulsion hardens.
After being exposed the screens are taken to a washout area.  The protected portions of the screen are now rinsed away leaving a stencil in the screen’s mesh.

Setting up the Press

Once all the screens for a job have been imaged they are loaded into one of out five automatic presses.  A press operator then registers the screens together, loads the correct colors into the screens and prepares to make a test print.

Printing Your Shirts

After everything is inked up and registered we are finally ready to print some shirts!  Each garment gets loaded onto an arm of the press and takes a trip around, gaining a color at each head.
Dark garments will usually have a white underbase printed and dried (or flashed) before getting colors on top of it.  The reason for this is the general transparency on inks.  Imagine trying to use markers to write on black paper.  It wouldn’t show up well would it?  Now if you put some white down on the paper first, your markers would show up just fine.  The same thing applies to screen printing.
After a trip around the press the garments are taken off and run through a dryer, heating the ink to around 320 degrees.  This cures the ink and prevents it from crumbling off the shirt later.
If the garment has an additional imprint location, like a back print or sleeve print, the shirts are stacked back up and the process begins again!

Success: A step ahead

Handling failure is not easy but success is something we all fervently strive for. Failure is accompanied with heartbreak but success surely brings new challenges along with its own rewards. Success brings new challenges, opportunities, privileges and makes one the centre of attention. Then how are there stresses and challenges associated with success?

Actually after being successful one is under pressure to perform even better and the challenge is to maintain the same criterion that brought success. You might feel people are talking about the same thing and asking you questions that might end up irritating you. New tasks are assigned and sometimes others are harsh in their judgment. They just overlook human imperfections!

There are people who just forget who they were before success came their way; they just don’t know the meaning of humility and easily fly off the handle. On the other hand, there are those who just shy away from all the attention bestowed on them. Being in the limelight is not right for them. Be it winning a match at university, standing first in
examinations, getting straight As or getting a promotion at work, they just hate being the centre of attention.

Maria who got straight As in Grade X at her school was under constant pressure from her teachers and peers to maintain the same level of performance in Grade XI. She knew from the very beginning that she won’t be able to maintain the success and became very quiet in class. This undue pressure in fact distracted her from her studies and ultimately
she fell far beyond what was expected of her in the final exams.

Hira, an eighth grader and a constant high achiever in her class feels that it’s not pressure from teachers or parents but her own resolve not to fall behind that drives her. She says that she studies at pre-designated fixed timings at home but shies away from any attention given to her.

Sometimes the reason for not being able to maintain success is fatigue, exhaustion and the effort taken in the first incidence of success. It might have drained you of your energy!

Otherwise it can be inconsistent behaviour and just bad luck. If the first success came easily you might think it will be the same situation again. But such is not the case!

The following tips will help you maintain success:

Be a better time manager:

Realise that all things that are good and you enjoy are not important.

Categorise your work in four groups: Important and urgent; not urgent but important; not important but urgent; and not urgent and not important. Proceed with the different tasks at hand in accordance with prioritisation assigned to each task.

Plan Ahead: Remember Murphy’s Law ‘If anything can go wrong it will’. Look at the previous checklist and you will see that certain tasks are important but not urgent. If they are handled in time and well ahead they can save you future trouble which can be serious at times.

Polish your skills: Keep yourself updated by reading a lot. Also attend different trainings and skill building workshops. Certain outcomes which you might be considering external may actually be a result of your own weaknesses and flaws and hence internally controllable.

Find suitable intervals for work in your timetable: There are certain times of the day when you are more efficient than the rest of the day. This is the peak of your energy cycle. It’s better to utilise that part of the day to do the most demanding set of work.

Stay calm: Success does bring pressure but remember this pressure could be due to others’ expectations and not actually ‘you’. Worrying will not bring any results; it would rather make you frustrated and impatient.

Do your best and leave the rest to God: Success does not come easily. Being cruel to yourself and over-stretching are not your goals. Think of all the effort you have put in to achieve the goal and don’t get distracted. Look at the positive side of success.

Don’t get over confident: Thinking that the task was not all that difficult can make you over confident. You have achieved the feat once and doing it the next time should not be a problem. This can be the cause of failure as the circumstances are different all the time, for instance there can be more competition.

It’s important to remember that success or failure doesn’t matter: what matters is the effort you put in. If you don’t succeed there’s always a second time. Imagine the difference if the first line of this article would read ‘for the successful and famous only’.

-- Maria Morten

ear-fulness by xandria aisha

I am generally a quiet person. I only like talking when it is a business discussion or when I am given a chance to share my knowledge with others. Otherwise, talking is just not my thing anymore.

I like listening.

I benefit from listening to other people’s experiences and thoughts. I have an aptitude to sit with a person for an hour, with my ears open, attention focused, passage to brain available and just listen. Just like a therapist. I could be one excellent therapist. I would not have cared for money because the quality of listening builds my soul, and trading soul for money only brings catastrophic implications.

Listening is like a bivouac to me; it shelters me from going astray on path of uncertainty. I listen because it is as valuable as an Ivy League to me.

I learn.

I evolve.

I innovate.

I reinvent myself.

I learn a lot. Sometimes, I learn how to be impressive, strong, undefeatable, invincible and unique; sometimes I learn the ways not to look like an idiot.

Listening opens door into other person’s mind. It resolves expected resentments and circumvents onslaught of aversion to my opinions.

Since I have discovered this weapon in me, my life has changed. It is peaceful. Now I have a purpose; a purpose of shaping minds; a purpose of eradicating frustration in people; a purpose of giving voice.

But I wonder, why therapists and psychologists still fail to make world a better place. I wonder more that why people still go to sofa-pasted-figures when they can easily talk to a friend or if not a friend, a wall, without spending a dime.

-- xandria

Who Says You Can’t Look Good In Summers?

As I was looking around I noticed one thing that Summers in Pakistan is one of the most disliked season of the year. People who love, adore, follow and literally breathe fashion, get caught up in the scorching heat of this season. But by going through Zarmina Khan’s, Elan’s and one of my favourite designer Zara Shahjahan’s collection it actually changed my whole concept of summer and fashion blunders! The way Zarmina Khan introduced the whole concept of soft colour palette and creamy pearly colours were the most soothing colours for this season. Where as Khadijah Shah of Elan brought a totally different line for this season which had yellows, pinks, lime, electric blue and beautiful inspiration of Chinese prints that were emerged with floral patterns, butterflies and Chinese calligraphy that made her collection worth watching! And Zara Shahjahan’s work was all about summer, her every design has the colour of summer and the flowy loose cuts where casual and chic.

So ladies you can walk like a diva even in this scorching heat, just remember not to cake up your face with makeup as that would make you look nothing but a cream cake with cherry on the top and we don’t want to look like Lady Gaga now do we? Wear beautiful lawn prints that are eye soothing for others and elegant for yourself or even if you do have an edgy side go for bright neon, the colour that is making its way in trends can turn heads when you pass by. Summers is all about having that perfect sun kissed skin not looking as pale as “Edward Cullen”. Even go for summery jumpsuits or plain tops and mix them up with bright colour pants to bring out that stylista that every girl has within. Wear nice dress shirts with pants and add your Gucci or Hermes belt and you’ll look classy as yet casual.

So girls get your Chanel jelly flip flops out, carry a Dior and make a statement wherever you walk!

Anaam Chaudhry - anaam.ch@live.com

For the Love of Couture

As we say goodbye to winters, we also say goodbye to our Choos and Louboutins boots. As soon as summers first ray hit our windows we drool all over labeled lawns. I myself am the biggest fan of high street fashion but what I don’t get today is that why do I see more Birkins and Hermes then they are actually manufactured? Is it because they are the new “it” thing after Louis Vuitton bags? Or is it that people have forgotten how to make a style statement without these trade marks of class? When your style shouts out casual and free why do you have to carry Vuitton’s most expensive and spohisticated bag? Just because its coming in every page of Vogue? Or if you have a slightly “ biker bad girl” personality towards you why not carry a Mcqueen and look like a rockstar? Is it because brands and labels have made us forget who our inner self is? Or is it that the social crowd around us wont let us be who we are?

So ladies for the love of couture and high fashion, let this year be the year you find out your inner self and it wont harm you if you just make a style statement of your own for once? Why follow when you can lead? Wear Burberry’s new high waisted pants collection or let them be Khaadi’s most casual kurtas! And I would like to finish my blog with Coco Chanel’s most famous quote that is the best way to sum up my whole thought “I don’t do fashion, I am fashion!”

Anaam Chaudhry - anaam.ch@live.com

Tag n Win competition

The T-Shirt Company have launched Tag n Win competition for their Fans. To participate just follow the link http://www.facebook.com/tshirtco. Winners will get free T-Shirts.

Happy Tagging!