Years in the Industry

15 years. First three working for a supplier of products and equipment, also we were a large producer of screens from frame to emulsion and exposure. Next two years still at supplier and part time at a printer, left supplier and went to work for the printer full time still there today.

5 years. Spent about 10 months as the screen guy/production scheduler, reclaiming, exposing, taping and learning the laser engraver on the side. One day our 3rd or 4th printer (can't remember) decided he didn't want to work anymore so I told the old man I'd just take over all of the printing and we could just hire a guy to do the screens like I was doing and catching at the end of the dryer. I mean, how hard could screen printing be? I had a college degree for F's sake, then the humbling experience began and it still remains to this day.

You can do this job without much thought or effort if you want to, and still produce a print good enough to sell, but if you want to be a master at this craft, you gotta put some serious work into it. I've actually done more reading over the last 5 years than I ever did throughout college. There have been lots of 60+ hour work weeks walking and standing on a concrete floor and the first year was tough. I remember lots of days just wanting to pull my hair out wondering what the hell was going wrong this time. Things are never easy, but they sure are easy compared to the first few years.

It's funny to think about some of those old jobs that we used to struggle on and now it's just a matter of throwing the screens on the press and pressing GO. We're still trying to be the best print shop in town and have some more work to do to accomplish that goal but we'll get there.

Our business started in 1974, but I didn't start printing until 1992 for a bit, then I went and did apprenticeship as a knitting technician because we manufactured apparel in those days with a protected economy and locally made apparel industry. As the tariffs come off I decided knitting wasn't my thing or the manufacturing and I went back to screen printing and we soon closed down the manufacturing altogether. About 1999 I did my first trip to HK and China and have been going back every year and the importation side is really 90% of our revenue, not just apparel but all promotional products and we rank relatively well as a supplier to the promo, advertising markets and to chainstore retailers. For textile we have four carousels running around the clock. We also have graphics printing, and shares in another factory with four Roland digital machines for signage which all run consistently at a loss. We have a badge making factory which is always busy and is nearly a monopoly here. We have a share in an embroiderer as well that also doesn't make money.
In China we have a halfshare in a hosiery factory knitting logos into socks with 1,200 machines, and shares in a badge, lanyard, metal and moulded pvc factory, but we also source from many others. Our client base is about 3,000 on sellers, and 37,000 corporate
and retail clients, and the metrics are that about 20% of those would have purchased in the last year. We have been mainly trade only, but that model hasn't worked as promo companies go under on us, and corporates are shopping harder on price where we can get paid faster with better margins.

My plan is to get the database onto a CRM program and get regular email marketing newsletters mailed out to them. We have just signed a deal to supply shirts and promo to a web marketing co like group on/ daily deals. We are waiting for Inksoft to get coded to work for us and our sales and tax system, and sort the pricing structure a bit better more towards cost plus markup rather an price minus discount over volume. a large textile Auto is budgeted for, as well as a DTG brother 782. And another delivery truck.

I also screenprint aluminum screw caps for the wine industry on two large OMSO machines, 200 and 110 caps printed per minute on each machine.

I always feel to old to do another year and I loathe the paperwork. We are a price seller mostly and are trying to get to a better margin market. We have no debt so are in a good place to grow but it's scary with negativity, recession, massive earthquakes effecting our economy (Christchurch, New Zealand). I print on nearly everything and think the printing is the easiest part of the business but it's hard getting excited, remember that first time seeing someone wear your shirt, I've lost that buzz, on the upside today I sealed my first order of 100,000 tee shirts all the same run, albeit a china indent.

Thirty years still plugging away

Maybe we can tell the remember when stories.... Rubilith, photocopying letraset, manual art before computers and imagesetters, thinning the thick plastisol inks with turps, all screens were coarse, no such thing as doing a process print....... I still have some of our early prints, cringe, cringe, cringe....... Printing on shirts with shoulder pads in them.......

Ink with lead in it, no need to flash bullet proof with one stroke!

Shoulderpad shirts I love that one, first thing that comes to mind is flock of sea gulls and delorians.

Anyone remember Screen Gems?

Here is a show your age test ... Rutland M1 Yellow straight out of the bucket :-@

Standing on the beer crate and dialing down the agfa repro-master! warped chipboard screen pallets. 30 minute exposures on screens. The oldest machinery remaining would be our hix heat presses, and a couple of 25 year old carousels still in daily use.

Customers would fax us art and ask us to touch it up. I would go and do deliveries and come back in the afternoon and make calls as there was no mobile phone. Artwork was couriered or on 3.5 inch disks, then zip discs...... Now we have mobile Internet, ipads and mobile phones and that has not gained one minute of time, I work more now than then....

We still have our AWT Supertex manual built in the early 90's but probably the best manual ever built, unfortunately it was way to expensive at its time to be viable in the market.

GerryPPG try YouTube, for everything I have read i find so much new and different and easier to learn stuff there. Like Alan says the suppliers all used to have great stuff like SAATI but times are changing. A long time ago the sales reps visited regularly and they educated you as did the ink and consumable companies. These days that is much less so. Books seem to be a bit basic the ones I have seen anyway, but YouTube is great. Try looking up srimonogramming for a start!!! Inkman nice wheel! One of the best things we own apart from the spotting gun is our LEISTER plastic welders. We have them with the two inch bottom. They are like a heat gun that never burns out and you leave them going all day, you can turn the heat down or up and are great on bags and promo stuff that you don't want to flash. We used to go through heat guns every week, and they are nowhere near as good in type of heat as the leisters, I think they are a must have. Probably around $500 usd, but they will last you decades.

Gee, you are all Kiddies.

I started screen printing at Mattel Toys in 1965 with 4-color process on vinyl, 85 line screens, 305 yellow NYLON mesh. Precision 4-color belt printers with Advance-American hot air gas dryers between the heads. Dave Jaffa's Father Matt used to call on us in North Jersey. Mel Green from American Equipment made the dryers. Mel also had us distribute the first PLASTISOL ink that was made for us by US Rubber (Uniroyal) called Deco-Flex.

After I left the Air Force in 1966, I went to work for Advance-American as a screen maker and salesman, Jan 2, 1967. We still made SILK screens with mesh from Switzerland and Japan. Sold my first textile automatic in 1972, a 4 color, 6 station CAMEO multiprinter.

Worked up from sales to branch manager, NE regional manager, where we sold 600 Arrow multiprinters in the NE USA. Hard to believe, but they were there along with dryers, screen-making, etc.

Moved up to Managing the East Coast and Canada for Advance-American about the time Rich set up M&R.

Since the demise of Advance-American (1991), we've been doing business as CGS Sales & Service, LLC, Mostly rebuilding screen equipment and selling it with a warranty. screenprintsource.com.

So it looks like 46 years in the industry for me.

I was printing when RWB was pooping mustard.

There is an old advance large format in Auckland, for sale for a year, struggling to give it away...... Those old cameo autos, thinking about that, cringe, cringe. Simple, but had to retire our transfer cameo when we bought an Atma.

I have been in the print and design industry since 99.

If you can afford a blue Hyundai or Toyota and it does the job, why would you buy a blue skoda or Mercedes that you can't afford? Doesn't matter how many years some people have in the industry, they can't understand simple concepts that other newbies can.
On that note, we could have a thread of worst staff ever and some people don't get screen printing and no matter how long you persevere with them they are just no good at the job. Some don't get screen printing, likewise some printers who are amazing move on into their own businesses and struggle because as good as they are printing they are not business people and their customer service, marketing and management and accounting skills are non existent.

Bought Screen-Tex Graphics in 1994.
Have been in and out of the industry prior to that since 1985.

I was a JV/Assistant Varsity Girls BB coach so I was assigned the job of getting tees and sweats for the team. I made a trip to the closest screen shop which was about 30 miles away and had to go into the print room to talk to the owner. It was a basic manual shop with a 4/4 press and a small conveyor dryer. I had never seen shirts being printed before and I was hooked. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. i researched it on and off for about 2 years and bought an 3/6 Eagle press with BBC flash and taught myself to print. I used the upper story of the farmhouse we lived in at the time. You froze your butt off in the winter and sweat it off in the summer. My 1st job was for 45 pieces - Navy tees with white ink on the front, back, and left sleeve. It took 90 pieces to get 45 good ones. That was back in March of 1991. I did it part time for 10 years and finally became a dedicated shop in 2001.
Since then we've added embroidery, vinyl, sand carving, a 6/8 auto and now a crystal setting machine. I love dealing with people and try to learn something new everyday.

I'm feel that I'm in the minority in this world that I love my work and really don't want to do anything else to earn a living!!

Started working at my first shop at 17 in 1990. Printing flatstock for hallmark. What a drag.
Anyone remember Onetia Power Tees? They were awesome. Wonder what happened to them.

Started Ink Brigade with my wife by accident. We just wanted to print a few shirts in 2007. Next thing you know we have 2 autos, and employees! Yeow!

Some will do anything to squeeeeeezze in a commercial

Only 6 yrs. for us. Started in our basement in a really small house until we bought a property with a big oversized 4 car garage with a finished 2nd floor. Still never enough room, hoping to build on soon.
Taught high school art for 11 yrs. before. Man, I miss my summers off, my wife is still a teacher and I get jealous every June!
Can't beat being your own boss though. I don't have to ask off to sit in a treestand to hunt whitetails or trout fish with the fly rod....best job I've ever had! I feel truely blessed each day to make a great living, coming and going as I please.

I've been at it since 1987. Started out in the art dept. of a company doing preprints. Learned to print in order to design more production friendly prints. After 6 months, the owner decided I was more valuable as a production manager. Unfortunately, I needed more time to vent my creativity. So, I started my own shop in '89.

A marital seperation cost me that shop.

I went to work managing a custom and contract shop for a year, then started another one of my own. Then second wife had a stroke while giving birth to our son. After a year of unimaginable chaos and two years of not having the space or money to start printing again, I've finally built my shop again.

I'm starting to look around for an automatic I can (not actually) afford.

So, if any of you know anyone interested in getting rid of equipment in exchange for equity in a company, shoot me an email at: renaes.impressions@yahoo.com

14years in embroidery!

http://www.chinaemblem.com