Images_Digital_Edition_July_2019

www.images-magazine.com 32 images JULY 2019 DECORATOR PROFILE Images discovers how skateboarding friends Craig Stock and Steve Faherty bought an existing screen print business and made it their own I n 2016, Joshua Roberton of White Duck Studios in Bath decided to focus solely on the fine art side of his business. He offered the garment printing part of the company to his employee, Steve Faherty, and when Craig Stock, a client and longtime skateboarding friend of Steve’s, turned up to discuss sampling for a brand, Josh suggested the two friends work together. Steve, about to become a father for the first time, had already decided he wanted to take up Josh’s offer. Craig had a young family and was fed up with working in bars and nightclubs and dealing with drunks – moving into screen print was an appealing option. It was an easy decision to work together. They called the new business Memory Screen after an iconic 1990s Alien Workshop skateboarding video. As well as being a “subtle nod” to the skateboard world, Craig says that “the imagery in the video and the feel of it fitted me and Steve”. “We’ve had a few screen printers that are skaters who have said: ‘Ah, that’s a great name, why didn’t we think of that?!’” Josh gave them White Duck’s screen printing equipment – a Hopkins six- colour manual press and Natgraph dryer – and sublet a unit to them in return for some printing jobs. They both continued in their day jobs and spent the evenings garment printing until eventually, after five months, the business had built up to the point where Steve was able to leave White Duck and they moved into their own unit. Josh’s generous offer gave them an amazing leg-up into the industry, says Steve. Lost discounts Although Craig says setting up in this way allowed them to hit the ground running, it wasn’t completely straightforward. “We lost the discounts Josh had with suppliers so we had to start afresh with pricing. We took on a lot of Josh’s clients, lost a lot of Josh’s clients as well because we couldn’t compete price-wise, and gained an awful lot more by sheer hard work and putting ourselves out there.” While some suppliers were happy to offer discounts to them as a ‘new’ business that they wanted to keep as a customer, others took longer to convince. Of the brands they now use, Continental is one they recommend to anyone printing for retail, along with AS Colour (“We love it”), while their staple wholesale brand is Gildan. Steve is the printer while Craig runs the ‘behind the scenes’ side, although both do colour separations. “We have a bit of a weird relationship with that. He’s really good on Photoshop, I can use Illustrator,” reveals Craig. Steve “loves the whole manual printing thing”, he continues. “The time and energy that goes into it. We’re quite aware that people, especially with the Amazon era, want to click their fingers and have it at their door. Some people want it tomorrow, and they want it quick and cheap.” Others, like their many clients, insist on having hand- The Iris Squeegee is made from recycled skateboards Making new memories The Memory Screen print shop is housed in a unit alongside the railway line in Bath