ImagesMagUK_March_2021

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 38 images MARCH 2021 W hat started as a hobby in his spare time is turning into a growing business for Gilmore Crowe. After having fun with printing vinyl ‘stickers’ for cars, his move into garment printing and embroidery has been such a success that he is investing in new equipment with plans afoot for further expansion. “I always liked the fact that you could take a bit of vinyl and decorate a van or decorate a polo shirt or take threads and decorate uniforms,” he says. “It really gives me a bit of a buzz when you see people in a shop or driving by in a van and you can say, ‘Yes, we’ve done that’.” Working as a civil servant, Gilmore fell into printing because of his love of cars. “As all young boys do when they gets cars, we were always going to the local ‘sticker man’ on a Saturday to get sun strips and various bits and pieces on the cars. I took a keen interest in the techniques used by the guys. It was always something I fancied trying my hand at.” After ordering a vinyl for a charity car wash at his local church, Gilmore decided to try it himself and From stickers to stitches Gilmore Crowe talks to Mark Ludmon about the growth and development of his embroidery and printing business, D&G Graphics, in Northern Ireland want to invest too much money into it because we didn’t know what way it was going to go,” Gilmore recalls. He initially struggled to find a machine in Northern Ireland rather than the UK mainland, but eventually found a single- head Happy Voyager for sale in Belfast. “When we brought it home, business really just spiralled out of control.” Orders for uniforms came in from local businesses, including the haulage group he was supplying vinyls to. The first big win was for 229 garments which, on a single-head, took a week from start to finish. “Within six months, we knew we were going to have to go bigger and make investments.” Merlin and Mimaki A Merlin Pro twin-head embroidery machine was added two years ago. “We knew we needed more [capacity] but didn’t want to go overkill and buy a four- or a six- or an eight-head in case it didn’t work out. But very quickly we have grown out of that and we are now chatting to a couple of companies about getting at least another two heads, if not another four.” bought a 610mm cutter secondhand. He started printing stickers and signs for himself, friends and family, but word spread and he was soon printing them for rally cars and a local haulage company. A fascination with decoration His company D&G Graphics, based in Aghadowey near Coleraine in Northern Ireland, still does vinyls, but Gilmore became increasingly fascinated by garment decoration after watching uniforms being embroidered for his dad, David, who runs a precast concrete business. “I always took an interest in watching them hooping it up and seeing what they were doing with the machines. Not really asking any questions, but making a lot of observations, watching how something so intricate can be done relatively simply.” He bought a secondhand heat press on Ebay and began creating customised garments such as uniforms for local traders as well as T-shirts for stag and hen dos. But, after this took off “really quickly”, he was ready for his first embroidery machine. “We didn’t Gilmore Crowe with D&G’s Mimaki CJV150-130 printer/cutter, which has opened up many new avenues for the company