Images Digital Edition DEC 2018

KB TIPS & TECHNIQUES weaker colours will recede. It’s how our eyes see things. Sometimes though, I’ve seen designs where the colour balance is completely out of whack. And it’s not the intentional ‘someone breaking the rules because they are creative‘ kind. You don’t need a lot of colours if you play your cards wisely and throw in a halftone or two for some screens. Duotones, tritones and quadtones Yep. Two-, three- and four-colour jobs. The basis for about 75-80% of the work in the T-shirt screen printing industry. But, when that shop gets that 10- or 12-colour press, suddenly the colour counts go dramatically skyward. With some good Photoshop manipulation, you can make that complicated design simpler colour- wise and pare it down to only a few plates. It might even lend itself to some funky expression. Instead of printing that photo in eight or 10 colours, what if you used two? One was purple and the other orange? Pink and royal blue? Okay, throw in a Marshall Atkinson is a leading production and efficiency expert for the decorated apparel industry, and the owner of Atkinson Consulting, LLC. Marshall focuses on operational efficiency, continuous improvement and workflow strategy, business planning, employee motivation, management and sustainability. He is a frequent trade show speaker, article and blog author, and is the host of InkSoft’s The Big Idea podcast. atkinsontshirt.com black plate too, just for the contrast. The point here is that you can make that image work with fewer plates, and be creative at the same time. Speciality inks Want more drama? There is an entire line of inks out there that can certainly help you punch things up. Adding texture or dimension to your inks is a time-honoured tradition in this industry. When was the last time you thought about using some? Throw some puff additive in that colour for your outline around the text. Printing a design with something in the image that would be made of glass or water or chrome? Use a hit of gloss clear. And let’s not forget the awesomeness of using metallic inks. Liquid silver or gold on a black shirt. ‘Nuff said. A lot of shops, especially beginners, tend to not think about these as design choices when discussing and planning the job with their customers. It’s like they haven’t learned the vocabulary yet. Do yourself a favour and order some specialty inks, bases or additives from your ink supplier. Get a sample kit or two. Play around with them and learn how to use them. More importantly, learn when to use them. Speciality inks could be just the ticket for that next job.