Out of all our products the garment we do the most screen-printing on is our Jumpers. Our Year 12 Jumpers are made from polycotton and so the material is dyed a single colour whereas with our polyestor jackets the material starts white and you can actually dye a full colour design into it.. Because you have to pick a single colour most schools choose to add some screen printing to make the overall design more interesting and colourful.
The biggest difference between full colour printing on our 100% polyestor material and screen printing on polycotton is that you are restricted to the number of colours you can use and you can’t have gradients when screen printing. With screen printing each colour is layed on one at a time and you have to let each colour dry in between application. Consequently it means that it is difficult to perfectly line up the layers if you start using more than 4 colours. Therefore artists have to be really creative and try get the most out of their design using only 4 colours. Even more exciting is when you see artists use a 1 colour print in really creative ways like the example below.
One magazine we constantly turn to for inspiration is T-world. It is the only printed journal dedicated to T-shirt culture globally and is actually an Australian publication. The magazine is only biannual but even with only two magazines a year you will be left feeling inspired once you have flicked through a few pages. Inside you will be able to browse through hundreds of photos of t-shirt designs, read through interviews with designers and even learn more about the art of designing a fantastic t-shirt.
