Communicating what your needs are to your artist…

This month I would like to discuss what your artist needs to know to create your artwork….

There are several elements involved in creating artwork for screen printing. The obvious information would be what elements or theme the image should be. However other things affect the image you end up with.

You need to tell your artist:

1) How many colours are there in the design?

It’s always best to know how many colours are in the design upfront. There will be less time involved in reworking the design later.

2) What colours are in the design?

Knowing what colours are involved helps with how the design will be laid out and if space or outlines will be needed.
3) How big the design needs to be?

Size matters. Text needs to be a certain size to be readable. Outlines have to be a certain minimum thickness to be able to be printed.  Items have size restrictions.
4) What colour is the garment?

Colour of the garment affects number of screens used in printing.  Colour of garment can be used in the design.
5)   What fabric the garment is made of.

What kind of fabric the item is determines how thick the ink needs to be, how many details can be in the design, or if halftones can be used.
6) What format the image file needs to be.

Creating and saving the design in the proper format is important because of how your printer needs to manipulate the file or output the file.
7) Are there gradients in the design?

The intent of the design could be enhanced with shading created with gradients.

8)  Are there colour blends in the design?

Related to gradients, colour blends or secondary colours necessary to create another colour with limited colours used in the design. This often happens when the printing press has less print heads than colours needed in the design.

9) Does the image need an underbase?

Underbase is necessary when vibrant colours needed on dark or colour garments. This counts as one of the colours used in the design whether you can see it or not.

10) Does the image need a choke, trap or butt registration?

Some printers use these methods when printing. It is necessary to know because it will affect look and set-up of design. Choke is the under colour being slightly smaller as not to show around the edges of the colour on top. Trap is two colours slightly overlapping to help line up colours next to each other. Butt registration is two colours touching next to each other without overlapping.

11) Will specialty inks be used?

Specialty inks usually have other elements in the ink that determines how many details can be in the design. Example is glitter which needs a lower mesh screen. Therefore it limits how small the details can be in the design.

12) What font(s) need to be in the design?

Fonts come in many styles. They tell the message and their style helps convey the message.

13) Halftones and/or solids.

How simple or dynamic the design needs to be – what type of garment and ink being used determines if halftones can be used.

The more information you can give your artist before they start, the quicker they can design what you need. Hopefully this keeps revisions to a minimum as well.

Until next month.