February 26th Show Audio

Please find some links and notes from the 2 Regular Guys Podcast. Terry and Aaron talk to Thomas Trimingham, a screen printing artist, instructor, separator, and author. He will be joining us to discuss high-end screen printing separations. Join us to learn about color separations for screen printers and how you can take your artwork to the next level.

Sponsored by: Equipment Zone

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys is all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. For the past two years, 2 Regular Guys has been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!!

Other Items:

• DAX Kansas City – Shout out to a friend of the show Jimmy Lamb – Reminder to register for his Tackling Transfers Seminar the day before the show. If you are at all interested in Heat Transfers at all this is the class for you.
• Terry – Niche Markets and Maximizing Screen Printing Production

High End Separations

Aaron: Welcome to the show today Tom. Tell us how you become involved in high-end separations?

Started by hand in 91 – in a trailer while Bill Murray was filming “Groundhog Day” outside. Moved into self-taught separations and in 99 produced a line of designs of wild animals for zoo’s and parks nationwide.

Terry: What is the most requested topic regarding separations?

Simulated process on dark garments – second place is high-end index separations (DAX show – FREE seminar April 23rd – Saturday)

Aaron: What are a few of the most popular styles of separations you produce?

Four styles: Spot, 4 color process, Index, simulated process

Terry: Here’s a subject we talk about in all aspects of decoration. What are the most common mistakes screen printers make when creating separations?

1. They let their customers supply separations
2. They blindly use separation software or a set process on every job
3. They try to figure everything out themselves
4. They wait till they get a detailed job and try to learn it overnight
5. They never make time to learn how to improve screens, inks, press set up, as well as seps.

Aaron: What are the most common misunderstandings (or myths) people have about separations?

1. Seps for offset printing should work on garments
2. Underbases should be standard on all designs
3. Problems with prints not looking right are separation issues
4. If the separations are good, anyone can print the job
5. Getting good separations is either very expensive or time consuming

Terry: How would you say a screen printer/artist goes from doing basic separations to higher detail separations?

1. Do a motivation check and make sure the desire is not just a monetary or ego one.
2. Become obsessive with controlling the variables in production first.
3. Start recording production variables and results.
4. Produce consistent test prints of small dots and detailed images.
5. Acquire training or find a printing / artist mentor and learn the software.

Aaron: In your opinion, what are the biggest obstacles screen printers face in doing great separations?

1. Making time for training and production testing a priority
2. Being willing to fail multiple times prior to learning – building experience by failure
3. Having defined goals and planning around them

Terry: How do separations impact the profitability of a screen printing shop?

1. Good separation advances make every print more profitable
2. Less scrap – faster setups – less press downtime
3. higher quality art jobs can be marketed – less of a commodity (more per print)
4. higher customer loyalty – trust
5. faster art approval to print speed (single most unknown factor to sp scaling)

Aaron: Tom, we preach about training here on 2 Regular Guys.I think our listeners would be very interested in hearing about the training you offer. (http://www.screenprintingartist.com/)

1. Starting in March with basic vector training – CorelDRAW class
2. Looking to open Photoshop separation training in April

Shows

• DAX Kansas City – 3/4 to 3/5
• NBM Arlington – 3/10 to 3/12
• ISS Atlantic City – 3/17 to 3/19

Other News/Events

• Complete Screen Printing Business Course – Workhorse Products in Phoenix – February 27-28, 2016

Terry’s Books

Screen Printing: A Practical Guide to Starting Your Own T-Shirt Business Just $4.95 as an e-book.

Direct to Garment: A Practical Guide to Starting Your Own T-Shirt Business Just $4.95 as an e-book.

Scheduling and Estimating Production Time for Garment Screen Printing Just $2.99 as an e-book

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This show is brought to you for a full hour by: Equipment Zone, with 20 years experience selling garment printing equipment nationwide. Equipment Zone offers the new Epson F2000 SureColor direct-to-garment printer, their own VelociJet-XL DTG printer, and the all new SpeedTreater-TX automatic pretreat machine with a full 16”x24” pretreat area. Introductory price is $3,995. Equipment Zone also carries a full line of DTG inks and supplies. Go to EquipmentZone.com

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