Discharge printing has been around a long time but has been becoming very popular once again and the trend is growing when clients see the amazing end results! One of the biggest advantage of water-based discharge printing is the “soft hand” feel it leaves which means when you touch the fabric, you get an amazingly soft “hand” or feel. The discharge process effectively bleaches or removes color from the fabric of a colored t-shirt in the design area and then prepares that area of the fabric to be filled back in with water-based inks. Water-based inks actually “dye” the design in the fabric, as opposed to standard Plastisol inks, which is printed “on top” of a garment and leaves a slightly feel the print. Doing a “Dye-Discharge” like shown in the above video accomplishes this at the same time!
There are things to consider when choosing Dye-Discharge printing. For starters, discharge really works on 100% cotton tees because polyester in some fabrics don’t react the same to the chemical process. Also thinner ring spun cotton tees also work well cause the ink penetrates the garment better allowing the process to take effect faster
Also with dye discharge inks, the colors will vary when printing on different colored shirts which makes pantone matching quite difficult especially with greens and purples. With plastisol inks, its pretty cut and dry with color but with discharge, you don’t know how the color will turn out until after its full cured and the discharge process has taken effect.
This process is slightly more expensive because of the inks and chemicals used as well as a slightly more difficult process but the end result leaves that super soft feel that everyone wants! Works great for oversize designs with a lot of coverage so when wearing the shirt, you’re not wearing that extra unbreathable ink since the discharge print is actually part of the shirt! Next project you want to place with Four Ambition, ask yourself if discharge ink would work well for this order!
Hey! My name is Ericka Lyme. I am a second year student at the School of Advertising Art in Kettering Ohio and expect to graduate with an Associate of Applied Business in Advertising Art at the end of May 2012. I grew up in rural St. Henry Ohio, (about an hour south of Lima Ohio, and about 15 minutes east from the border of Indiana) and graduated from St. Henry High School in early June of 2010 with an honorable mention in manual black and white photography. I traveled to Australia in 2008 for two weeks during world youth days, and in 2009 and 2010 I traveled to Haiti as a missionary. I am efficient with the Adobe CS5.5 Design Premium Suite working with Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. I excel in painting and pencil illustrations, and enjoy music, art, ceramics, sewing, running, slow-pitch softball, and my tree frog Margarita. My main goal is to be a trustworthy hard worker, and to use my skills to produce what you want and need. I can be found on facebook and twitter if you have any questions!
Well hello there! My name is Aaron Eddleblute (pronounced EDDEL-BLOOT). I’m a second year graphic design student at the School of Advertising Art in Kettering, Ohio and currently working as an extern at Four Ambition. I don’t have much screen-printing experience to speak of, but I’m a quick learner and I’m extremely excited to spend the next month developing a new skill.
A FEW INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT ME
- My hometown is part of Wayne National Forest
- My dad was in a band signed to Metal Blade Records
- I also grew up playing music, my favorites being drums and guitar
- My favorite movie is This Is England
- My second favorite movie is Gummo
- If I could be anyone for a day, I’d probably be Matt Pike
I have to start off by saying, this year has been amazing so far! Our shop has completely changed and we’re quickly running out of space. We’ve added a conference room, a brand new dryer, and 2 new presses (Vastex All-Over V-2000HD and a V2000HD 6 color/ 6 station). Four Ambition launched its new website this summer, and we’ve well surpassed last year’s sales, and there is still another 6 weeks left!
We are always looking to offer something new, such as jumbo/all-over printing, stickers, posters, vinyl banners or coroplast signs. When sales increase, so does production and the amount of jobs coming through the shop. To stay ontop of it all, we had to improve our efficiency. We purchased a larger dryer this past April to accommodate the all-over press. Also, we purchased a brand new Vastex V2000HD 6/6 press because we were losing production time going back and forth, from standard size printing to oversize because of pallet changes. Now, on the new press, we do most of our standard size prints and save the other press for special prints such as sleeves, koozies, and oversize printing.
People keep asking us how we’re able to grow our business in this economy, and I think it’s a pretty simple answer. If you are not moving forward by offering more services and keeping up with the latest, most efficient equipment, then you’re falling behind. Imagine if Apple just quit coming out with new stuff! We have chosen not to let the downfall in the economy get in the way of Four Ambition’s success. Instead, we work hard, invest more time and money into the company, and we don’t plan on stopping. We will never settle for being content with where Four Ambition is, and we will always be pushing to get to the next level.
Check our latest YouTube video done by Indigo Life Media on the arrival of our newest press
SUPER SALE going on now through February 28th!
