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!

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

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