Labor Day – What does it mean?
Posted on Sep 03, 2010 by Alison Leave a Comment »
As a Great Garment Graphics employee I have dedicated myself to education in apparel decoration, how does Labor Day tie into this topic? Labor Day honors all American and Canadian workers, entepreneurs – all of you, myself and every man and woman.
Happy Labor Day
As the wife of a Chrysler unionized employee, it occured to me this morning that I was unsure of the origin of Labor Day and what we are celebrating. I always thought of it as the “end of summer”, the last in a series of summer holidays, a day off of work, or the last weekend before school starts. Sound farmilar?
Labor Day as defined by the U.S Department of Labor: “Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”
The History Channel has a short 3 minute video depicting the history of Labor Day. History of Labor Day Video
Although economic times have been difficult and the labor force is dwindling we still have much to celebrate. The entire idea of free enterprise. Have an idea, and some funding you can produce a product and market it for sale worldwide…. There are apparel decoration companies that have been funded by severance money, many successful businesses have been started and built out of necessity.
Many U.S. cities celebrate Labor Day with a grand parade down main street followed by a city picnic. Many families gather together for barbecue and picnics. Beaches and parks all around the country will be packing them in for the holiday celebration. We are spending the weekend camping with family and friends – “Big Surprise!”
Whatever you are doing this Labor Day, take a moment to sit back and reflect. Be proud of your achievements and remember all of those who have gone before and set the stage for our success.
Do you have a special way that you celebrate Labor Day? Please send me a comment and share your celebration plans.
Design Ideas for Custom Heat Transfers
Posted on Sep 02, 2010 by Alison Leave a Comment »
Are those creative juices trickling? Need some inspiration, idea starters, or fresh artwork for your custom heat transfer designs? Design ideas can pop up at the craziest times and there are some obvious places that we look daily for trends and inspiration. Hollywood, school, professional sports, local large retails stores etc. These are the “in your face” motivation places for design ideas so let’s dig a little deeper.
Let me share with you some alternative places to find design ideas for custom heat transfers. First, we can look into CadworxLive™ Creations Gallery. This gallery is filled with custom design ideas that have been created by various cadworxlive users. Some of them are created to be cut with a vinyl cutter using heat transfer vinyls. Some will be used for ink on paper transfers and others may be created for digital printing. The gallery contains not only the artwork but also photographs of the finished designs heat transferred to the garment. This is important because it will give you an idea for mixing medias and colors. There are combinations that I could never imagine and yet they create something so striking.
Photograph from Creation Gallery
The creation gallery can also inspire us to “think outside of the box”. There are several photographs in the gallery that were printed on non-apparel items with sign vinyl and unusual patterns.
Gradution Gifts created with sign vinyl
Some places that you can search are right “under your nose” For instance how many of us have an Idea Book from Transfer Express? An Idea Book – what is inside of it. O.K., now it was meant to be an ordering template for custom ink on paper transfers and it can still be that for you. However, sometimes they job that is being requested by your customer does not produce enough pieces for a transfer order so we can use the Idea Book and create something with a similar look and feel in our graphics software or in Cadworxlive. Besides, if you make the design eye popping enought they may come back with a larger order that would require you to order a transfer or digital print.
Do you have a “hot spot” for ideas? Do you want to share it with us? Please send us a comment with your idea starters. We are always learning from one another.
Variety of shirt sizes + One size custom print=MAXIMUM PROFITS
Posted on Sep 01, 2010 by gggraphics Leave a Comment »
How to handle an order with a variety of shirt sizes
Frequently when selling custom printed apparel to groups, the group will need a wide range of shirt sizes, from a youth small up to an adult XXL. This can be easily handled and your profits maximized by ordering one size print. That way you get the best quantity break possible.
- Measure the maximum print area on the smallest size shirt measuring from the neck to bottom seam and from arm to arm
- Order the prints at this maximum size
- Apply to all shirt sizes (the print will be a little big on the smallest, a little small on the largest and look perfect on the majority)
If using screen printed custom transfers, a second alternative is to use a gang sheet, where more than one print is printed on the same sheet. There is still just one order but on each sheet is a larger and smaller version of the same print. This alternative works best for rectangular sized prints like a script and tail, where multiple images will fit on the same printed sheet.
Same print on different size tshirts
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