Being put in charge of ordering custom screen printed t-shirts for the business or organization can seem like a daunting task.  And truly, it can, depending on who you decide to work with.  The very first step is the artwork.  Decide whether your business or group will be supplying the artwork or if you’ll be having a design firm or screen printing company producing it.  If you supply your own artwork it is extremely important that it be camera ready artwork.  The term camera ready means that it is ready for print and nothing else needs to be done to it.  It’s probably been designed in a vector program such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.  Vector art can be re-sized to any size and not lose any resolution.  Quality starts with the artwork and it’s very important to have nice crisp lines.  Secondly, if you decide to contract the artwork out it may be important to look for a screen printer, who you’ll be working with anyway for the shirts, that does graphic design work.  Many times since you’ll be ordering a bunch of t-shirts you’ll get a much better price on the artwork as opposed to a graphic design firm.  On the flip side, a well experienced graphic design firm may be producing better work.

Now that our artwork is ready to go it’s time to find the best screen printer.  We’ll start with price.  This can get to be a bit tricky.  One shop may quote you $5 per shirt for 50 shirts, but they may also have a $30 screen setup and $10 film charge therefore the shirts are really $6.20 ea.  Where as another shop may be quoting you an all inclusive price of $5.99 ea.  Be very careful and always do the math (including shipping and tax) to find out what your real unit price is.  This also brings up the question on whether to shop locally or online.  There are a lot of online screen printing shops that offer free shipping and by ordering out of state you’ll also save on sales tax.  For rush orders it’s always nice to have a neighborhood shop.  The other tricky part with price is the quality.  How do I know that screen printer A is quoting me for the same thing as screen printer B?  Generally there are two types of t-shirts: the 6.1 oz. cotton tee and the 5.5 oz. cotton tee.  Most manufactures will call the 5.5 oz. t-shirt a heavyweight and 6.1 oz. t-shirt Ultra heavyweight.  Here’s the truth; the 6.1 oz. is heavyweight and the normal weight of most t-shirts you would see in a store the 5.5 oz. is lightweight.  Some shops will always quote the cheapest shirt and some will always quote the 6.1 oz. tees, so make sure you make it known which type you’d like.

Quality ranges dramatically from shop to shop.  The best way to find out is to get a referral from a friend or relative.  Most companies are using the same brands of t-shirts and blanks, so it’s not really the quality of the actual shirt to worry about.  A good shop will have great attention to detail, pride itself in good artwork and use high quality equipment and retensionable screens.  A good rule of thumb is to check out their website for creativity, quality and samples.  A screen printer should be artistic and creative; therefore their website should represent that.

Service is extremely important.  How fast do you get a quote back from the printer?  Probably one of the most important signs to whether you’ll receive good service or not.  Service is very important in this business since 90% of all orders have a deadline.  When working with deadlines it’s very important to have good communication between customer and printer.  Also, look at the turn around times that each company has before they charge you a rush fee.  Most companies have a standard turn around time of 7-10 business days.  If you need it sooner then they’ll start charging rush fees between 10%-50%, so don’t forget to calculate that into the original price.  If you find companies with shorter turn times like 3-5 business days consider if that is worth money to you.  Another important service question is what is your guarantee?  It’s important you find a printer that is willing to stand behind their work.  If you get your shirts delivered after the event date do you still have to pay for them?  What if there is a misspelled word? Do I still have to pay?  These are good things to get squared away before placing a big order.

Good Luck!

InnoThread Graphics

screen printing | embroidery | promotional

Orange County, California