Here's some art and seps I did for one of our members. I'm told it was his first time printing sim process of any kind. We walked through the process. He bought some high mesh,new inks, setup suggestions and the works. 1800 shirts. Apparently ran without any hiccups.
This looked pretty derned sweet for a first timer and will open some new doors for him I'm sure.
He apparently was already a good printer but just never did sim process. He knows what he's doing.
To give you another example of how much it takes from the printers side, no matter what art/seps you provide, take a look at the other below. That was done for from a printer in Orlando. It was a big hit also for me here in town, but still, it was not exactly what I had looked for.
This was a new shop I used in Orlando, but has seen some decent prints come from them. So, when giving my suggestion on how to print it, he pushed back. I went a few pissing rounds with the printer who "worked for some big shops" and declared he knew what to use more than I did" so I gave in and allowed him to use lower mesh than what I would have selected. He is accustom to using 180 on base and 280's on top colors. Ok. I thought it might not be "that bad". I usually prefer 230 base and 305 top colors as the Huntsville guy did.
The lower mesh might have worked better, but the Orlando guy obviously laid down the dark pink ink way heavy and overpowered my light pink altogether. Note, I used the same light pink in each design and the St Cloud version had far more light pink in it than what you see.
Then, the Orlando printer didn't hold that background flame as well as the Huntsville guy. Note, that the Hunsville guy used only 1 pink while the Orlando guy had a light pink and a dark pink. The (two pinks) should have provided more contrast.
Both were ran on auto's. The first one, at top, looks far better then "the one done in Orlando for me "A guy with a print background working for large shops in the Orlando area doing sim process, not to mention a TommyHilfiger print shop.
Both of the customers (our customers being the firefighters) on these jobs did some dictating on how things should be, so overall it looks good, but could have been better designed.
Now, both were good prints, but the (brand new to sim process) guy from Hunstville out did this expert guy hands down. Imagine how good he's going to be when he gets some more experience. I'd have to say also, that the inks play a factor in it as well. I think the Orlando printer used some heavier inks. The print seemed very plastiy in some areas.