Painting the Shop Floor
As I’m sure you were able to deduce from the title, BRG has just completed the exciting task of painting the shop floor! This wonderful feat, which occurs about once a century, has resulted in a gorgeous new paint job complete with fresh paint specks to provide that extra colorful kick.
Perhaps the coolest thing about the cleaning/painting process is that we were able to use a soy-based paint remover. Clean and green, baby! Thanks so much to our wonderful cleaning and painting crew! Take a look at the before and after photos and prepare to be amazed.
Thanks and enjoy!
Jackson Kulick
BRG Blogger
Questions? Email me at Jackson@brgtshirts.com or call 434.296.9746.
Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook.
BRG’s New Year’s Resolutions!
Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season and a great New Year’s. It’s certainly nice to hang out with the family and talk/think about something besides screen-printing. Tough way to end the year with UVA losing in bowl game, but hey, we all think they’re heading in the right direction under Coach London. Go Hoos! Also, this year was the first one in a while that I successfully wrapped my presents in wrapping paper instead of using t-shirts, so that’s a pretty big accomplishment in itself.
As everyone knows, this time of year necessarily brings up the topic of resolutions. And while BRG is always striving to print the best custom t-shirts and apparel around, there is still some pressure to list specific things that BRG will improve on, and/or accomplish this year. So, without further ado, here are BRG’s New Year’s resolutions:
(Obviously, the resolutions below are my own suggestions and some, if not all, are quite opinionated and still require approval from above…)
1: Write More Blog Articles:
Without a doubt, the BRG Blog was the Dark Horse in 2011. I mean who could expect such brilliant prose to come out of a local custom screen-printing shop, which not only provided knowledge, but also took us to another world emotionally. Pulitzer? I think so.
2: Screen-Printing Olympics! :
This idea has been floating around the office for a while, and hopefully this will be the year to convince the boss-man and other local screen printers to do a friendly test of skill and strength. Here are some events that I think would be appropriate:
- Box-Carry Obstacle Course: Use of a dolly is allowed with a four-box minimum. Watch out for that wet ink on the outside of turn four!
- Timed Automatic Press Assembly: This event will take an entire shop at least a week.
- 1000T Shirt Marathon: A timed event with the final number of acceptable tees being the deciding factor. From registering the art to running the automatic at full speed, printers go the distance for Gold! 5-color design minimum.
- 100T Shirt Sprint: Another timed event with the final number of acceptable tees being the deciding factor. From registering the art to manually printing by hand, printers will muscle through to show who’s fastest in this all-out sprint. 3-color minimum.
Again, these are just suggestions for the events. As always, the T-Shirt Olympic Committee (TSOC, or T-Sock for short) will make the final decision.
3: Increase Jelly Bean Supplies:
Not really much to explain with this one. Quite simply, I find that the presence of jelly beans directly correlates to greater work efficiency and general office cheer.
4: Print More T-shirts!
Why? Because it’s what we do. Nuff Said!
So there you have it, four pretty good resolutions. I’m sure everyone here will be just as excited as I am about them, and I’ll make sure to let you know of their progress.
Got a good resolution? Make sure to let us know in the comments below.
Thanks and enjoy!
Jackson Kulick
BRG Blogger
Questions? Email me at Jackson@brgtshirts.com or call 434.296.9746.
Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook.
Inaugural Travels with T-shirts!
Personalized T-shirts Lead to
Grand Canyon Awesomeness!
This blog post marks the first of hopefully many in a series entitled: “Travels with T-shirts” in which we will recount some great adventures that our customers have gone on with their BRG supplied custom t-shirts.
First up: Carl W. from Georgia who purchased some custom high-performance long sleeves to entice his entire group into hiking from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the other. In Carl’s own words:
” We hiked for a day in Zion Nat’l park and
then overnighted in Jacob Lake Arizona. We started in about 8 inches of snow/ice on the North Rim and hiked 13.4 miles to Phantom Ranch where we overnighted. It was 13 degrees when we started at the top and 56 degrees at the bottom, 7.5 hours later. On the hike out we crossed the Colorado river on the only bridge at the bottom of the canyon and hiked out 9.6 miles starting in 50+ weather and finishing in a gale (25 miles an hour) and about 25 degrees and about 8 inches of snow. It was fabulous, very few people hike it with snow on both rims. I wore my shirt all the way out and was comfortable until I reached the top of the South rim where the wind chill forced me to add a layer. ”
Seriously, what an amazing thing to do! I mean it takes a lot of guts to go to the Grand Canyon and say to yourself, “I’m gonna hike from this rim, through the snow, cross a river, and to that other rim that’s like a 1000 miles away!” – pretty cool stuff! Should have sold him some jackets or hats to help keep him warm… Congratulations to Carl’s group for undertaking and surviving a truly cool and unique trip!
If you have taken a trip with some BRG personalized apparel and would like to share, let us know so that we can include your story in (drum roll…) Travels with T-shirts!!!
Until next time.
Jackson Kulick
BRG Blogger
Questions? Email me at Jackson@brgtshirts.com or call 434.296.9746. Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook.
Blue Ridge Graphic’s Winter Plans
Alright folks, Fall is in full swing and BRG has been busy coming up with new ideas to make you happier and keep you warm through the Winter.
Like always, we hope these ideas will teach us more about how we do business in order for us to improve our quality of service and, in a nut shell, make the world of custom t-shirts and screen printing a better place!
So here is a brief overview of a couple of the things you can expect from BRG in the coming season.
Ask A Screen-Printer Articles — This series of articles will hopefully shed some light on the day to day life of a screen-printing shop. We welcome any questions directly or indirectly related to the business. So whether you’re wondering about a technical aspect of printing, or simply curious about the number of office parties we have (a ton!), feel free to ask away!
Design of the Week/Month Awards — Well, this one is simple enough and kind of self-explanatory, but we are still really excited to debut it. Our extremely experienced and talented art-staff will be using their skillful eyes to select one extraordinary design a week for us to rave about on Facebook. At the end of each month, we will then choose the winner of the prestigious Design of the Month award! And don’t worry, there will most definitely be an outrageous prize for the winner! (No doubt we will have to visit the Design of the Year topic down the road.)
Customer Satisfaction Surveys – I’m sure you’re all jumping up and down with joy about this, but let’s be serious, one of the main reasons BRG has been around for so long is due to the loyal Charlottesville community and surrounding area. With this in mind, our number one goal is to make all our customers excited to receive their custom t-shirts or screen-printed goods. That is why we will be sending out a short survey (via email) to our customers with the hope of gaining insight on how to improve our service.
Naturally, we depend on our customers for quality feedback, so please let us know if you have any ideas or would like more info on what we’re up to, and of course this is only a smidgen of what our Winter plans entail so be sure to check back on a regular basis to see what’s new.
I’m a big proponent of short blog articles (not that this qualifies), especially when the subject matter may not be as exciting as Fantasy Football, so until next time!
Thanks and enjoy!
Jackson Kulick
BRG Blogger
Questions? Email me at Jackson@brgtshirts.com or call 434.296.9746. Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook.
Plastisol vs. Water-based Inks Cont.
Water-based inks have recently made a comeback the world of screen-printing. They work by using water as the vehicle for carrying the pigment and binders to the fabric. Here’s a look at some of the pros and cons.
Water-based Ink Pros
- Requires only water to remove ink from the screen when finished printing.
- Creates a very soft hand, which is often preferred on fashion garments
- It can be used in a digital printer, which is more efficient when printing many different colors on a single garment.
- It can be partially absorbed into the fabric, which is better for particular garments such as towels.
Water-based ink Cons
- Cannot be printed on dark colored garments as effectively as plastisol
- The ink takes longer to dry (cure) and often times require a larger dryer and more energy.
- Has a relatively short shelf life once mixed with binder (the base used to carry the pigments).
- Cannot be left in the screen for long periods of time because it will dry in the mesh.
- Though the ink can be removed from printing presses and tools with water, it still contains pigments and binders that must be disposed of properly.
In the end, the advantages and disadvantages of plastisol and water-based inks are such that both work great for certain applications and should be chosen with their pros and cons in mind.
Thanks and enjoy!
Jackson Kulick
BRG Blogger
Questions? Email me at Jackson@brgtshirts.com or call 434.296.9746. Don’t forget to check us out on Facebook.
