Impressions - January 2015 - 22

On DESIGN

The Color Challenge

Design Details
Dimensions: 8.5" x 11"
Screen-Printing Press: M&R Sportsman
Separation Software: Adobe Photoshop,
T-Seps and Accu-Rip
Ink Types: Wilﬂex, hand mixed for PF
pantones for colors
Ink Colors: white, green, brown,
pale yellow, maroon, red, cut black,
highlight white

The job is an eight-color

simulated process print. It
included using a 200 mesh for the
underbase, followed by ﬂashing,
then printing green through a 230mesh screen, followed by four more
colors printed through a 305 mesh.
After a second ﬂash, the highlight
white and cut black colors were printed
through 305-mesh screens.

he employees at Twine Graphics, Franklin, Tenn., are big
believers in supporting local businesses. The company,
which specializes in screen printing, offers a variety of
services, including logo and print design, embroidery, promotional products and product photography. It's this attention to
doing business at the local level that keeps clients coming back.
"Most of our customers are regional and this example
("Grand Peppey") is one of our best designs for a local chili
cookoff," says co-owner Brandon Hagan. "It's all about networking to us. We rarely turn anyone away because the job
that we took to help someone out might lead to a job that is
proﬁtable down the road."
Twine Graphics was co-founded in 2010 by Hagan and John
Bond after both graduated from Western Kentucky University.
They started small, printing jobs at a screen-printing shop located in Bowling Green, Ky., where Hagan worked in college.
Their ﬂedgling sales funds were parlayed into a set of equipment (a manual M&R Sidewinder press and Economax dryer)
that was eventually traded out at the end of the ﬁrst year.
Since then, the company has upgraded its equipment to

Impressions | January 2015

It was challenging to create the wood
grain in the fence and in the oval around the border
of the graphic using only eight colors. A balance
had to be struck with the brown, yellow and maroon
to differentiate each pattern in the wood grain. The
registration was crucial in keeping everything crisp
and vibrant.

include an M&R Sportsman 10-color, 12-station press and
Sprint dryer, and the ﬁrst employee was hired in 2013. "The
combination of a strong work ethic, design ability and learned
printing skills allowed the company to grow," Hagan says.
The main challenge with creating "Grand Peppey" involved
color and print order logistics. Laid out by artist Rainey Kirk,
certain colors were modiﬁed from examining the ﬁlms -
before the screens were even burned, according to Hagan.
"Taking into account things like print order helped us to determine how to efﬁciently produce a print true to the original art
using only eight colors," he says. "Two ﬂashes were required to
run the job efﬁciently. We took care to balance inks with lesser
coverage with the colors that needed to be more prominent.
"This is the reason that the green was printed after the base,
then the maroon was printed after the brown and yellow,"
he adds. "The maroon was used to create more of the deeper
tones - shadows in the wood and banner. The red was run last
[before the ﬁnal ﬂash] to give the 'pepper man' an extremely
vibrant appearance."
- Marcia Derryberry

impressionsmag.com

http://www.impressionsmag.com

Impressions - January 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - January 2015