Impressions - January 2013 - (Page 23)

DESIGN DETAILS Number of colors in design: 12 Separation software: Photoshop Size of run: 12 Ink Brand: Wilﬂex Press brand: M&R Set-up time: 2 hours Run time: 2 days Purpose of design: Customer catwalk piece Frames: Newman Roller CO-GRAND CHAMPION GRAND CHAMPION — SCREEN PRINTING FIRST PLACE — SPECIAL EFFECTS TEXTILE SCREEN PRINTING “Not a Snake Play” ETF Tekstil Konf A.S. Tepeorean Mah. Demokrasi Cad. No. 137 Tuzla Istanbul, Turkey 9-0216-585-9595 etf.com.tr i t may not seem like it at ﬁrst glance, but the inspiration for this year’s overall co-Grand Champion, “Not a Snake Play,” was, of all things, dessert. “Until now, we did a lot of ﬂat, highdensity prints, some of them very complicated, and we won a lot of awards on the execution of the technique,” says Samir Sadikoglu, chief operating ofﬁcer of ETF Tekstil Konf A.S., Istanbul, Turkey. “Most of them were printed as ﬂat, high-density designs. I was having coffee and a pie one day at the coffee shop, and my pie was not ﬂat. I thought, ‘Would there be a possibility that instead of printing ﬂat, [we could] print on an angle, just like the ‘angled pie?’” The company’s R&D department went to work to develop a technique to print on an angle instead of a ﬂat surface. It took a few months and a lot of hard work, but they were able to perfect a method with award-winning results (proven by the fact that not only did the design win co-Grand Champion honors, but also Grand Champion of Screen Printing and ﬁrst place in the Special Effects Textile Screen Printing category). “Once we had a technique,” Sadikoglu says, “it was our point to ﬁnd a design that would show the technique the best. This technique requires a long design that will start from almost zero height at one edge of the print to a 2cm to 3cm height at the other edge of the print. If the design is short in length, the height difference is unnoticeable.” Cengiz Kaptan, the company’s print manager, came up with the idea of using a snake because its length would give a good overall look for one of the company’s high-end customers interested in prints that look out of the norm. Sadikoglu explains that every aspect of the process was important to the ﬁnished product. “It starts with a know-how of controlling very ﬁne HD printing,” he says. “The screens, inks, squeegees, pressure and off-contact are very critical during this stage. Later on, the special ‘catch and lift’ tool for the screen is designed and combined with a technique to give it the special look.” For example, ETF used a special water-based crack ink to create a “stone” on the shirt — instead of just using the snake — for a bigger “wow” effect. They named the design “It’s Not A Snake Play,” as homage to a computer snake game popular in the 1990s. As the snake got longer, it became more difﬁcult to control, and the same went for creating this design. “We have a water-based crack print, high-density print, halftones on top of high density, and gel ink on top of the halftones,” Sadikoglu says. “Everything needs to be perfect for the good end result, and this is what makes it difﬁcult to execute. “The technique used is never seen before in our industry,” he adds. “For those who are more experienced [with] specialeffects printing, [winning] means a lot. It was a challenge for us to develop and it [has] brought another challenge to the industry.” — M.H. January 2013 | Impressions impressionsmag.com 23 http://etf.com.tr http://www.impressionsmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - January 2013

Impressions - January 2013
Table of Contents
First Impressions
From the Show Director
FYI
Product Gallery
ISS Conference
Sharing the Spotlight
Tracking Today's T-Shirt Trends
Tees: Tried and True
How to Shop a Trade Show
Shop Spotlight
Embroidery Production
Screen Printing Technique
Digital Decorating
Online Directory
Business to Business
Classifieds
Ad Index

Impressions - January 2013