Impressions - August 2014 - 49

press, or a large embroidery job would take
forever with a singlehead machine."

AWAY HE GOES
Costanzo ﬁrst became interested in
graphic design in 1980 after taking a class
in high school that introduced him to offset printing and screen printing. He continued dabbling in the business throughout
high school and college, where he eventually took some classes and worked for
local shops. Back then, graphic design
wasn't done on a computer and ﬁlm wasn't
output. Graphics were done by hand, while
text was printed line by line on a typesetting machine.
"The back of each piece was coated with
wax and stuck to your layout," Costanzo
recalls. "You would take a picture of that
with a huge lithography camera and develop that sheet of ﬁlm. This was your
ﬁlm positive. If you wanted halftones, you
would lay a sheet with halftone dots on
your ﬁlm during exposure."
In 1987, he started a design and printing
shop with two friends, eventually moving
to Los Angeles to do graphic design for a
large company that specialized in the music industry. In 2010, after years of pursuing
other interests, he opened Ink13.
The company's origins were derived
from a concept Costanzo had with a friend
who owns an offset printing company,
Thirteenth Floor Graphics and Printing.
The plan was to contract out all of the offset
print work to his friend who, in turn, would
send all of his apparel work to Costanzo.
As things started rolling, Costanzo simply
added the "13" to create Ink13.
"This has worked out great for both of
us," Costanzo says. "Startup was a bit of a
challenge because my business model was
to primarily grow by sales. I didn't want to
take on large debt all at once. So the ﬁrst
year was just investing in the screen printing equipment. As sales grew, I purchased
other equipment, like the wide-format
printer and embroidery machine."

Ice downhill skater. Costanzo also works
closely with a few tattoo shops.
And in a marketplace that continues
to redeﬁne how companies do business,
Ink13 is ﬁnding new and creative ways like
social media to engage its customer base. "I
love posting a picture of my latest project
to keep people informed of what's going
on," Costanzo says. "It keeps you on their
minds and also might remind them of
some services they didn't know you offer."
Costanzo says staying savvy in social
media is key. "Not only is social media important to me, but also having an
[Internet] presence," he says. "I know when
I buy something, I check it out online to
get an idea of the company. If a customer
wants to pick a company to do something
artistic for them, [that company] should
have a website to reﬂect that."
Another key to growing your consumer
base is staying ahead of the trends. For example, Costanzo says that outside of promotional garments, consumers continue to
move away from the standard T-shirt. He
is ﬁnding ring-spun cotton to be popular,
with tri-blends increasing in popularity.
In addition, polyester dry-weave polos are
taking over the demand for cotton piqué
shirts, with some customers preferring
a light tri-blend or an Egyptian interlock
cotton for embroidery.
In the end, success lies in ﬁnding what
your customers want and giving it to them.
"I know that the 'design-yourself-online'
model is huge, but there are still customers
who have no clue as to what they want until you give them an idea," he says. "If you
make that easy for them and deliver a great

ﬁnal product, they will be loyal customers.
I've seen jobs printed online for customers
that had things in the wrong place simply
because the customer put it there by accident. These huge companies are not going
to call you and say, 'Hey, are you sure you
want that there?'"
For Costanzo, it's all about the customers, and what they want and need. When
he makes time to network and solicit his
services, he generates sales - period.
"I once read in [Impressions] that one of
the biggest mistakes a decorated apparel
business makes is concentrating too much
on the process and not on sales," he recalls. "You can spend all your time playing
around with new equipment, but it will sit
idle if you don't have the jobs to run on it."
This year is shaping up to be one of the
best yet for Ink13. Year-to-date, sales already have doubled. But, as with any growing business - especially one with such a
unique home base - the question persists:
When do you start thinking of expanding?
"If sales continue the way they are,
space and manpower will become an issue
that has to be addressed," Costanzo says.
"No matter how much I enjoy the space
I'm in now, it will be time to look for
something in the 3,000-square-foot size
range. The 12-14 hour days for a one-person shop takes its toll and it will be time to
hire someone."
Michael J. Pallerino is an award-winning
writer who has written for a number of national consumer and trade publications. For
more information or to comment on this article, email Michael at mpallerino@gmail.com.

FORMULAS FOR SUCCESS
Sports-related clients - school sports,
Little League programs, and gym and
ﬁtness clubs - currently constitute a big
portion of Ink13's business. Other related
clients include a few professional athletes,
such as a golfer, a three-time world champion bodybuilder and a Red Bull Crashed
impressionsmag.com

Ink13 is run out of the 1,500-square-foot walk-out basement of owner Paul Costanzo's home.
The shop's screen printing capabilities currently include a Vastex V-2000 HD six-station manual press
with a quartz ﬂash and a 36-inch conveyor dryer.
August 2014 | Impressions

http://www.impressionsmag.com

Impressions - August 2014

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