November/December 2008

Color-Selection Basics

 

Curious about imprint color selection for colored garments? We explain the fundamentals of underbase printing and how screen-print artists convert logos and designs for use on dark backgrounds.

By Thomas Trimingham

Did you know that a garment’s color affects a lot of factors in screen-printed art? For example, depending on a shirt’s color, a screen-printed design might need to be under-printed with a white ink to ensure that the top color’s hue doesn’t change. In addition, an image’s background color can cause hue clashes with other colors in the design, make the design look washed out or even make some of the art disappear altogether. For a distributor, learning to control how a garment’s color will affect the art is important in selling screen-printed apparel.

The first step is to up the priority of the garment’s color in qualifying and selling printed goods. Determining what the client wants for garment colors is often the second or third most important question in the sales process. Too often the garment color is treated as an afterthought, and this can cause some serious problems for both the printer and the distributor if the final product looks different from what the client expected.

A distributor also has to gauge the client’s understanding of screen printing and artwork terms. Unless a customer can comfortably understand such terms, you might need to render visual comps for each stage of the art approval process prior to the client’s final print approval. Plus, it’s wise to enlist your screen printer’s help in educating the client on why her artwork may need to be adjusted for a certain color garment. With this in mind, keep handy a short list of terms for color and garment usage with definitions that explain how they’re used – and share those with your client.

A simple process for evaluating garment colors that work well with a client’s artwork consists of a short review of the client’s art, an evaluation of how this artwork will display on the desired garment color, and a review with the screen printer and his artists to determine if there are any modifications that need to be made to create a good-quality final product.

Artwork review
It’s a good idea to do an initial review of a client’s artwork to determine if there will be any issues reproducing it with screen printing. With simple typography or logos, it’s rarely a problem, but many companies don’t set up their graphics and logos to work well with a variety of garment background colors. Often, it’s necessary to modify the garment; or many times, the logo will need to be changed from a positive to a negative image to achieve the proper legibility on a dark-colored garment. For example, a white print on a black shirt will appear as a negative if it is taken from an original design that was drawn using black on white.

“Educating the client is a big challenge when you’re talking about making images work on a variety of shirt colors,” says Al Coffey, owner of Dragonfly Graphics, a screen printer and embroiderer. “One of the biggest issues is when the chosen shirt color is very close in hue or value to the outside edge colors of a logo. Everything will blend together in the final product, so some kind of change must be made to the design’s border to keep it visible and looking good.”

A basic logo that has a red border will need to be modified to make it work well on a red garment. The best solution for this scenario depends on the client’s opinion about the different options the decorator presents. This is where it becomes extremely helpful to have a reactive artist available to modify designs for the specific needs of the client and the garment. “It’s always easier to show a customer several choices, but really guide them to the solution that will work the best when printed,” Coffey says. “Giving a client too many choices can make them confused.”

When you review the artwork, pay attention to designs that have recognizable elements such as people or animals, to make sure they won’t look weird when they’re printed with a lighter color than the garment . This is where educating the customer about negative and positive printing is necessary.

The evaluation process
If you’re working with a client who wants to purchase a screen-printed product, you need to have a clearly defined art approval process. Part of this process is being able to show the client how the artwork will look on the color of garment that he chose.

Scott Hertzbach is president of Cottonimages, a screen printer that regularly deals with submitted artwork from large brands. “Two main issues to consider when printing on colored garments are opacity and hand,” he says. “These variables counterbalance each other, because to have a really bright print, it often increases the texture of the print on the shirt. A common goal these days is to have a very soft feel to a print, and that’s a challenge to also keep the prints bright.”

There are a variety of techniques to make a print look good and still keep it soft. One of the most popular is to use a distress filter in the artwork that makes the print look used and cracked. “Adding a distress layer or filter to a large printed area is a good solution for keeping the print softer – and it helps create the illusion of a well-worn shirt,” Hertzbach says.

Once the artwork is laid out in a graphics program, it can be placed on a shirt template so the client can see how her image will look on the background color or colors she wants. Quality screen printers will often have refined solutions for this approval process. For example, Hertzbach’s approval system at Cottonimages uses proprietary software that he developed for a process where clients log in to the system online and view the entire progression of the artwork with all changes, and check off on the final version.

The client approval process is an important step in providing the best service. When you show your client the final artwork sample, make sure it looks the way it will on the colored garment, whether you show it as a printout or as a virtual sample. The goal is to give the customer a very clear picture of what the final will appear like on the shirt.

Logo and artwork modifications

As early as possible, consult your printer to determine what artwork changes may be necessary to make it appear the way it’s supposed to on a colored garment. Sometimes the artwork may need major changes and/or a complete overhaul. This can cause some friction with a prospective buyer if he doesn’t understand why the artwork (which worked great when it was printed on the large posters) has to be completely modified to work on a black shirt.

The most efficient way to work with a client in this situation is to carefully explain why and how the artwork will need to be modified to fit the client’s requirements. In some cases, it may be easiest to show the client a detailed description provided in e-mail or in a phone conference call from the artist who suggested the modifications.

Coffey likes to work directly with clients whenever he can so they fully understand what changes need to be made to their logos and designs. “Sometimes I’ll have to be pretty firm with a customer, because he’s insisting on printing something that I know won’t look good,” he says. “Making a design look great on a shirt is what we do, so it’s a reflection of our company as well as the customer’s. There’s almost always a compromise where the art can be adjusted a little so the print will look great and still be really close to what the customer wanted.”

The creation of screen-printed apparel using colored garments has many variables that can be a challenge to remember and control, but will yield fantastic final products if they’re dealt with carefully. It’s all about reviewing the subtle interaction between the artwork and the printed surface. Remember to get the printer’s opinion on the art and the garment color as early in the process as possible, to head off any issues that might crop up later. The artwork might need some small or even large adjustments, but printing artwork that’s re-created just for specific-colored garments can create dramatic decorated shirts that are sure to wow your clients.

Color My World Here are some key terms to know when selling screen printing: Underbase – A print that’s executed first, after which the real design is printed on top. The purpose is to preserve the top ink’s color and opacity (transparency). The most common underbase color is white. Occasionally a clear or other light color is used to produce different effects. Hue – The specific wavelength of color represented, distinguishing this color from all others, such as red, blue and yellow. A garment’s color comes from the hue in the dye pigments that have stained the fabric threads. Saturation – This term, when applied to color, indicates the color’s intensity. This is also referred to as the “depth” of the color. Inks that are high in saturation typically have a lot more pigment in ratio to the base components. Brightness – The property of color that relates to how much black or white is mixed with it. Other common terms for this quality are value or luminosity. Opacity – A property of ink that relates to how much light can penetrate its printed surface, allowing the surfaces underneath the ink color to show through it. Hand – This term is commonly used to refer to how hard a printed surface of a garment is. It has been increasingly popular for decorators to try to achieve prints that have extremely soft hands, to the point that they can’t be distinguished from the shirt’s unprinted areas. Different inks have different hand softnesses to them. Negative and positive – These terms relate to artwork and how it’s visually intended to be displayed. These terms are mainly used to describe items that look incorrect if they’re printed as a negative instead of a positive. A white print on a black shirt will appear as a negative if it was taken from an original design that was drawn using black on white.

Thomas Trimingham has more than 16 years of experience in screen printing as an award-winning artist, separator and industry consultant. Contact: www.art4screen.com.