KNYEW JACK CITY | Inside Production - KNYEW Clothing Boutique

KNYEW JACK CITY | Inside Production

Sunday, May 27 2012

With less than a week until our KNYEW JACK CITY Collection’s release on Friday, I wanted to post some behind-the-scene production pics from the screen printer’s work shop. Me & Jazzy (aka Mama Knyewtron) made a stop a couple of weeks ago to check on the print work & make sure everything was on schedule for the June 1st release date.

If you didn’t already know, screen printing is a process allowing different color inks or paints to be transferred onto fabrics through open sections burned into mesh screens. Here you can see a mechanical squeegee, soaked in black paint, gliding across the open sections of the mesh screen, filling in the black areas for each t-shirt’s design.

Even though there’s a wide range of colors available, most screen printing machines are limited to a certain amount of colors (usually 6-8). Only one color can be applied for each screen so it’s important that you select your colors wisely. The next time you see a t-shirt, count the number of colors in the t-shirt’s design. Each color represents a screen & the more screens you use, the more expensive & complex the job.

Here you can see the different screens that this t-shirt had to go through. The 1st screen at the top left was the white coating. The 2nd screen at the top right was the skin tone. The 3rd screen at the bottom left was the blue coloring & the final screen at the bottom right was for the red bow, panties & shoes.

The order for each screen color is also very important. Certain colors bleed more than others so in most cases, delicate colors like red & yellow are usually printed last on the list.

Once the last screens are done, the t-shirt is removed from the machine & tossed into the dryer.

With temperatures up to 300 degrees, the dryer ensures each print is locked in & smear-proof for every t-shirt.

Stacked, packed & ready to go…

From concept, production & finally, to marketing where me & the KNYEW Crew tweet, instagram & facebook the shit out of the finished products so all you Knyewtrons can get a first hand look. As you can see, I’m checking the number of “likes” we received on instagram (don’t act like you don’t do it too).

From the sketch pad to the screen printers, it takes a lot of people to make these collections possible. It’s a long process but in the end, it’s all fuckin’ worth it. KNYEW JACK CITY Collection is dropping this Friday, June 1st…Crooked signing out!