BusyPrinting

Reply to a DTG inquiry via E-mail

2011-10-17T07:31:00.002+08:00

Got another DTG inquiry via e-mail. Please allow me to post my reply here so that I could give some ideas to others.

My reply went (exactly) like this:

Hello Sir/Mam,

Oks naman po quality nung DTG, comparable naman na po sa screenprinting. Soft po yung results pag sa white or light colored shirts kasi yung CMYK pigment ink lang po ginagamit nya. For black or dark shirts, medyo hawig po sa plastisol yung results, medyo rubberized po ng konti kasi po ginagamitan sya nung white ink as a base.

Normal costing po namin pag few orders sa DTG, assuming inside a 10x10 area yung print size, is 150 pesos for white or light colored shirts (CMYK-Only Mode) and 250 pesos po for black or dark colored shirts (White Ink+CMYK Mode). Printing cost pa lang po yan, wala pa po yung cost ng shirts. Pag maramihan naman po, puede rin na kayo ang mag provide ng shirts. Pag paisa-isa po kasi, we prefer na kami na mag provide ng shirts. Normally, nag range from 350 to 450 pesos po yung one-off customized orders pag shirt included. Para po sa volume orders na plan nyo, surely me special discount naman po yun, mag depend na lang po sa actual ordered qty nyo, and sa actual design nyo. I suggest po na magpa print na lang po muna kayo ng 1 or 2 pcs lang, para po ma check nyo yung shirt nyo, and also yung print quality.

You may call me po sa PLDT Mobile (861-8184) ko if you need further info.

Regards,

Byron

Shotgun Hill Ride with the Oranga Brothers

2011-09-14T09:33:00.001+08:00

P1000024, a photo by busyPrinting on Flickr.

with Fred and Sheldon at the top of Shotgun Hill last September 3.

AJ Dimarucot on DesignTalks

2011-09-01T07:28:00.000+08:00

Our friend AJ will have a talk/lecture at the Ayala museum on September 3, 2011 at 3 PM.
Tickets at Php 300 / Php 150 for students, teachers, senior citizens, and Ayala Museum members.
For inquiries, call 7577117 to 21 loc. 35 or 24 or email education@ayalamuseum.org. Ticket prices are inclusive of admission to museum galleries.

I got invited, so I'll hope to see and meet you there, :)

"It's On Me" Adidas Banners

2010-07-11T10:18:00.001+08:00

It's On Me (01)
Originally uploaded by busyPrinting

It's UAAP time once again with the opening of the UAAP games yesterday at the Araneta Coliseum. These banners from Adidas is certainly a sign of that! Now, what does "It's on me" mean?

Tgraf Seminar - July 7 & 28

2010-06-23T11:59:00.001+08:00

Tgraf Seminar - July 7 & 28
Originally uploaded by busyPrinting

Invitation to Tgraf's business seminar on July 7 and July 28, 2010.

Kornit Bangkok Demo Invitation

2010-06-21T11:03:00.001+08:00

Kornit Bangkok Demo Invitation (1)
Originally uploaded by busyPrinting

Kornit Digital Asia Pacific invites you to join them in GFT 2010 show, July 1 to 4, Bangkok, Thailand!!

"Print, Your Style" Invitation from GA Printing

2010-06-17T08:33:00.000+08:00

I'm forwarding this invite from GA Printing for today's Graphic Expo ('till the 19th) at the SMEX Convention Hall in Mall of Asia. You may also download the original size from our flickr site here:
"Print, Your Style" Invitation

The invitation says this:

PRINT, YOUR STYLE

GA Printing invites you to visit its booth in the 15th Graphic Expo 2010 back-to-back The Photo-Video Expo 2010 on June 17-19, 2010 at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia, Manila, Philippines.

Simply print the attached 'Print, Your Style' invitation and present to the same in GA Printing's booth and get a prize!

Print, NOW!

Semana Santa Shirt Designs for Fr. Raffy Tolentino - UPDATE

2010-03-18T17:01:00.000+08:00

On a previous post last January 13, I told you something about my friend Fr. Raffy's tee design. We have screenprinted the shirts and I thought I should show you a pic of the actual printed tee.

Alice-in-Wonderland, the Movie & the Tee

2010-03-09T18:17:00.000+08:00

I must admit that this movie can't be given that 5 star rating. But just looking at the graphics and the colors of this movie, makes one think that this is a movie for the artists out there. Heck, even the two queens are color coded - the White Queen is the good one, and the Red Queen is the evil one. Well, I got inspired by one of the promotional posters of the movie so I printed myself an "Alice-in-Wonderland White Queen Tee". I'm wearing this tee as I'm writing this and during lunch break, I simply could not resist the urge to pose with the movie mural.

Now, which one do you like better, the Movie, or the Tee?

Paramore Riot Tee - Edge-to-Edge T-shirt Printing

2010-03-03T17:20:00.000+08:00

Still another test print done using our edge-to-edge T-shirt printing method. We used a Paramore Riot wallpaper and came up with this design, which I think is pretty cool.

And oh, before I forget, Paramore's concert is on March 9, 8 PM at the Mall of Asia Concert Grounds.

Edge-to-Edge "Onesies" Printing

2010-02-25T14:38:00.000+08:00

Onesies, according to wikipedia is actually a brand name owned by Gerber and the correct term for this type of garment is "infant bodysuit". Well, aside from sounding much cooler, the term Onesie or Onesies is now more often used in the US as a generic term. Whatever term you prefer though, this type of garment is now gaining popularity here in the country. We did some edge-to-edge printing on a couple of these "Infant Bodysuits" last week using the clients own design. I think the results are great although understandably, there are some "imperfections", just like when doing edge-to-edge printing on Tees. However, as one designer says, the "imperfections" in a way, help give the garments their own individuality.

What do you think?

Another Test Print for Oversized Tee Printing

2010-02-24T10:59:00.001+08:00

Did another test print of an oversized design. This time, we did not do an edge-to-edge print, we just did as big a print as possible on a white tee. We used a softer cotton-poly blend tee here. I think this kind of tee is good even for our edge-to-edge printing projects and so we will do more test prints using this type of tee. This is another design by our friend collision theory.

Edge-to-Edge T-shirt Printing

2010-02-18T07:18:00.003+08:00

We did some edge-to-edge printing the other day, and I thought the results look great. Here are some pics. Notice that when doing edge-to-edge printing, there could be some "imperfections", or those unprinted white portions. Thus, this type of printing is recommended for those designs with "distressed backgrounds" or those backgrounds with lots of "effects".

Big thanks to our friends csj89 and collision theory for lending us their designs. You two really rock!

I Won a Pair of Cushe Shoes

2010-02-16T09:29:00.002+08:00

Most of the time, I listen to Jam 88.3 FM inside the van. Last Wednesday, while travelling to Naga City to visit our store, I chanced upon this Cushe shoes giveaway contest on Lambert & Tracy's morning show. It took a lot of effort from the jologs me to call them and actually speak English. The reward - a pair of white/green Cushe Grove Speed Nylon shoes. Just claimed my prize yesterday and here are some pics of my trophy.

Cushe Grove Speed Nylon Boxed

Cushe Grove Speed Nylon Unboxed

I think they call it Grove Nylon because of this material

Lower Sole Design

Upper sole design - can you read what it says?

Looking inside the shoe

Cool outside logos

Looking at the cushe website, http://www.cushe.com, they actually divided their shoe lineup into 3, based on type of use: Urban Safari, Universal Traveller and Coastal Supremacy. My Grove Speed Nylon belongs to their Urban Safari lineup. I guess it's the best to wear in this jungle we call Metro Manila. Thanks again to Jam 88.3 and the local Cushe shoe distributor.

Electric Sky by AJ Dimarucot - Nominated for 2009 Threadless People's Choice Bestee Award

2010-02-09T09:07:00.003+08:00

Friends, this is "Electric Sky". Yan po ang nominated entry ng kaibigan natin at fellow Pinoy na si AJ Dimarucot on Threadless' 2009 Bestee Award. 20,000USD goes to the winner, so please help our friend by voting for his design. Plus, tingin ko, the best din naman talaga yung design nya. It also helps our economy if he wins! :)

Here's the link to vote:

http://www.threadless.com/bt/year,2009

Filipino Steals The Show on Project Runway

2010-02-08T09:58:00.002+08:00

His name is Jay Sario and he's the first Phillipine born designer to ever make it to Project Runway. Just found out about this last week and I hope he's still in the running in this reality show contest. On the second episode, he won the design challenge to create a party look from a burlap potato sack. Best of luck to you Jay. We're very proud of you. Show the whole world the great talent of the Filipino fashion designers.

Kornit Breeze 921 DTG Direct to Garment Printer as seen at ISS Long Beach 2010

2010-02-06T00:04:00.001+08:00

Big thanks to our friend Rodney Blackwell of the t-shirttforums.com for posting this. We now have another video of the long awaited Kornit Breeze 921 DTG printer. This video was taken during the recently concluded ISS Show in Long Beach California. I certainly hope I could attend one of these shows in the near future so that I could take my own pictures and videos.

As discussed by the Kornit personnel here, the Breeze sprays the pretreatment first, then wipes them off the shirt to help fix the shirt fibers and thus prevent "fibrellation" (not sure if I got the correct term). The Spectra heads were arranged so that the white ink sprays first, and when the CMYK heads reach the already printed white underbase, it starts printing also - so it almost looks like simultaneous white & CMYK printing and saves some printing times. As usual, a tunnel dryer is recommended or anything that would enable a good air flow when curing the shirt. This makes me wonder if a heat gun would work?

Here's the Technical Specs of this new machine:

Printing Method	Direct printing: Computer to textile.
Ink Type	Proprietary pigmented solvent and water-based ink.
Print Heads	Piezoelectric drop on demand ink jet heads. 5 colors,6 print heads, 256 nozzles per head.
Image Print Size	Standard: 14" x 18".
Colors	4 - CYMK process colors for white color garments. White ink for dark color garments.
Resolution	600x600, 600x1200 dpi.
Printed Substrate	Textile, cotton, cotton-polyester blends, lycra, viscose and more. Rigid and flexible materials optional.
Operating System	Windows XP.
Image Data	Bitmap, TIFF, EPS, PDF, JPEG and others.
Interface	Network, CD.
Power Requirements	Electrical supply: 230/110 VAC, 50/60Hz, 1 phase, W+N+PE
Recommended Accessories	Kornit QuickP RIP
Operating Condition	Temperature: 18oc-30oc. Humidity: 45%-95%.
Dimensions	1.14m x 1.5m x 0.7m
Number Of Operators	1

FULLY BOOKED's New Floor Tiles

2010-02-05T06:38:00.002+08:00

I love visiting bookstores and Fully Booked is my local favorite. On one of my visits to their Gateway Mall branch, I noticed that they are renovating their store. Their new floor tiles really caught my attention. They looked like they are pages from a book. I liked them a lot and wonder how are they manufactured and "printed"? Also, could you tell from what book they got the pages from?

Bench Political Tees

2010-02-04T09:03:00.003+08:00

Some call them Patriotic Tees, 'Pinas Tees or even Pinoy Tees. But these recent series of shirts from Bench certainly has the coming national election as the main topic. Messages such as "Give Love", "Gising Pilipinas", "I'm a Proud Registered Voter" and the direct-to-the-point "Make The Right Choice" are all well meant. I wonder who is the presidential candidate that Mr. Ben Chan is supporting this May?

Manny Villar Typography Shirt Design

2010-02-01T21:44:00.005+08:00

I'm not sure if this is a parody and I'm not exactly a big fan of Sen. Manny Villar, but I think this design by our friend Dave is an example of a good typography design. Since this is a black print on an orange shirt, our laser light heat transfer paper was used.

Printing a Black Tee Using "Discharge-Fluid-Only" Mode on a Mimaki GP-604D T-shirt Printer

2010-01-29T17:31:00.004+08:00

There's not so many videos on youtube showing the Mimaki GP-604D. Here's one, and the bonus is, it shows "discharge fluid only" printing on a black t-shirt. Note that when using discharge fluid, it is a must to wash the tee first before wearing as the discharge fluid contains chemicals that might irritate the skin. Printing with the "discharge fluid only" are very appropriate for "line art designs" as shown in the video.we love this because you get the softest hand possible.

Some Recent Lanyard Printing Jobs

2010-01-28T14:54:00.003+08:00

Did a couple of lanyards these past few days. I think the customer did a good job on the designs. Tell me what you think?

Ateneo Back-to-Back Champion Tee

2010-01-27T11:55:00.003+08:00

I realize that this should have been posted long time ago - last year in fact, because that was when the Ateneo Blue Eagles won their second consecutive UAAP basketball championship. I had some free time today and was trying to delete some old jpeg files from my hard drive. Hey, I think our friends from Unibersidad made a great design here so that it's better to post this late than never.

I also remember that we printed the shirts at the last minutes of the 4th quarter of the game. Since our shop in Farmers Plaza is near the Araneta Coliseum, the staff from Unibersidad were able to sell the shirts just as the Ateneo fans were exiting the Coliseum and celebrating. Well, this is just one of the advantages of the Digital Transfer Printing method - really rush jobs are possible. Also, noticed the many "photoshopped" effects that the graphic designer added to this design? Again, it's one of the plus points of Digital Transfer Printing.

Anyway, although late, I have to congratulate the Ateneo Blue Eagles again. Well done mga bossing. I hope this year will be LaSalle vs Ateneo again in the finals.

2010 NBA All Star Uniforms

2010-01-26T18:37:00.002+08:00

Just saw the new uniforms that the NBA All Stars will wear in the All Star game next month. Looks like the design was based on the Dallas Mavericks uniforms. I guess we should expect that since this year's game will be hosted by the city of Dallas. The background big star in front and the "diamond like stars" at the back looks like they were sublimation printed. As usual, the large team name of EAST & WEST and the numbers were all applique embroidered, or tackle-twilled as some might call it. I noticed too that the NBA Star Logo used different metallic threads on the borders - silver for the East team & gold for the West team. Kudos to adidas for the very nice design. I wish I could watch the whole game live on TV this year. And I wish the East will win and SHAQ plays again. Off course, Dirk will have something to say with that!

Semana Santa Shirt Designs for Fr. Raffy Tolentino

2010-01-13T17:02:00.002+08:00

Here are two shirt designs for my former classmate Fr. Raffy Tolentino. He requested for a 1 color design. I kinda favor the second one (red design on a black tee). Which do you think is better?

Happy 11th Birthday, Franz!

2010-01-10T08:27:00.001+08:00

Franz with Ate & Tita
Originally uploaded by busyPrinting

Today is Franz' birthday. I caught him with a nice smile in this photo with his Tita Dey & Ate Adie. Happy 11th Birthday my Dear Franz! You really are a gift from above!

Saksi: Passenger complains vs Cebu Pacific after she and special child are 'forcibly deplaned' - Video - GMANews.TV - Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs - Latest Philippine News

2010-01-07T08:13:00.000+08:00

Saksi: Passenger complains vs Cebu Pacific after she and special child are 'forcibly deplaned' - Video - GMANews.TV - Official Website of GMA News and Public Affairs - Latest Philippine News

This is so sad to hear, and Cebu Pacific is our favorite airline even. I took my two special kids to Singapore in 2008 and to Boracay just this December and we flew Cebu Pacific. Were we just fortunate that the crew did'nt forcibly deplaned us? In my opinion, children with special needs are not mentally ill people and as long as they did not show any action that may be perceived as dangerous during the flight boarding procedures, they should be treated as normal people. In the first place, such policy by Cebu Pacific is already discriminating. Predjudging a person, and a special kid as that, and anticipating that these special persons are a danger to the safety of the plane and it's passengers is clearl case of descrimination. Family ties is so special with us Filipinos and cases and company policies like this contributes to the degradation of the family as an institution (yep, that serious!). Cebu Pacific should be more sensitive and should make us feel that we as Filipinos are a part of their family. Now, the question is: are we going to fly Cebu Pacific next time hoping that they learned their lesson here, or are we going to try the other airlines, even the foreign airlines wishing that the non-Filipino crew will be more sensitive and will take better care of our special children?

Miley Cyrus Boyfriend Liam Hemsworth likes the Police

2010-01-06T21:33:00.001+08:00

Miley Cyrus Boyfriend Liam Hemsworth likes the Police
Originally uploaded by busyPrinting

Very Nice vintage tee worn by Liam Hemsworth, the Aussie new boyfriend of Miley Cyrus. The tee is inspired by the The Police's Syncronicity Album Cover which I attached below their pics. I really like the grey shirt used here. This was shot during Mileys visit to Melbourne a couple of days ago.

connected to JoikuSPOT wireless network via my Nokia phone

2010-01-06T08:53:00.001+08:00

connected to JoikuSPOT wireless network via my Nokia phone
Originally uploaded by busyPrinting

Hey, I'm now connected to JoikuSPOT and uploaded this using this connection. This is a really cool app 'coz I don't need to use my USB cable and I can share the internet connection with my kids! Really cool, thanks to Abe of yugatech.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/yugatech/~3/CchdpEbZBlc/

DTG Test Prints

2010-01-02T11:52:00.010+08:00

Last year, we got hold of our DTG (direct-to-garment) printer. This is to offer our customers with another option for their t-shirt printing requirements. Off course, a new printer, or any new machine for that matter is not plug-n-play as one would hope. You really have to know the capabilities and limitations of the machine to be able to use it efficiently and also to "manage" ours and the customers expectations. Our staff did some test prints on the machine on it's first month and I'm posting here some of the results. Hope this info will help the customers on their artwork preparation and their overall design workflow.
p.s. Apologies for the borrowed artworks from the Net. Our staff is a greenhorn and thought he could just copy any design from the net. He was already reprimanded.

After unpacking, and initial test prints, the print heads needs to be aligned to prevent getting these mis-aligned effects on the edges. X-Y alignment has to be performed although the print heads are only mis-aligned on one axis, not both.

this is a sample of a 1 color print on yellow tee.

zoomed pic of the prints. The prints hold-up even after a lot of washing!

You can print a 1 color print on a light colored tee using just the CMYK mode of the printer.

Here, we used CMYK+Discharge mode to get some prints lighter than the tee. We used a Giordano blank tee which is 100% cotton because the discharge fluid would only react well on 100% cotton tees.

The text "sugar" inside the box has some grey/white portions and this is where the discharge fluid was applied by the printer RIP processor. Offcourse, the yellow portions were also applied with the discharge fluid.

This is also another example of a CMYK+Discharge mode printing. Some portions of the blue shirt was turned into light grey by the discharge fluid. Off course, you can't make them white as there is no white ink in the printer. The lightest color you could get is the lightest un-dyed natural color of the shirt (which is normally greyish looking).

Another CMYK+discharge mode printing example, on a yellow Giordano tee this time.

Using Photshop, my staff wanted to experiment and put an "outer glow" on the image. The RIP interpreted that and layed down a lot of the discharge fluid on the edges of the actual pixel area of the design. We got this result and although this is not the result that we originally wanted, we took note of this procedure and might use them as desired later. I also noticed that we got some banding on the black portions of the design.

I really don't like using rectangular images like these, but we're testing how well a photograph would be printed on a black tee, and using CMYK+Discharge mode. Again, we got some banding here, and did some head cleans afterwards to remove this. The discharge fluid also reacts really well though on the Giordano Tee.

To get some subdued effect, you can also print using Discharge-Only Mode. Here are some testing we did using this mode. No CMYK ink was layed down, only the discharge fluid. Different densities of discharge fluid layed down would create the image. It's like printing on Greyscale mode.

Here, we tested the Discharge Fluid-Only mode on a non-100% cotton tee-a CVC cotton tee is used. You'll get less disireable results here, and it's quite difficult in predicting the outcome. This probably is the most difficult part in using our DTG printer: the discharge fluid reacts differently on different shirts, (even shirts with the same brand). I hope as we get more experience, we'll be able to get good percentage of acceptable results.

Here, the design was converted to greyscale, then printed using CMYK-Only mode. Seems like only black ink was layed down and the result on a red tee is good.

Using a 100% cotton GAP Tee, and Discharge-Only mode, I think we got a good result here. The GAP Tee really reacted well to the discharge fluid. The design uses some distressed effects and is a nice vintage looking design. Besides, TIME TRAVEL as a subject really makes it a Vintage Tee.

You could get good full-color outcome using just the CMYK-Only mode not only on white shirts but also on light colored shirt such as this one, a light beige Giordano Drifit tee. Although this is not a 100% cotton tee (drifit uses polyester), we got good results because we did not use the Discharge fluid-only CMYK.

One good thing about the DTG is the ability to print on the seams and on the neck ribbings, as shown here. And on a white Tee, a full color design looks really good.

Another example of a CMYK+Discharge Mode printing. The discharged portion was really big here.

CMYK-Only mode here, on an Old Navy V-Neck Tee. Using blacks, one could print really nice Statement Tees even if you use a non-white Tee.

Here's an example of a full-color printing on a light pink Tee, using CMYK-Only mode.

On a heather grey Giordano Drifit Tee, a black statement looks good. You can print design as big as 16 x 24 inches as shown here.

We also tested on a local 100% polyester white Trifit tee - the fabric normally used for basketball jerseys, etc. The results were OK. You can only print on white or light colored fabrics though.
We are very happy with the machine. Although it has no white inks, which could make the prints on dark shirts really stand out, the Discharge fluid is also nice to have. You just have to know what designs and shirt colors and types that this method would really shine on. I like the fact that the prints are really soft. This I think is it's biggest advantage. May I also remind our users that shirts printed using the discharge fluid needs to be washed first before use. The remaining chemical may irritate the skin if not washed first.

Hope to see more of your designs and i hope you'll utilize this new printing method for your upcoming projects in 2010. Happy New Year to All!

-Byron

Noynoy Aquino "Hindi Ka Nag iisa" Music Video

2009-10-30T20:11:00.001+08:00

New Kornit 921 Breeze DTG Printer

2009-10-02T17:16:00.002+08:00

This is the new Kornit 921 DTG printer, nicknamed, "Breeze". It's is supposedly the entry level machine from Kornit and there were reports that the price starts at 75K USD.

Quoted from the Kornit press release:

"this new digital unit is capable of printing on both dark & light garments and includes an automatic pretreatment system integrated into the machine. Moreover, Kornit continues its partnership with Spectra by featuring again its unique ink system that includes 6 industrial print heads (CMYK and white), 256 nozzles included in each."

After watching the video, I could say that I was impressed with this machine. I also noticed that after a just a few passes of the white ink, the CMYK inks were then printed, unlike the previous Kornit machines where the entire white underbase had to be completely printed before printing the CMYKs. So, one could almost say that this is almost "simultaneous" printing.

Well done Kornit. Nice to know that you are not resting on your laurels and your R&D department is always hard at work and continuing the development of the DTG industry.

NOYNOY TEE - Show your love and contribute to Noynoy's campaign!

2009-09-18T21:10:00.002+08:00

This early, I must admit that I want Noynoy to be our next President. So to contribute to his campaign, we're screenprinting this tee designed by Benjo Camay (http://the-hand.deviantart.com/) and will be selling them for 200 pesos, half of which (100 pesos) will be donated to Noynoy's campaign. Actually, each tee will take more than a hundred pesos to produce (and sell), but we'll be shouldering the excess. We will be using our busyTee brand and will use the "softouch" waterbase screenprinting method.

Let's show our love by wearing this tee and contribute to Noynoy's campaign in our own little way.

"Cory UniTee" and La Salle's Losing Streak

2009-08-26T08:03:00.003+08:00

Well, the Green Archers lost again yesterday, against UP, a team I thought they should beat in order to have a chance to get into the Final 4. In fairness, looking at the lineup, I thought La Salle should only be ranked #5 this UAAP season, behind Ateneo, FEU, UE and UST. That's 4 straight losses, so I thought I should post this one to maybe break this losing streak.

Oh, and before I forget, this Tee is "similar" to what the players wore during the UniTee game in remembrance of our beloved Tita Cory. I just noticed that J.Webb wasn't wearing one in this picture...maybe that's one of the reason why he got carried away and gave a "light kick" to Austria which cost them the game. Oh well, that's another story though!

INC 95th Anniversary Tee

2009-07-27T15:24:00.004+08:00

We've been printing quite a number of these tees for a couple of days now. Some clients brought their own tees, and some used our own BusyTee brand. We'll today is the actual anniversary celebration and since the Araneta Coliseum is one of the venues for the gathering of INC members, and since our Farmers Plaza shop is actually very near the coliseum, we decided to accept "print-on-demand/while-u-wait" orders. Well, so far, so good today; we've completed a couple of orders for walk-in and referral customers. Happy Anniversary to all INC members.

Spreadshirt's Print Technology

2009-07-05T08:00:00.002+08:00

I will let you in on a little secret: Spreadshirt is one of our inspirations!

This video shows some of their print methods and we use pretty much the same methods. We use flex, flock, digital transfers and (soon) digital direct. We even have the same colors available in flex (I guess we have the same supplier). I noticed though, that they don't do embroidery and sublimation, so that's our "edge" over them, :).

Mimaki GP-604 YouTube Videos

2009-07-04T09:32:00.006+08:00

Came across these videos of the Mimaki GP-604 on YouTube. There aren't so many videos of this t-shirt printer out there so we thank the poster, 01shopper, for uploading them.

Celebrate Walkman's 30th Birthday with the Walkman Tee

2009-07-02T07:41:00.001+08:00

July 1 is Sony Walkman's birthday. As recalled from Sony history here: http://www.sony.net/Fun/SH/1-18/h3.html, this date in 1979 was when the Walkman first went on sale in Japan. He's now 30 years old, although I could not say he's going strong because clearly, he's now replaced by the iPod. But still, I'm sure those of us from our generation have a lot of good memories with him. I remember when my Dad brought the Walkman from Saudi, and all of us including my cousins took turns listening for a day. And in the 80's, during my high school days in the seminary, I would hide my walkman under my pillow on lights-out time and spend 2 to 3 hours listening to Air Supply and Apo. Happy Birthday Walkman!

MJ, 1958~2009

2009-06-30T07:49:00.004+08:00

We're saying farewell to the King of Pop, and we're sure that he will be up there with the likes of Elvis & Lennon. I remember him from Thriller in high school to Bad in college. And as for this shirt, it's in Black & White.... just like the song!

How Roland Make Their Printers

2009-06-29T08:34:00.005+08:00

Just came across this youtube video on the net. I'm really a fan of Roland printers (we have 5 of them), specially the print and cut models. They are easy to maintain, and the softwares are really user friendly. Just did'nt realize how efficient they are in their assembly line in Japan, and they are assembled by Japanese girls (with blond hair!) :). Anyway, this is what they call the cell system of production.

K-Jet 10 Feet Wide Format Printer

2009-06-25T06:44:00.003+08:00

This is our new 10 feet tarp printer being color profiled by the support tech. It's a K-jet, and it uses 6 high resolution Konica Minolta KM-512L printheads. It uses 6 colors; i.e. CMYK, plus light Cyan and light Magenta. Compared to our previous tarp printer using the Xaar 128 printhead, the printed output comes out really great looking and sharp - you can even read the smaller letters on the map being printed as shown in the picture. And best of all, you can print 10 feet wide! :)

Mimaki GP-604D T-shirt Print Sample

2009-06-24T11:17:00.002+08:00

Here's the sample shirt we got from Mimaki Japan. The shirt was "printed" using discharge fluid only, no CMYK inks, and certainly no white inks as well. The result was a really soft feel.

Jumbo Press - 40 x 64 inch Maxi-Press by George Knight

2009-06-23T08:12:00.003+08:00

We just got our really big, huge, large, oversized, jumbo heat press. It's Maxi-Press from George Knight and it's heat platen measures 40 x 64 inches. Unloading from the delivery truck was really a pain, 'coz we don't have a forklift or a boom. Took 12 of us to carry this beast!

Anyway, after the electrical set-up which is also not a walk in the park, we are ready to go. We'll be using this for sublimation printing on fabrics to do flags, fabric banners, basketball jerseys, all-over printed shirts, etc. I initially tested this on the large fabric banner shown on the picture here, and used 180~185C at 45 seconds. The banner is 5 x 8 feet size, so we had to cut the transfers in segments. The result was great,...... big....huge...large..oversized... JUMBO!

Nagaland E-mall T-shirt Design Contest

2009-06-22T06:45:00.005+08:00

Saw this poster on a recent trip to Naga City. It's good to see establishments sponsoring these t-shirt design contests and I think we need more of them. We might discover the next Kneil Melicano out there.

I only see one problem with this particular contest: #5 in the Mechanics states that "all submitted entries, including those which will be declared as winners are to be considered as properties of Nagaland Development Corporation". Talk about discouraging a good established designer, ha!! Maybe the "amateurs" won't notice this and will not mind this at all, but the "pros" surely will think twice about "giving away" their great stuff. Sure, the laptops and the digital camera seems like good compensation, but if a design does'nt win, the contest sponsor does'nt need it, and will not use it, right? So what's the point in all design entries becoming their property? For future use maybe? Then you need to compensate for every design entry, and then it becomes less of a contest anymore.

I think it would be better if the constest sponsor just gets limited rights to the winning designs for use on their advertising and promotions. The designers retains all the rights for their winning and non-winning entries. Works well and everybody's happy, and they will surely get more great entries. Can't wait to see the winning design!

The Hangover Tee for Father's Day

2009-06-21T15:38:00.003+08:00

I thought this tee from nerdy shirts is a great gift specially to those father wannabees. Here's the link: http://www.nerdyshirts.com/the-hangover.html . Happy Father's Day to all!

Club 8 Girls

2009-06-20T08:13:00.004+08:00

Did a couple of these for the "club 8 girls" using our metallic vinyl flex transfers. I think the brilliant gold (and silver) really stands out when printed on black. As for Club 8, they opened last June 5. The club is located at Southpark Autoville, Alabang Zapote Road in Las Pinas City.

Oracle Titans PBL Champion Tees

2009-06-19T22:41:00.002+08:00

We had to rush printing a few dozens of these Oracle Titans PBL Champion Tees. Game 2 was already underway when Accel came by the shop and literally "beg" me to do them. (Thanks Stephen, :)) Luckily, we were able to finish the super rush job with 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter, and Oracle's driver made a mad dash to their waiting car. I could only imagine the way he'll drive to the colisuem that afternoon. As faith would have it though, the Titans lost that Game 2 to Pharex. Maybe because the shirts came late, :). Anyway, they finally won the deciding game 3, and the shirts we're finally used in the celebrations. Congrats to the Oracle Titans for being the champ!

Canon iR C2550i

2009-05-26T09:24:00.001+08:00

We're adding another Laser Printer/Copier to our arsenal basically to print t-shirt transfers (and others). It will be our third iR C2550i and it will be installed in our VC Trading-Lucena shop. Our first was installed in our VC Trading-Naga shop and the second is what we use regularly in our VC Trading-Cubao shop. We also have the "already-phased out" CLC1110 oil based laser printer in our Cubao shop and the iR C2550i was brought in as a back-up to the oil based machine. No, it does'nt use oil for fusing so we can only use the non-oil type transfer papers (the thicker and heavier types). Needless to say, we're happy with the performance of the machine and satisfied (so far) with the service that Canon Philippines provides us. We hope that this new machine will serve us (and our customers) for a good number of years. This machine is actually the smallest (and cheapest) model Color MFD printer/copier in Canon's business line-up. We feel that it can handle our transfer papers well and are satisfied with the print-outs we're getting so far.

Quickprinting.com discusses this particular model here: http://www.quickprinting.com/web/online/Industry-News-and-Trends/Canon-USA-Unveils-imageRUNNER-C2550-Multifunction-Device/1$5270

Hayden Kho shirt recommendation

2009-05-21T09:33:00.004+08:00

Hearing (and "seeing") all these talks about Mr. Hayden Kho reminds me of this shirt from www.youaresofamous.com. I think it's just a matter of time before our enterprising friends from the local indie shirt industry designs a better one. Can't wait to see all the local ideas, :).

p.s. Here's the link to the original shirt: http://www.youaresofamous.com/buy.sextape2.men.html, and it's on sale at 50% off, 14.99USD

Francis M, 1964~2009

2009-03-07T01:43:00.001+08:00

Today, we join the t-shirt industry and the whole country in general in mourning the death of Francis M - actor, master rapper, family man, t-shirt lover, artist and Filipino. 44 years is really such a short time to live but Francis M had achieved so much in his life that everyone of us could only wish there should be more. Farewell Francis M, you will surely be missed but your legacy lives on.

Filipino wins threadless bestees award | The Philippine Star Lifestyle Features On the Radar

2009-02-09T07:46:00.002+08:00

Link

Huge Congrats to Kneil Melicano for winning! His designs are really awesome!

DTG (Direct-to-Garment) Printer - Coming Soon!

2009-02-05T07:38:00.004+08:00

I'm so excited with this. Very soon, we will be offering DTG (direct-to-garment) printing service with our own Mimaki GP-604D machine. This video shows the GP-604 but our machine will be the GP-604D and will be capable of "discharge printing" on dark garments. I'll post some samples and pricing info as soon as we have the machine and finish the installation and training.

Costing for a Single Shirt Order Printed Using Laser Transfers

2009-01-20T09:24:00.002+08:00

The best advantage of using the heat transfer method is that there's no minimum quantity required. A customer can order a single piece of shirt printed with his/her own design. Single piece shirt orders are our most common job. Since I receive a lot of e-mail inquiries for single piece orders, I though it would be best to show you an e-mail conversation I recently had with a customer to sort of answer the most common pricing question. Here goes:

From: Byron Villegas
Date: Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 9:15 AM
Subject: Re:
To: XXX XXXXXXXXX

Hello XXX,

Thanks for the inquiry.

Here is the sizing chart: http://busyprinting.com/Products/T-shirts%20&%20Clothing/Shirts/Shirt%20Sizing%20Chart.htm
This sizing chart is applicable for Lifeline and BusyTees brand.

We can order the Lifeline Style #202 Roundneck tees. The colors available can be seen here:
http://busyprinting.com/Products/T-shirts%20&%20Clothing/Shirts/Lifeline%20Shirts%20202.htm

As for the busyTees shirts, the available colors are:
White, maize yellow, golden yellow, blue ice, royal blue, navy blue, baby pink, emerald green and black. The color shades are similar to the shades shown on the Lifeline webpage above.

Price for the tees:
white - P90.00 each
colored - P120.00 each

Heat Transfer Printing Cost:
P100.00 - Using Laser Light Transfers paper, size A4 (210 mm x 297 mm), can be used only for white or light colored shirts (because this kind of transfer paper is transparent, meaning, the color of the shirt would be seen through and this causes some color shifts on light shirts because of the color of the shirt)

P200.00 - Using Laser Dark Opaque paper, Letter size (8.5 x 11 inches), can be used for dark or black shirts (because this paper has an opaque white rubbery base, meaning, the design should be a "1 piece design" with border, otherwise, a white background can be seen on the t-shirt when printed).

So, to calculate your costing, just add the price of the shirt and the price of the heat transfer paper used for the printing.
For Example:
white shirt, using light transfers: 90 + 100 = P190.00
baby pink (or blue ice shirt), using light transfers = 120 + 100 = 220.00
baby pink (or blue ice shirt), using dark opaque transfers = 120 + 200 = 320.00
royal blue (or red, or emerald green), using light transfers = 120 + 100 = 220.00
royal blue (or red, or emerald green), using dark opaque transfers = 120 + 200 = 320.00

When to use light transfers on colored shirts really depend on the customer and the design.
But based on our experience, the following colors are considered as light colors and can be used for light transfers:
Baby pink, maize yellow, blue ice and baby pink.

Off course, we've had customers before who have used light transfers on emerald green, royal blue and even red colored shirts. They're design is mostly in black though, so that the print still shows through.
Hindi madadaig ng color ng shirt (emerald, red or royal blue) yung color ng print (black).

Looking at your designs, and bearing in mind that you intend to resell them, I would really advise you to use the screenprinting method.
But since you said that they would be for 1 or very few piece orders at a time, the option would be just to use Light Laser transfers on white and light colored tees.
I really don't recommend using dark opaque transfers for commercial applications & intended for retail sales. Apart from being expensive and "for 1 piece-bordered designs only", opaque transfers have a tendency to crack overtime.
Although we only use good materials from Germany and the US (not from China) wash and proper care instructions should be strictly followed for the opaque prints to last longer.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Byron
www.busyPrinting.com

On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 5:04 PM, XXX XXXXXXXXX wrote:
I need the dimensions of sizes.

colors na available light & dark.

prices.

PLEASE REPLY.

Bring your friends to the fun.
Invite your friends from Hotmail, Gmail to Yahoo! Mail today!

--
Byron Villegas
VC Trading
2F Farmers Plaza
Araneta Center Cubao, Q.C.
PLDT LL+: 331-3481
Smart Cell: 0918-923-4883
Sun Cell: 0922-831-3481
www.busyPrinting.com

Underground River Tees - new7wonders ad campaign

2008-08-25T12:30:00.005+08:00

Printed 63 tees with this design the other day.

As I write this, the Palawan Underground River is ranked #15 for the NEW7WONDERS poll. I haven't been to Palawan but hopefully, I'll get the chance to see this wonder soon. Ika nga, "wag maging dayuhan sa sariling bayan".

Printer: Canon CLC1110
Substrate: Forever light laser transfers
Press: Hix 16x20, 20 sec @ 200C
Tee: white generic tee (customer provided)

Ninoy "It's Time" Tees

2008-08-22T12:19:00.005+08:00

Yesterday was Ninoy Aquino day, and we rushed completion of these tees. I wonder what it means when the tee say's: It's Time.
Anyway, Ninoy is also my hero.

Printer: Canon CLC1110
Substrate: Forever-Classic Light Transfer Paper
Tees: Blue Corner Tagless Tees
Press: Hix 16x20, 20 secs @ 200C

VC Trading Naga Will Soon Offer Computerized Embroidery, T-shirt Heat Transfer Printing & Wide Format Digital Printing Services

2008-08-09T10:59:00.007+08:00

Here's the banner that I'll be posting on the site. I expect to complete the delivery of all equipment before the end of this month. Currently, we already have a Tajima single head embroidery machine there, and we'll be adding another Tajima 6 head embroidery machine to hopefully cope with the production demand. A Canon iRC2550 will be installed for color and B/W document printing and photocopying, and T-shirt heat transfer printing. A 16x20 MightyPress should be up to the job of pressing the printed laser transfers to the tees. As for the tarpaulin banners and other wide format jobs, we'll be installing a 72" Roland Soljet, and a 24" Jaguar cutting plotter. Currently, we're doing personnel training here in our Cubao shop.

And before i forget, for those of you who has'nt visited our Naga store yet, you can find us in Robertson Mall, Diversion Road, Naga City. I hope our friends from the neighboring Camarines Sur towns, and from Camarines Norte and Albay would be able to visit us soon.

Are we ready for DTG printing?

2008-06-06T07:02:00.009+08:00

Tomorrow, I'll be flying to HongKong to see a DTG machine in action. Its been more than a year since I first heard of a DTG printer. At that time, I've heard more horror stories than success stories; enough to make me conclude that DTG is still an untested technology, and there's no room or market for it here in the Philippines. So far, we're doing OK with our laser transfers using the best materials (from US and Germany) and the best equipment (a big oil based Laser Printer with RIP). But digital transfers have their limitations (as well as DTG & screenprinting), so that I feel the need to explore the possibility of offering DTG printing to our customers. For some reasons which I plan to discuss later, I've set my sight on the Kornit DTG printer. There are other DTG printers out there like the Brother, Mimaki, T-jets and DTG Digital.

There were a lot of developments in the DTG industry (and our little digital printing "project"/service) for the past year that merited our second look on this technology, namely:
1) Kornit's development of their waterbase CMYK ink & white ink which is much better than their previously used solvent inks
2) The release of the Kornit 932NDS model which is now their entry level machine. It's a single pallet model and costs half the price of their 931D double pallet model.
3) The significant increase of screenprinting & emboidery companies (dubow textile), fulfillment services (Cafe Press) and print-on-demand companies (t-shirt.com, spreadshirt and zazzle) now using the DTG machines.
There are still horror stories but they mostly come from the Epson based DTG machines.

But there are big questions out there: Are we ready for DTG printing? Is there a market for this type of technology in our country? Will our business model be able to support and justify the money (and time) to be invested in such a new "unproven/untested" technology? Or maybe the more important question is the other way around, "Is the DTG machine ready for the market?"

I know that I will not be able to answer these questions with just a day or two looking at the Kornit in action but hey, we have to start somewhere. As I've written on my favorite t-shirt forum a few days ago: "I feel responsible, and I want to offer our customers the best possible printing solution for their low-volume requirement of light & dark tees."

Now, I want to ask you: Are we ready?

p.s. To some who are not very familiar with DTG printing, here are some articles for you:
http://www.impressionsmag.com/impressions/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003633342
http://www.impressionsmag.com/impressions/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003633929

Want to enter the t-shirt transfer business? Try the FujiXerox Docuprint C3290 FS

2008-06-05T09:24:00.005+08:00

FujiXerox recently released a very good 4-in-1 laser printer in the Philippine market, the Docuprint C3290FS. I'm a big fan of laser transfers (as oppsed to inkjet transfers) and in my opinion, this printer is a very good printer for a start-up business. I've recently tested this printer on some laser opaque transfers and on a thicker (non-oil) laser light transfers and it worked. Of course, the cheaper and thinner oil-based light transfers did'nt worked (as I expected) because that paper can only tolerate lower fuser temperature which can only be found on the bigger (more expensive) oil-based laser printers. What's so good about this printer is the price per copy. They have the lowest priced CMYK toner that I've seen. Also and equally important is that it utilizes an "imaging unit" (or the drum as some calls it) which is integrated in the toner. This means that you get to use a brand new drum everytime you replace a toner. It can also do automatic double sided printing/copying, and being 4-in-1, means it can print, copy, scan and send/receive fax. Imagine those business cards, brochures and invitations that you can finally offer your customers. If the wifey agrees, I plan on getting 1 as a backup to my Canon CLC 1110, which was down for almost 2 weeks waiting for a part to be replaced. I specially liked the automatic double sided printing because from experience, I find it very difficult to line-up the prints on the other side. If interested, look for Ms.Aireen Lorenzo or Sir Danny of TGraf. Tell them I (Byron of VC Trading) referred you and that you will use it for laser transfers so you will get a good term/price. Of course, it is best to ask for a product demo first so you can try it and make a decision for yourself.

Starting an Internet-based T-shirt Brand (an article by Josh Ellsworth)

2008-03-13T09:32:00.005+08:00

This is really a must read for those people wanting to do shirts as a sideline or as a real business (internet based seems to be more fun).

Josh Ellsworth is the best employee of Imprintables.com. I ordered my heatpress from him (I got a special discount because of this), and I can say that he's a real asset to his company. Recently, he wrote an article for Impressions magazine on this subject. He also writes his blogs at joshellsworth.com

The link is here:
href="http://www.impressionsmag.com/impressions/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003625148">

Tell me what you think.

Folding Tees (The Japanese Way)

2008-03-11T11:15:00.000+08:00

I thought I'd share this to those who fold their own tees (which pretty much means all of us):

The Japanese are the most innovative people on earth and gave us the ikebana, origami art and bonsai trees. Now, they came up with this. I wonder how many of you are currently folding your tees this way?

Folding Tees (The Japanese Way)

2008-03-11T04:01:00.000+08:00

I thought I'd share this to those who fold their own tees (which pretty much means all of us):

">http://www.youtube.com/v/gK1nGpvaHno&border=1">
http://www.youtube.com/v/gK1nGpvaHno&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="373">

The Japanese are the most innovative people on earth and gave us the ikebana, origami art and bonsai trees. Now, they came up with this. I wonder how many of you are currently folding your tees this way?