A sand canvas work jacket with a poster-style front print
The brand behind this sand canvas work jacket wanted its print to feel layered and a little imperfect, like an old event poster. We agreed that only the large graphics on the front could print slightly out of line with the colors around them.
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Worn brown layers
We started from the brand's store photo of a jacket with a dark corduroy collar and two slanted pockets. Worn gaps and specks break up the lettering, the chain-link fence and the cross on its front. The lettering reaches down to the edge of the left pocket. All the brown on the front of our jacket came off one screen. Screens are a one-time cost of $15 to $45 apiece for a design.
The brand chose the artwork's darker brown for the collar. Black, it told us, would look sportier. To judge the browns together, we held a card of five shades, dark brown through sand, against a printed front.
Green script on top
The green script over the brown lettering is solid green with a darker edge. Small green stars are scattered around it. The script, the lettering and the print around the collar and zip had to line up exactly. When the antique-brass metal zip is closed, the green letters meet across it.
Printing adds $0.50 to $1.20 to the price of a jacket per ink color and print position. A Custom (Made to Order) jacket costs $35.00 to $72.00 before printing at 50 to 99 per color, less at 100 to 299 and $22.00 to $45.00 at 300 to 500.
Back artwork from a flattened file
Only the front artwork came in the layers we asked for, and we offered to rebuild the flattened back into separate colors for review. The back artwork is brown alone: a small emblem above the yoke seam and a large graphic with a line of text below it. A worker hand-pulled the brown ink for the emblem through its screen onto a flat panel.
We had the body panels screen printed flat, ahead of sewing. On a sewn jacket, the screens would press on the collar and the zip and push them out of shape. We said we would give the large graphics a separate standard in the printing specs and send a test print, called a strike-off, for approval before the first garment sample.