Anatomy of a print: Heart mosaic design
February 22, 2020
This brief how-to of our Pet Rescue design that we debuted at Impressions Expo 2020, was recently highlighted in Images Magazine's February edition. The shirts were used in our pet rescue fundraising efforts at the show. All of the donated funds we collected at the Impressions Expo went to Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary (https://ofsds.org/ ). To obtain one of these shirts and donate, please go to https://davidedwardbyrdposters.bigcartel.com.
This heartwarming piece, created by mosaic artist Jolino Beserra and commissioned by International Coatings, was unveiled last month at Impressions Expo Long Beach 2020 in the US to help raise funds for two pet rescue charities. Mark Brouillard, the ink manufacturer’s product manager, reveals how the print was created
International Coatings collaborated with artist Jolino Beserra to create this intricate heart mosaic design which was then transplanted to a printed T-shirt. Visitors to the Impressions Expo Long Beach 2020 in the US in January could receive a signed T-shirt featuring the print in return for a donation that went to two pet rescue charities – PetFinder.com and Flying Fur – which are supported by Jolino and David Edward Byrd, the screen print ink manufacturer’s other resident artist. Josue Lovos and Abigail Franco, interns at International Coatings, prepared, set up and completed the production run on these shirts.
(1) Adding a simple special effect to a print can elevate it a notch. On this print we have added a gel gloss effect to only a portion of the design – the paw print
(2) The design was printed on an M&R Sportsman E 10-colour machine.
(3) The art was separated using halftone 55lpi at 300dpi. The film was printed using an Epson Stylus Pro 7890 printer.
(4) The image was printed using nine colours on 100T/250 mesh screens. The gel gloss ink was printed using a 43T/110 mesh screen with a 400 micron capillary film from Murakami. All colors were printed wet-on-wet with a flash before the gel print application.
(5) The PMS colors were derived using the UltraMix 7500 Series Pantone Color Mixing System from International Coatings with its online formulation tool [www.iccultramix.com], with the FX Gel Gloss Clear 3809 used for the gel layer.
(6) The print was cured at 360°F/182°C for one minute using an M&R Mini Sprint International dryer. We used a slightly higher temperature than the standard plastisol curing temperature of 320°F/160°C because gel gloss inks typically obtain better doming and shine when cured at higher temperatures.
(7) This design was printed on white and vintage white enzyme-washed 100% ringspun cotton crew-neck T-shirts donated by Cotton Heritage.
