Right Side Of The Tracks

It’s been really busy lately in the shop, I know I say that often but it’s been on an entirely different level these days. Thirty Eight Ride Co. has kind of taken over the print floor for the past few months with the demand for it slowly growing, and the amount of designs and different products we’ve been putting out has grown as well. It’s actually pretty amazing to see and my mind has been blown with how much support people have shown and how many new people have heard about the brand. Super grateful for all of it.

With that going on, I’ve had to dial things back with print shop clients for the time being since I’m only one guy and I can only do so much. To be honest I’ve turned away way more print work than I’ve accepted, which is a good and a bad thing I guess. But thats not saying I’ve been turning away all of it. Instead, what I’ve been doing is making the shop a lot more exclusive and taking on the work that excites or challenges me (at least for the time being until I can expand the production capabilities, but that’s an entirely different story). In comes North Of Nine…

Earlier in the year, my friend Lee (yeah, two of us) came to me with an idea to start up a clothing brand kind of paying homage to where we’re both from. Of course he came to the right place and myself and Dan jumped at the idea to knock out some logos, designs and gear for it and we’ve been working together ever since. Well recently, Lee came to me with a different idea, which was to take a cool photo he shot and turn it into a shirt design. This was an instant yes from me because I’m a huge photography nerd, and because it was going to give me a chance to finally do some proper 4 color process printing.

I’ve never done 4 color process printing before and I’ve really been itching to try it out, it looked like a lot of fun! So like usual I did minimal research on the topic and decided to dive in and figure it out on my own, because instructions take the fun out of everything. Now, I print spot color work every day and I have that on lock without having to really think about it, but the setup for something like this is quite a bit different and the on-press technique was going to be a little bit different too. So naturally I was a little bit nervous going in and expected to make plenty of mistakes, or to completely shit the bed like it was my first week printing all over again. One way or another I figured it would make a good video.

Luckily for me (less entertaining for you), thats where the suspense of this story ends. To my surprise everything went completely smooth with the exception of having to make the screens a second time (which I probably didn’t have to, but I’m a crazy person who demands perfection). Seeing that first test print put a huge smile on my face because it looked cool as hell, and I didn’t lose anymore hair than I already have trying to make it. Definitely a proud moment in my screen printing journey so far. Anyways, I was clear for takeoff after that and knocked them all out.

When it was all said and done he was super stoked on the end result and so was I, I still can’t believe it was my first time when I look at it. I was expecting to be like Johnny virgin on prom night, fumbling his way around a bra strap for 10 minutes before calling in some help. Instead I came in there and popped that thing open like a seasoned veteran, and had her questioning if I even used my hand or if I did it with nothing but the power of my mind. Unbelievable. That being said there are some small areas of improvement that I need to work on in the future, but that will come with time and practice. I’m a perfectionist and I want to be the best at everything I do, so you better believe I’ll be figuring out the tricks I need to come back with something even better.

But this gave me a whole lot more confidence in my abilities and I’m ready to tackle much more complicated stuff, and we’re already hard at work creating some. Myself and Dan cooked up some real cool artwork ideas that will push my boundaries even further, but you’ll have to wait to see those…

Lee

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