Well it’s now official,  we have now relocated to the lovely area known as The Philog, here in Whitchurch, a quaint yet busy area of our thriving (and at the moment VERY sunny) city of Cardiff.

The new studio (posh word for office come shop) is just what we were looking for and with a lick of paint, some fresh ideas and of course t-shirts, look out The Philog, we’ve arrived.

With the move comes my (some may say insane) decision to purchase a bicycle to commute to work every day, a somewhat bold move on my part due to the fact that the last time I rode a bike was around 10 years ago. As you can imagine it was rather a shock to the system, not to mention certain areas of my body!

With the decision to cycle to work, coinciding with the beautiful weather that we are currently lucky enough to have; comes the equally confusing decision as to WHAT TO WEAR?

No this decision isn’t perhaps one of those earth shattering ones, not quite as vital as to what to wear on a night out or on the beach but to look good and remain professional and most importantly being comfortable are a must number of decisions one must undertake when deciding to venture onto the bike paths and roads of this bustling city. Not quite ready for lycra…(who is?!) it has to be said that t-shirts and shorts go hand in erm…pocket and work perfectly, light enough so as not to feel like I’m wearing a weight on my back, fun and trendy whilst allowing for our logo and contact information to be displayed clearly (why do I feel like I’m being used as a walking (or cycling) advertisement?). I arrived at work feeling good, not too sweaty thanks to the t-shirt decision, and still able to conduct work looking professional yet stylish. So all in all not a bad start to my cycling to work campaign and perhaps a start to an insight into other realms of clothing and garment design.

Whilst I’m not quite brave enough to look into more traditional cycle wear as of yet, it is clear that this is a very large and profitable market. Clothing has been scientifically (must mentioned the science!) design and created to allow cyclists to move without friction or discomfort on long journeys. Speed is of the essence if racing is your thing and the people behind the clothing have not forgotten this, making helmets more aerodynamic and racing tunics and shorts more streamlined they can now nock seconds off your journey time! WOW! Safety being a huge concern, elements such as reflective and glow in the dark garments are now widely available for those that want to be safe and seen at night.

All in all, a rather successful niche in the clothing market that continues to grown, which I’m sure I’ll be taking more of an interest in now that I’m off that niche!

Tee Boy

With the threat of global warming and supermarkets reducing the number of plastic carrier bags being given out to shoppers, and the introduction of the “bag for life” is was only a matter of time before these simple bags for carrying your fruit n’ veg were turned into a fashion statement!

All the stores are fast cottoning on to this simple idea and adding their design to these rather ingenious practical yet advertising friendly portal! At the top of the food chain (get it?!) the supermarkets were at the forefront of this movement, then came the department stores, then came the clothing stores…Topshop, Marks and Spencer, Primark and Next are now all at it and are coming up with more imaginative designs and colours, rivalling even their own clothing designs!!! On my hunt for jeans over the weekend (battling against the throngs of Rugby fans plowing their way in the opposite direction on the high street(!)), upon visiting Republic I noticed next to the til that they have gone that step further and given their canvas bags not only a quirky and trendy slogon “Kiss my Canvas!” but have also provided you with a small canvas bag to keep it in? (Go figure), for £3.00 this little piece of fashionista come environmentalist gone nuts idea is pure genius! They come in a range of colours and are a perfect size for putting away and getting out whenever required…!

We had some media attention recently in the form of some work we’ve done for a local school.

We have produced their uniform, bags and official stationery! Produced following a school “design our logo” competition we were pleased to be asked to produce their school Wear and even more pleased to find out that we had a mention in last month’s Capital Times,the local council’s newsletter!

It’s SNOWING! Well, it is in some parts of the country but alas not here in South Wales just yet. It’s pretty cold out there though people so make sure to wrap up warm.

Friday 13^th of March is this year’s Red Nose Day…all the usual festivities are happening, fundraising, BBC1 will be taken over for the entire night for celebs to make fools of themselves and beg us to dig deep into our already empty pockets for the much needed money by this worthwhile charity. If you, your work place or social group are thinking of doing something fun or in deed making a fool of yourselves in public all in the name of charideee then why not make the event even more fun by telling the world why you are dressed as a naughty nurse, or why you have no trousers on, printed t-shirts can be the easiest and cheapest way of doing so, and it goes without saying that you should make sure to at least buy a red nose, they’re quite fun this year, each one has a different face to reflect our wonderful and diverse personalities.

Plenty of people seem to be fleeing the credit crunch misery of the UK to go on the piste (as it were), skiing has become extremely popular and so has the clothing that comes with the sport. Looking right on the slopes is just as important, and in some cases even more so, than being able to ski at all.

If you are looking into a trip soon, why not grab some cool gear to at least make you look fashionable so as not to completely ruin your street cred when you take a tumble! Fall with style that’s our motto (well perhaps mine!)

See you at the bottom!

It’s day one of wearing our new office uniform t-shirts and I have to say I feel both professional and funky! we are soooo proud of what we do we thought we’d wear printed t-shirts that really say what we are capable of…fitted black T’s with a bright edgy motif of neon pink and yellow with a graffiti paint background…which no passer-by can miss. As I found this morning on my way to work! Don’t look at me; I’m shy!

Many of our customers who want their own designs printed onto t-shirts and sweatshirts sometimes aren’t aware of the various design packages there are out there and that they don’t always work well with each other.

Today I thought we’d go through what we need from you, our wonderful customers in order to make yours and our jobs that little bit easier, oh and a little cheaper for you of course.

We generally use “Adobe Illustrator” or “Corel Draw” for design and printing purposes. These software packages use something called vectors to create designs.

Vector based graphics is the use of geometrical objects such as points, lines, curves, and shapes to represent images in computer graphics. The difference between this process and the use of software such as “Adobe Photoshop” and the like is that these software packages use pixel based graphics, which when manipulated can become distorted and “pixelated”. These programs are great for photographs and web based art but unfortunately in a lot of cases, not for detailed printing purposes where we have to literally play around with your designs to make them proportionate to t-shirts and fix certain flaws in the smoothness of a design or when the design needs to be broken down to get the full range of colours featured in your logo or artwork.

Our printing equipment also interprets lines and curves for cutting the vinyl we use or for creating an outline stencil for our screen printing machines. In order for them to work effectively and give you the great finish that you expect, we need the initial artwork to be in a format that we can use with ease.

If you are a designer or the person that designed your logo or image is a designer, they will generally know what this process is and 9 out of 10 times the artwork will be perfect when we receive it (YEY!). Alternatively, if you are one of those regular people whom the very idea of drawing on a computer scares to heck out of you then we can also help you! We have a re-drawing service (fees applicable) where one of our skilled designers will completely replicate your artwork into the correct format for our purposes. Once you are happy with the finished design, not only will we use it for the printing, but we will keep a copy for any repeat orders and provide you with your design just in case you need it in the future. You will most likely find that any type of printing or re-production process will require this format.

Do not be disheartened though, we may still be able to use your Photoshop file that you’ve slaved over every evening this week! send it over and we can take a look, more often than not we can use it or advise you accordingly.

Alternatively if you only want one t-shirt with a design you recently sketched out on a notepad or something you’ve mocked up on an art package and wish to have a t-shirt made for a night out or just to show off your artistic abilities, then have no fear! We can simply print your design using a special heat pressed transfer which will literally be an exact replica of your design, applied to the garment of your choice.

All in all, anything you want, we can do so if you’re not quite sure how to go about getting what you’re after, give us a call or drop us an email and we’ll advise you of the best and most economical way of getting that great finish that you’re looking for!

In addition to our already huge selection of vibrant colours and shiny sparkly vinyl, we now have a variety of new fashion garment films that are guaranteed to suit any taste and jazz up any t-shirt design. Whether you’re after an army inspired camouflage design, animal print or even silver snakeskin (they must be very interesting snakes!), we’ve now got the ability to create your design with just a little bit of extra pazaz.

Spring will shortly be upon us faster than you think. Getting married? Having the obligatory Stag/Hen outing into town or further a field? What’s more fun than having matching t-shirts to tell everyone the reason for your inebriated state or why one of you has a rather unusual hat on your head with a number of items that will not be mentioned on this blog! You know you’re going to do it so why not do it in style!

T-shirts are a great (and cheap!) way of doing this and you are sure to find a huge range of quality t-shirts that are sure to suit any bridezilla or boozy bachelor out there. Whether you want a picture of the bride to be or a dedication to the fact that the girls are on tour in Ibiza, there are plenty of ways to make an impact whatever you may be doing.

We’ve put a few of our our own designs on the website, check them out.

There are som amazing designs around, including many different fonts and letters as well as some exciting and vibrant colours to jazz any t-shirt up to ensure that your night out goes with a bang, and those photo’s that end up on Facebook look that little bit more fun.

It’s cold, it’s miserable, you don’t want to leave the house, your jim-jams or the mug of tea next to you but you want to shop. Well just in case you haven’t had a chance to have a wander around our fabulous new website, why not take a look now (after reading this of course!), we now have a fantastic on-line calculator facility that allows you to not only choose any quantity of any garment but you can actually work out how much the garment will be with any type of printing in any location! Be it embroidery on hoodies for your social club, a simple slogan on the font of a t-shirt for your girlfriend or a whole football team’s jersey’s with names and numbers on the back….the possibilities are endless! Just don’t go overboard and crash our website okay?! Just enter the required information and bam, the price is there for you!

Got a fun task ahead of me today, I’ve been asked to come up with a design for our work uniforms. Some might say ‘arg uniforms, no!’ But not here, where wearing a uniform can actually be a bit of fun. And within reason we can have something that’s just a little bit outrageous. Nothing better to perk things up in this cold miserable weather. Any ideas, let me know. Be interesting to learn what other people would do if given the chance to design their own work wear!

On to more important thing, anyone know how to fold a t-shirt? Surprisingly not as easy as it sounds, unless you’re happy to hang it, throw it in the wardrobe from whence it came or scrunch it into a ball. When the t-shirts are ready for sending to those lucky people that bought them, I love to have them nicely folded in the box, nothing screams professionalism and quality more than when you open the box and they are all laid out nicely as you would find in any store on the high street; well it’s not as easy as you may think, currently on the hunt for the fastest and easiest way to fold a t-shirt; this is where You Tube comes in (lets face it, someone out there is BOUND to have filmed themselves doing it!)…after a few clicks we successfully found a tutorial of some random girl in Tokyo both entertaining and confusing us with a simple (yeah right!) how-to video!

We’ll soon be sending garments out like works of art, watch this space customers! See, we do it all for you!