It’s 2011!  Okay… admittedly, it’s been 2011 for 12 days now, but between traveling, shopping, gifting, exchanging, visiting, decorating, un-decorating…. I am just now getting around to my work resolution. If you never started then you can’t break it, right?

Things got pretty busy for us at the end of the year, which was great, but it didn’t leave me much time to share any promotional news with you. I’m going to try to be better for two reasons: 1) Maybe there are a few people out there who really do enjoy reading this? and 2) My mother asked me about 5 times over the holidays when I was going to write another blog.

Okay Mom, I’ll do my homework now.  

As far as new reports in the Promo world, the big news is the rise in the price of cotton.  Unfortunately for all of us t-shirt lovers out there, this means your favorite apparel item is also going to come with a higher price tag.  This price increase is effecting the retail markets as well as wholesale, so just keep this in mind if you are looking to order t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies or any of your other favorite cotton items.

A tip from the pros: If the color of the ink you are printing is lighter than the fabric you are printing on, we must print an “underlay” of white to make the colors pop.  Think of it like a base-coat of paint on the wall – without it, you’d see the fabric color through the ink (or the previous owners lovely giraffe pattern wall “art”).

The “underlay” adds an additional color charge, which can really add up, especially when you are printing a small quantity of shirts.  So to get a better price, try going with a lighter shirt color, dark ink colors, and limit your design to one or two colors.

And if you need help, our artists can help you convert a colorful design into something MUCH less expensive to print!

Here’s a great example of a design we converted, compliments of the daughter of one of our favorite clients:

Well I just looked outside and the snow continues to fall, so before I have to shovel my way to my car, I think I’ll wrap it up. I’ll be doing my best to update you more frequently throughout the year with tips, tricks, news, and anything else I can think of that you might enjoy putting off work to read.

Happy New Year!