The Art of the Print


Think about your favorite t-shirt for a moment. It fits a certain way. It feels a certain way. Maybe you have had it for years or maybe it's brand new. But there is a certain feel about it. If it's a graphic tee, part of that feel comes down to the quality and "hand" of the print. The manner in which garments (in this case T-shirts) are printed can vary pretty significantly. 

When we first started Bumpy Pitch, there were a couple of key things that we wanted in regards to the shirts. We wanted to use the best materials we possibly could, we wanted a specific fit and we wanted the printing to feel a certain way. Printing can alter the feel of a shirt due to not only the hand - how it feels - but due to the weight of the ink. Certain printing techniques also lead to the ink cracking over time. That's not  a good look.
We have strived to keep our printing techniques based on two ways of printing. They reduce the impact on the shirt, they reduce being able to feel the ink and they reduce additional weight added to the shirt. Ultimately they end up feeling like they are a part of the fabric as opposed to something that has been printed on top.
Recently we experimented with printing the BPFC Crest on the inside of a shirt. The idea with printing on the inside of the shirt is that it "bleeds" through in a different way than if you printed on the front of the shirt. It gives it a more worn in or vintage look. And with the vintage nature of the color of this fabric, it seemed like a perfect time to do that. 
Printing on the inside means that the art has to be inverted in order for it to show through the fabric in the right way. Kind of like looking in a mirror. 
Given our love of a "soft hand" with our prints and the fact that this graphic was printed on the inside of the shirt, we went to great lengths to ensure that the ink is almost non-existent. You can rub your hand over the graphic and all you feel is the shirt. And over time it only becomes more integrated with the actual fabric. This shirt looks like your favorite vintage t-shirt, and in time, it quite possibly will be.