Field Trip 2
Week 11
Touch and Print
Field trip 2 was a trip to Touch and Print office which is located in Bras Basah. On this trip we learnt more about colour composition, images transfer methods and the products they offered that would aid our process of image transfer.
Leon, the coordinator of the trip, started by giving us a lecture. Some of the things he highlighted included the importance of white when printing. The difference between RGB and CMYK was that RGB was subtractive while CMYK is additive. He then compared screen printing and transfer printing. Screen printing requires a long set up time for making the screen and every colour in the image counts. However once this is done, repeated prints can be done for a low cost and quickly and there is no minimum quantity. Whereas for transfer printing, there is a short set up time since all u need is a digital full colour prints. Similarly there is no minimum quantity but the repeat prints will be more accurately similar.
There are 4 types of transfer print:
- Laser/toner
- Inkjet
- Cutting
- Sublimation
We were shown a couple of products that were image transferred by them and Leon demonstrated heat press transfer for us.
Photos
Transfer onto metal
Transfer onto Wood
Reverse digital print
Result of transfer onto wood
Gel transfer
Result of gel transfer
Other transfer to wood
Preparing for transfer onto t-shirt
Result of transfer onto the shirt
Transfer onto canvas bag with LED lights installed
Preparing prints for heat press
Setting up for heat press
Heat pressing
Heat transfer results
Reflection
Before this course, I would never have imagined that it would that easy to make my own shirt. I think this is a very practical and useful technique to know as it can print on almost all kinds of materials. And I also agree with Leon that the most tedious process of transfer printing is cutting the white border. I managed to use this technique in my Spatial Design class where I heat transferred memories onto a cotton strip. The only issue would be that buying the special paper to print the digital image on comes only in bulks of 50 so if I wanted to do something small or in low quantity it would not be cost efficient. However, I would still consider using this technique in my future projects.