PressInk was started by Chad Graves to create a style unique to the individual. He is an artist who while looking for inspiration had the chance to work for a company based in North Carolina that printed to fabric called Spoonflower. While learning to print and maintain large format digital printers, he became fascinated with different ways to use the waste ink these machines created. These machin
es aren't the cleanest things, so often times he'd find himself covered in ink from a long night. This eventually led to the idea of creating these ink stains in patterns and designs. Chad Graves is originally from Trinity, North Carolina, a stones throw from High Point, NC, long considered the furniture capital of the world. Much of that production has gone overseas, but has still remained a strong influence on his life. My father was a fabric salesman for most of his life and it’s not a mistake that he joined a fabric print start-up right out of college. Being exposed to different types of creating and printing fabric, has given him a certain desire to work with the materials in his own way. PressInk’s name came from the process in which the shirts are made. We use various pigment based inks and to fix these to the shirts they go through a heated press. These inks have a binding agent in them that reacts with heat that adheres to natural fibers. Currently we use the recycled ink from the printers at Spoonflower. At PressInk we are focused on creating unique clothing that has large, engaging imagery through the use of free-hand ink spray and brush techniques. We currently carry many different color options for any of the designs you find on our shop. The brighter the colored shirt the better the designs tend to stand out. Many shirts have only a few color options as the designs depend on the color. Most of the shirt designs start on paper. Initially done as sketches, these designs will go through a few iterations before they are attempted on a shirt. Most shirts come out in the first or second attempt but some go through many different phases. Generally the creating of a shirt is a short process. Too much ink tends to muddy the imagery so the less ink we use generally leads to crisper designs. Each shirt of a design ends up different from the others. These small differences lead to a different look every time we do a design. Each shirt that’s sprayed is unique unto itself. We thoroughly enjoy creating these shirts because we feel we can take any idea or passion and turn it in to a loud statement for the person wearing it. Many of our designs are fed by a friend’s passion for one thing or another. They also represent pieces of my childhood or strong memories shared with loved ones. We are always looking for new designs. We are often inspired by many different things from animals to food to pop culture. If you have an idea for design you’d like to see please contact us. We can do large orders of the same design for bands, group outings or teams. If you have a particular article of clothing that you would like to use other than the shirts we provide, we can find a way to work with the material you have. We check our Etsy shop often as well as our page if you would like to asks more questions about our process or have a particular design you’d like to see on a shirt. Follow us on Instagram to see what's inspiring us lately and sneak peeks at new designs being developed.
