Direct to Garment Printing

Direct to garment (or DTG) printing is a specialized type of textile printing that uses water-based inks (like an ink-jet for clothing). Unlike other methods like screen printing, which has a set number of colors, or direct to film/transfer printing, which is a multi-step process, DTG printing is a great option for those wishing to print photos, illustrations, or multi-color color-accurate images. While working at Madison Top Company, I was able to specialize in the operation and maintenance of these amazing machines and design artwork for print.

Mother's Day Tulip Festival

This project was inspired by a Mother's Day trip to Holland, Michigan for the Tulip Festival in May of 2024. I wanted to make something custom for my mom and I that would be both commemorative and ready-to-wear without the context of the event.

Our family cat, Houdini (pictured in the painting and in the photo on the left), is the kind of cat that will sit in any box or basket set in front of her, and that is what inspired this art piece. I also wanted to format this print especially for the back of a sweatshirt, so I drew up a couple of concepts for the given dimensions.

On the front of the sweatshirt, I made a simple design for the left chest with hairline text that commemorates the event. I wanted to have the variety of the colors of tulips that we were hoping to see at this festival arrayed on the shirt.

Painting:

Done in watercolor, scanned, and made semi transparent in photoshop. Exported as a .png for the DTG printer to be able to read. Printed on a Brother GTX pro DTG printer.

Printing:

Final:

When printing with white ink on a darker base, the entire silhouette of the artwork is first painted in white, then colors are laid over it.

Cool Dad's Club tee

This tee was a Father's Day present to my very cool dad. I wanted to make something specific to him that would also fit his style and personality. I took inspiration from club logos that have three or four main values or traits that befit each member of the club on it in a badge style similar to a coat of arms. The four traits that I would say best fit my dad is that he is a Christian man, adventurous, one of the funniest people that I know, and that he's also very intelligent.

The Cool Dad's Club was very conveniently established in the year that I (his eldest) was born.

The design for shirt was made in Adobe illustrator and printed on a District perfect tri-blend in a teal heather color, which fits his style well. I designed with this color shirt in mind, and made the bottom quarter of the badge transparent to incorporate the color of the shirt into the design.

Watch the print:

Notice the white base underneath the color layer, and the transparent section to use the color of the shirt within the print. Printed on a Brother GTX pro DTG printer.

He liked it!

I like to use my sketchbooks like a visual diary. Dad and I took some photos together when I gave him the shirt, I drew the goofy one in my sketchbook, along with the final design for the shirt front.

Solar Farm tee

Whenever I hear the term "Solar Farm", an image pops into my head of a solar panel strapped to the side of a cow. This tee was a collaboration commission that I completed for my grandparents after I told them the idea. They came up with the wording on the tee that it was "Running on solar and natural gas" and that it was "renewable energy". My Grandma wanted the cow to be a steer because she likes the way they look and fit her home state.

The original painting that I did had colored text (shown below) but the requested shirt color was green, so I changed the text to be more legible. This artwork was made in my sketchbook and in adobe photoshop.