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MADE Labs – WB Week 2023 – Contest Print

Preface: I recently went to a 4 day class in Texas called WB Camp or Waterbased Camp. At the end of the event they presented a contest to go back to our shops and see if we can print this graphic in all waterbased inks. Printing with waterbased inks is a little harder than printing with normal plastisol inks. The main variable you have to keep an eye on is the moisture level of the inks during the printing process. This was just a quick video we put together showing some of the photoshop work our artist did to add the special effects I was trying to pull off. We added some waterbased puff and pearlescent effects to image in addition to the colors in the image. I was trying to use the blocker black to help with what the puff does to colors printed over it which is turn them lighter. I tried just regular black at first but didn’t like the results. So I made some changes to the artwork to adjust the percentages of black in the areas under the red puff parts like the hat, the tail and mane on the horse. I think the blocker black ended up working a little better than I thought so those areas actually ended up being a darker red instead of a light pinkish red I was getting before with just using regular wb black ink. But this was my third time setting up this full color print and I was ready for it to just be done. So I decided to just leave the black under the red alone and let it be a little darker.

This print was a little harder than I thought it was going to be mostly because of the special effects I was trying to pull off on just a 10 color press haha. So many more variables you have to keep an eye on and try and manage. Definitely would have been way easier with some kind of humidity fogger system added to the press. Need a larger press really for this many wb colors but we made it work the best we could. I think the final print turned out pretty good though.



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