$ilk $creening

Submitted by nick on Sat, 04/14/2007 - 12:39am.

nick

Posts: 13
Joined: 2007-01-28

I, personally, am almost out of money and the time has come for me to do a spurt of work to save a bunch of money so I can coast for another six months or so. It looks like I might end up doing some landscaping, then doing the bonnaroo festival security we do every year in june (which sucks but pays a lot of money).

I hate doing this - I would really prefer to do something that's useful to my life and somewhat more interesting than stand around in the hot sun and watch a bunch of tie-dyed fuck heads choke on their glow sticks. I applied for a job that I thought was doing something similar to Misled Youth, but I found out they're really not that similar, and I don't really want to do design-for-hire at this stage in my artistic career.

So, I was discussing with sarah the possibility of screen-printing band shirts and patches and opening up a by-the-kids, for-the-kids type distro, funded by misled youth. We could divide the money equally among the workers. Certain band-patches sell really well, and we can undercut interpunk if we sell em for a dollar a piece. It's still kinda capitalizing off of DIY - I know. But I figure, we're doing it in a grassroots, worker-run sorta way (and youth-run), and it's sorta selling out more working for a fucked-up bullshit festival like bonnaroo than silk screening patches with friends and selling them for a dollar a piece. Plus, if kids are gonna buy patches anyway, might as well buy them from a bunch of kids who're learning to screen print than from Freaks or something.

What do you guys think? There were plans once to do a Misled Youth Record Label and a Zine Distro. That stuff could potentially rise out of this, if this became successful. Eventually, we want misled youth to raise enough money to get our own space to do stuff like this. For now though, in NYC at least, there's ABC No Rio.

Sun, 04/15/2007 - 12:16pm

xcriteria

Posts: 92
Joined: 2006-12-04

yeah...

I'm in a similar position regarding work... it's hard to define exactly what I want, but many or most jobs are missing something. There are other ways to make money, which basically involve going into business for one's self or group.

I'd really like to get going making and selling posters, patches, and shirts. We've discussed the idea various times, but we've never really jumped into it as a primary goal. I think band patches are worth doing for sure; we should just okay it with the bands. And we can make our own designs... I'm up for making some things.

We should also brainstorm other ways to make money using our skills and resources and interests.

Sun, 04/15/2007 - 12:53pm

ti-bak

Posts: 39
Joined: 2007-01-30

I'm in

Sarah mentioned this idea to me yesterday at the bookfair. I was really excited about it! I'm making most of my money babysitting and although it pays decent money, its not a stable job and its not something I really enjoy doing.
I think we should get serious about this project. Silkscreening the patches for the Anarchist bookfair was a lot of fun and I think it can really pick up some momentum to make this DIY patches and shirts job a success.
Im cool with going to ABC No Rio after our thursday meetings at Fountain House to get this started. Also, I know some kids at my school would pay a lot of money to get their shirts printed with a design of their choice.

-Leanne

Sun, 04/15/2007 - 1:48pm

nick

Posts: 13
Joined: 2007-01-28

cool guys!

we also had an idea that one of us could volunteer at the silk screen lab at abc no rio on, say, wednesday, which would mean we'd be able to stay late or arrive early and have greater access to the space. We're gonna look into that. also sarah's gonna talk to stza about whether or not we can sell choking victim/leftover crack patches at the upcoming shows in tompkins. (CV - July 22, LoC - August 5). He seemed totally fine with it last time. We're also gonna find out if we can sell merch from similar bands (no cash, op iv, indk, filth, subhumans). Plus, of course, new MYN designs.

Anyone from out of town (ethan, "alice", hannah) can get in on this. just either post the designs you want us to print, or better yet print em yourself and mail em to us. we'll sell em and send you your cut.

Sun, 04/15/2007 - 2:27pm

kid_prototype

Posts: 126
Joined: 2006-12-17

i'm all for it

I am excited about the idea of enabling kids to be self-employed and contributing to their own culture and community, and getting to be creative too. Yesterday we got a flyer calling out for tablers at the upcoming Tompkins shows, I'm gonna contact them and try to reserve a space for us. We should keep out eyes open for other events as well.

I like Leanne's idea of making customs stuff. However, we would have to charge a lot if we had to go through the trouble of prepping and burning a screen for only one or two prints.

I also want to the YELL poster as a multi-color screenprint, i still need to clarify the design and all that. Also I need to look at the multi-color printing capabilities at ABC to see how big it can be, etc.

Mon, 04/16/2007 - 7:42pm

ti-bak

Posts: 39
Joined: 2007-01-30

About the custom designs

The kids in my school buy $100 shoes almost weekly so I dont think they'll have a problem buying shirts of their chosen design if we charged them a little extra. Of course we wouldnt take advantage of that, but it is harder to print custom images. Also, I can figure out a way that we can use the screen a few times. Perhaps some clubs in my school would like shirts with the same design.
Im down with tabling at tompkins over the summer. I dont know if this will sabotage the goal and purpose of the website in any way, but would it be too much to post the designs when we get this project up and running?

Mon, 04/16/2007 - 8:29pm

xcriteria

Posts: 92
Joined: 2006-12-04

hmm

We should work out a reasonable price to charge, based on the cost of screens, ink, shirts/fabric, and labor. One question is if someone provides a design, whether we can keep the screen and make other shirts/patches with it and sell them. If we can, and the design is likely to sell, then we could charge less. That would be one way to build up a library of designs we could print from.

Posting designs on the site is fine (unless they infringe on someone's copyright.) In fact, I'd like to set up a store on the site that people can order shirts, patches, posters, and buttons from. We can accept debit/credit cards or checking account payments via PayPal.

Do you have some examples of the sort of custom designs people might want? And, how would they be created (who would make the designs)? If people have ideas for designs but don't want to do the actual design work, we could charge something to do that, too...

Mon, 04/16/2007 - 9:03pm

SWAMI

Posts: 66
Joined: 2007-01-25

w00t

i think the custom design idea is that someone would approach us with their specific idea and we'd design/print it for them.

But we can definitely build up a library of prints. Both patches at the fair are awesome, the pins were ok. (personally i'd have the buttons have both words on it, not just one, but thats just me)

However, it is important to note that we're all throwing ideas in 1382947239487 directions. We really need to focus on 2-3 things max if we want to seriously accomplish things.

Tue, 04/17/2007 - 10:52pm

nick

Posts: 13
Joined: 2007-01-28

ok. it looks like we're gonna do it...

Me:
"...also sarah's gonna talk to stza about whether or not we can sell choking victim/leftover crack patches at the upcoming shows in tompkins."

Sturgeon got back to us - seemed a little unsure, but basically said it would be fine. It's definitely fine for CV stuff he said, and it seems like we can do other bands so long as we're not making huge profits off them. We're gonna offer them some free ones too.

while we're on the topic of money, I had an idea at the meeting today that I didn't bring up cause it didn't really relate to what we were talking about, but umm.. come to think of it it doesn't totally relate to this either. hold on. I'll post it elsewhere...