BEL AIR, MARYLAND — When customers enter Wendy Nowakowski's U Brand Yourself store, they are greeted with displays from promotional products campaigns including T-shirts, hats, hoodies, polos, embroidered patches, vinyl cut stickers, decals, banners, mugs, cups, and other emblems of successful promotions.
In her "Collaboration Room", Wendy and her team of local artists brainstorm with customers on multi-faceted ways to boost their businesses. For example, Iron Valley Realty of Timonium, MD, broadcasts its logo on a range of promotional items, from T-shirts, hand towels and tablecloths to door mats, yard stakes and umbrellas.
"At U Brand Yourself, we believe in "Livin' Lovin' Local," so we always strive to promote our local businesses and make a difference in the lives of their owners and employees," Wendy says.
Fifty percent of U Brand Yourself's output involves screen printing, followed by embroidery, vinyl printing/cutting, direct-to-film printing and heat pressing.
She started the business in her garage producing fiber art and embroidery, which sparked her interest in screen printing, prompting her to purchase a rudimentary screen printer and experiment with T-shirt designs.
After outgrowing her home studio and garage, she moved into her current storefront at 620 S. Main St. and equipped it with a six-color/six-station manual printing press, a portable one-station/one-color press, a pin registration system, a wall-mounted screen coater, an infrared flash cure unit with auto rotation, an infrared conveyor dryer and a washout booth, all from Vastex.
Model selection was based on performance features as well as compactness due to the store's limited space and the need to print and cure both on- and off-site.
Maximum productivity in minimum space
After Wendy took delivery of the equipment, Vastex instructor Paul Zingone conducted a two-day on-site training session on its proper usage.
Now expert in screen printing, she says the PIN registration system speeds the positioning of film positives onto screens off-press, "making it faster to accurately register jobs once they are on the press."
When screens are on press, team members can fine-tune registration using off-contact and micro-registration knobs.
When flashing between colors, the flash cure unit rotates the head of the unit into place using a foot pedal, and after an adjustable dwell time, automatically rotates away from the platen to prevent scorching. Printed garments are then cured in the shop's tabletop dryer with heater height adjustment to accommodate hoodies.
Like the one-color press and compact dryer, the pre-press equipment is right-sized for her 2000 sq ft (186 sq m) space, with the VWB-3627 washout booth having a footprint of only 36 x 25 in. (91 x 64 cm), and the C-100 wall-mounted screen coater requiring no floor space.
Portable press and dryer serve off-site events
"The V-100 table top press allows me to print on the spot," she says. "It's sized perfectly. I can get it through doorways and quickly move it." In addition to printing at parties, she sets it up at a local park three times per year and invites participants to print their own T-shirts for free. The press' compact counterpart is Nowakowski's tabletop conveyor dryer. "If I'm doing an outside event, I can easily fit it in the back of my Jeep and take it with me," she says.
Print shop practices sustainability
Owner Wendy and Emily Reed, one of her local artists, conceived a project in which pillows are produced using rejected screen printed garments. Another sustainable project creates new garments made from otherwise discarded apparel, rendering a one-of-a-kind piece of wearable art.
"When you train staff, mistakes are made, so we're constantly looking for ways to repurpose things," says Nowakowski. "When we host the pillow-making workshop, people see the six color, six station press and ask if we offer screen printing workshops too — which we do."
Looking ahead, she would like to invest in an automatic screen printing press, but believes a manual press is essential for learning the trade.
"Many of my team members are just graduating from school. If everything is automatic, all they're doing is pressing buttons," she explains. "So before they use an automatic printer, they need to understand the science behind screen printing as they develop that essential trade.
U Brand Yourself/UBY LLC
410 638-6952
info@ubynow.com
www.ubrandyourself.com
Garments are cured in the shop's compact infrared conveyor dryer, which is also used for off-site events.
Print heads allow independent leveling, off-contact adjustment and micro-registration free of backlash.
A wall-mounted screen coater rack allows uniform, two-handed application of emulsions using a scoop coater.
U Brand Yourself team: (L-R) Wendy, Emily, Brayden and Sofina.
U Brand Yourself's design, screen printing, DTF and embroidery services help customers build their brands.
U Brand Yourself offers a wide range of promotional items to help local businesses succeed.
