Create a Blast to the Past with Vintage Soft Hand Screen Print

Trends come and go, and as your source for all things apparel and decoration, we take pride in staying up to date with the ever-changing trends in the fashion world. We’ve seen the nostalgic vibes of 80’s and 90’s fashion quickly makes its way back through oversized screen-printed crewnecks, chest-block hoodies, large embroidery decoration, and so much more. Lucky for us at Vantage, as a top decorator we are proud to say that our vintage soft hand screen print decoration method allows us to tap into this trend and make it easy to bring those vintage vibes into apparel seamlessly.

Before we get into how we can achieve a retro-look with vintage soft hand screen print, you might be asking yourself: why is this decoration method relevant to the promotional product industry and what are its best purposes?

It's simply put: This decoration method is great for corporate milestones like anniversary dates, employee appreciation gifting, marketing campaign ideas, and company stores. Given that consumers have been digging deeper into old-school fashion, now is the best time to review previous archives for inspiration to meet this demand.

Incorporate a soft-based additive

1. When it comes to vintage soft-hand printing, we begin by incorporating a soft-base additive to plastisol ink to achieve a softer feel and lighten the end result. The ultimate goal of this process is to make the inks more translucent and less opaque when they are applied to the garment.

Apply a vintage filter to the artwork

2. We apply a vintage filter to the artwork so that we can lessen the amount of ink that is transferred onto the garment. Ultimately, this is the part that helps add that “distressed” appearance to the logo. However, if you want your logo to stand out with a higher-distressed look, then additional filters will be applied to the artwork.

Bypass the underlay

3. Typically, we’d use an underlay when printing, but this isn’t necessarily needed on for light and dark garments. In the event of vintage screen-printing, we do away with underlays with our prints so we can add to the weathered look of the design. However, it is important to note that since an underlay is not being used on either bright or dark garments, exact color matching will not be achieved. If the customer deems PMS matching to be imperative, then we have the option of applying a distressed art filter to the logo and print it with standard plastisol inks.

Softer garments=softer prints

4. The garment’s fabric plays a big part when it comes to this decoration method. Ultimately, the softer a garment is then the softer the outcome of the print. We highly recommend going for softer cotton tees to achieve optimal results. Some great options to consider are our Velocity Color Wash T-Shirt in a short or long sleeve version or a classic Gildan Softstyle® T-Shirt available in complementary t-shirt sizes.

Adjust the artproofs

5. Lastly, it’s important to note that garment color will affect the final print color. In order to make sure that final print color is accurate, art proofs that are used in the order approval process are adjusted to account for ink variations. If your order includes multiple garment colors, then multiple color set-ups may also be required within this process.