John Magee

Screen printing starts with the screen so in this session you will learn how to make consistently good screens. Jump hands-on into the darkroom and learn best practices for screen selection, cleaning, coating, and exposing.

Why Someone Should Come

A perfect print is impossible without a perfect screen. The darkroom is often where the most critical, yet overlooked, steps of screen printing occur. This session covers the science and technique behind creating durable, high-quality stencils that will hold up during production and wash out easily when the job is done.

Who Should Come

New screen printers, darkroom technicians, and anyone experiencing issues with stencil breakdown, pinholes, or difficult screen reclaiming.

What They Will Learn

• Positive Imaging: Learn the best practices for printing opaque positive images onto film.
• Screen Preparation & Coating: Understand the different types of screens and mesh counts, and learn the proper techniques for coating screens with emulsion to create a solid stencil.
• Exposure Techniques: Discover how to properly expose and dry screens, including the benefits of using advanced equipment like LED exposure units for faster times and higher detail.
• Reclaiming & Maintenance: Master the cleanup process in the washout room, including the use of ink degraders, emulsion removers, pressure washers, and dip tanks to efficiently reclaim and dehaze screens for reuse.

Before we print, get hands-on with proper press setup. Taking the time to calibrate your equipment and register your job correctly saves hours of frustration and wasted garments during production.

Why Someone Should Come

Proper press setup is the bridge between a good screen and a great print. Taking the time to calibrate your equipment and register your job correctly saves hours of frustration and wasted garments during production. This session teaches the systematic approach to setting up a job so that printing becomes the easiest part of the process.

Who Should Come

Press operators, production managers, and shop owners who want to reduce setup times, eliminate registration errors, and improve overall print consistency.

What They Will Learn

• Press Calibration: Learn how to properly set off-contact and tilt to ensure the screen clears the garment perfectly after each stroke.
• Job Registration: Master the three primary ways to register a job: to film, to print, and using pre-registration systems for maximum efficiency.
• Garment Handling: Understand the differences between printing on 100% cotton versus polyester blends, and learn the most efficient techniques for loading shirts onto the platen.
• Platen Adhesives: Explore the pros and cons of different platen adhesives, including traditional spray mist versus eco-friendly water-based options.

Where the magic happens. Learn the hands-on techniques for laying down ink, curing garments correctly, and handling different materials like a seasoned production pro.

Why Someone Should Come

The actual printing and curing of the garment is where the magic happens. This session focuses on the physical techniques of laying down ink and the critical science of curing it. You will learn how to handle different types of inks and how to ensure your prints look vibrant and last through countless washes.

Who Should Come

Anyone involved in the physical printing and curing process. This is essential for operators who want to improve their squeegee technique, understand ink behavior, and guarantee washfastness.

What They Will Learn

• Ink Dynamics: Compare the handling and benefits of Plastisol inks (like Wilflex Lava) versus Water Base inks (like Green Galaxy), including when to use reducers.
• Squeegee Technique: Learn how squeegee durometer, angle (10-15 degrees off 90), and pressure affect ink deposit, and master both push and pull printing strokes.
• Flashing & Underbases: Discover the secrets to printing a smooth, opaque white underbase on dark garments, and learn the proper use of flash dryers (infrared vs. quartz) to gel ink between colors.
• Curing & Quality Control: Understand the critical temperature requirements (typically 320°F) for fully curing both plastisol and water-based inks using conveyor or flash dryers, and learn how to perform stretch, rub, and wash tests to guarantee a perfect cure.

Ink can make or break water-based production. Learn how ink systems behave, how color and additives affect performance, and how to mix for consistent results, then get hands-on getting those inks on press before starting production.

Why Someone Should Come

Ink mixing is one of the most important skills in advanced water-based printing. Printers need to understand how ink systems behave, how color and additives affect performance, and how to prepare ink that works with the artwork, screen, garment, and production environment. This session gives attendees practical insight into mixing, managing, and applying water-based ink systems for more predictable results.

Who Should Come

This session is ideal for printers, ink room staff, production managers, shop owners, and decorators who want to gain more confidence with water-based ink systems. It is especially helpful for shops working with high-solids acrylic, discharge, specialty formulations, hybrid ink systems, or color-critical retail and licensed apparel work.

What They Will Learn

• Ink System Fundamentals: Understand how water-based inks, high-solids acrylic systems, discharge applications, additives, and pigments affect print performance.
• Mixing for Production: Learn how to prepare ink for the job, garment, screen, technique, and production conditions instead of relying on guesswork.
• Color and Consistency Control: Discover how better ink-room habits improve repeatability, reduce waste, and support more accurate production runs.
• Hybrid and Advanced Formulations: Explore how new hybrid water-based formulations can expand color potential and create efficient production options with fewer screens.

Once the concept and screens are ready, the next challenge is turning the idea into an actual print. Brian Lessard and John Magee will team up to bridge the gap between art, ink, and production. Brian will begin with the artwork and explain how a special effects concept is translated into separations, print order, dimensional elements, and a press-ready strategy. John will then take that plan into the ink room, exploring the specialty inks, additives, mixing decisions, and testing required to produce the intended effect. Rather than treating art and ink as separate parts of the process, this session shows how they need to work together from the beginning. Who Should Come This session is ideal for production artists, printers, ink room staff, production managers, shop owners, and decorators who want to better understand how creative ideas are translated into actual production decisions. It is especially useful for shops that want to experiment with puff and other dimensional effects but need a more disciplined approach to artwork, ink selection, testing, and setup. What They Will Learn · Art to Production: Brian will break down how a creative concept becomes separations, screens, print order, and a realistic production plan. · Building Faux Appliqué: Learn how printed borders, texture, dimension, color, and layering can create the appearance of stitched or dimensional appliqué. · Understanding Puff: John will explore how puff ink works, how expansion changes the artwork, and what printers need to consider before going to press. · Ink Selection & Modification: Learn how ink choice, additives, viscosity, opacity, deposit, and cure influence the finished effect. · Designing Art for Ink Behavior: Understand why specialty inks cannot always be treated like standard plastisol and how artwork needs to anticipate what happens during printing and curing. · Testing Before Production: Learn how Brian and John evaluate a concept, make adjustments, test variables, and determine whether the effect is ready for the press. 

Get hands-on with special effects printing and learn how to make a print that looks amazing but can be reproduced in production settings to differentiate your shop and make more money doing it.

Why Someone Should Come

Special effects printing is only valuable if it can be produced profitably. A print that looks amazing but takes too long, wastes too many garments, or cannot be repeated at scale will not help a shop grow. This session brings the full FX Camp workflow together by focusing on how to run special effects jobs in production, price them correctly, explain their value to customers, and build samples that help sell premium decoration. Attendees will see how creative effects such as faux appliqué, puff, and HD-inspired decoration can become practical, profitable shop offerings.

Who Should Come

This session is for shop owners, production managers, lead printers, sales teams, and decorators who want to turn special effects from occasional experiments into a profitable service category. It is especially useful for shops that want to wow clients, increase margins, build a stronger sample library, and have more fun producing prints that customers cannot get from every decorator.

What They Will Learn

• Production Workflow for Effects: Learn how to plan job setup, screens, inks, test prints, flash points, cure requirements, operator roles, and quality checks for specialty production.
• Pricing Premium Decoration: Understand how to price special effects based on added value, setup complexity, production speed, materials, testing, risk, and customer impact.
• Selling the Wow Factor: Discover how samples, storytelling, retail inspiration, and side-by-side comparisons help clients understand why special effects are worth more.
• Reducing Risk in Production: Learn how to control variables, document formulas, approve strike-offs, train operators, and prevent one-off successes from becoming full-run problems.
• Profitably Having More Fun: Understand how special effects can energize the shop, create stronger client relationships, and open the door to higher-margin, more memorable apparel.