Brian Lessard

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.