Lon Winters

Learn hands-on how to engineer special effects i. Learn how to mix, modify, and setup inks like puff, high-density, gel, suede, shimmer, and more for consistent, press-ready results.

Why Someone Should Come

Special effects inks can transform a garment, but they need to be mixed, modified, tested, and set up with intention. Puff, high-density, gel, suede, shimmer, reflective, foil adhesive, discharge, water-based, and faux appliqué effects all require different decisions around viscosity, opacity, deposit, cure, flash, hand feel, and production speed. Lon Winters brings the perspective of a printer, consultant, problem solver, and award-winning decorator who understands how to turn creative ideas into prints that can be repeated on press.

Who Should Come

This session is ideal for printers, ink room staff, production managers, shop owners, and decorators who want to become more confident with specialty inks and additives. It is especially helpful for shops that want to experiment with special effects but need a more disciplined approach to testing, setup, documentation, and production control.

What They Will Learn

• Special Effects Ink Systems: Explore the behavior of puff, high-density, gel, suede, shimmer, glitter, reflective, foil adhesive, discharge, water-based, and mixed-effect systems.
• Mixing for the Desired Result: Learn how modifiers, additives, viscosity, opacity, and ink deposit influence the look, hand, durability, and production behavior of the effect.
• Setup and Testing Habits: Discover how to test special effects before production, document formulas, evaluate cure, and control variables that can change the finished result.
• Faux Appliqué Production Setup: Understand how texture, dimension, separation strategy, screen choice, and ink behavior work together to create the look and feel of stitched appliqué through screen printing.
• Press-Ready Preparation: Learn how ink mixing connects to screen selection, squeegee choice, flash strategy, garment selection, and production pace.

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.