CMU School of Drama


Friday, November 01, 2013

Inkodye: cool alternative to traditional screen printing

Boing Boing: On Monday night I had dinner with Jesse Genet, the founder of Lumi, a company that makes photographic fabric dye called Inkodye. She was wearing a shirt with an Inkodye print on it. This stuff is amazing!

18 comments:

AnnaAzizzyRosati said...

This looks really cool! I myself have never screen printed, but there were others in my art class who did so I know how it works. It's not s super complicated process, but it takes up space and requires special equipment. It's awesome to see screen printed sold in such and accessible way. The video for it even did a great job of displaying how simple and convenient the kit makes screen printing. I'd love to try it myself!

Sarah Keller said...

This looks really cool, and from the video it looks pretty simple. I'd be interested in seeing a more detailed description of the process, with full instructions, to see it is really as easy as the video makes it seem (can you even get that high of a picture quality off an iphone?). but this is definitely something that could be a really fun way to personalize your clothing. I was really impressed with the video- its goal is obviously to advertise the product, not give full instructions for its use, and it does that very well. I thought it was a great way of presenting the product and drawing interest, even if it does seem like it oversimplifies the process.

AlexxxGraceee said...

So this video doesn't really do a very good job at explaining how this works. My initial thought as to how it works is that you print out a picture on photo paper and then put some sort of chemical on it then you put cloth over that and more chemicals and let it sit then you wash it to set the dye.This seems too easy to be true. Now I am going to do some research and see how it really works! Okay wait, This is one of the coolest things ive seen. I really really want this like right now. It wasn't to easy to be true! It is super easy and super cool!!!! All I want to do now is this. I am so excited to try it and im definitely buying a kit!

Katie Pyne said...

This is taking screen printing to a whole new level, one that can compete with today's new technology. I absolutely love this idea, and especially the fact that it's rather simple. I would love to see a set of complete instructions and materials for its usage, though. But that's a small detail. I also enjoy the video tutorial as well. It's aesthetic was pleasing and quirky and was a great way to spread the product out to a wide variety of audiences. That's some A+ marketing. The video is also very high-quality in terms of production, so props to its creators as well. I wish I had some spare time and money to purchase/ use this product!

Doci Mou said...

This is a great concept, but my wonder is the cost. Will it be more worth it to do this for a few shirts than to get it done professionally? How will the quality differ? What about the flexibility of materials? At what point does the cost of doing this for each shirt outdo ordering it online? What's the learning curve and how much labor is involved?

It looks like it has the potential to do very well, and seems to have the versatility to be used for a variety of applications. I hope it catches on and becomes modified for even more mediums.

Unknown said...

I totally agree with Alex! This video made this image printing seem really great! I want to go out and try it! But also at a costume designer level it seems as if it is easy to do and would allow for a better customization of things for characters. It seems as this would be another great resource for costume designers. I think we teach screen printing here as part of the costume design course so it would be great to hear what they have to say about this product and how it compares to what they do.

Unknown said...

This is like the pinhole camera version of screen printing? Yes? The longer the exposure the difference in 'print' quality...I dig it. I know that screen printing is general not a small undertaking even though I've never tried it myself but this promo video does a good job of exposing the ease in which Inkodye works, that's a pretty great way to sell your product.

Jason Lewis said...

This seems like a really cool product and seems to be relatively easy to use. It seems like an easier way to transfer pictures onto shirts like that with the color of choice. I wonder though why this seems to be more special than other methods of this. Is it really that great in comparison? Does it really come out with such great quality? Can you mix colors? I'd like to know these answers. However, I do think this product is really awesome, I'd just like to know if it's really worth it to get it or if other methods work just as well.

Becki Liu said...

I've always wanted to learn screen printing. A lot of my friends back home did it and one friend is actually part of a huge organization that started in my high school that makes clothing. The guy who started the organization started with screen printing. The video was a really nice demonstration on how easy screen printing could be and I am pretty convinced now that I may check out screen printing as a little project for over winter break!

Here's the website to my friend's friend company (they're doing really well! Yay young entrepreneurs!):
http://muffinmilk.com

Andrew O'Keefe said...

I've done a fair amount of screen printing and I'm not convinced this is really anything very new. It doesn't really take any steps out of the process screen printing except for building the frame and stretching the silk, which is relatively simple. And this process appears to be a fairly one-off system that reproduces your image one t-shirt at a time, whereas the whole point of silk screening is producing a screen that can be used over and over again, with an image transfer time of a few seconds after the initial set up process. I'm sure there is a market for this type of stream-lined, one-off, creative impulse product. But I think for anyone really interested, traditional screen printing offers so much more both in terms of creative versatility and productivity, and I encourage you to check it out. There's a pretty good Instructable here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Screen-Printing%3A-Cheap,-Dirty,-and-At-Home/

The only expense really is the photo emulsion, and I've got a whole bottle of it if anyone wants to borrow some.

Mariah G said...

This is so cool! I love how simple it look and I love the idea of being able to turn anything into a t-shirt. I'd love to see a real, formal demonstration of how this works because it almost looks too good to be true. there must be some sort of trick to doing this that isn't being shown. I also wonder if it's possible to use multiple colors on it. Regardless, this is so cool and I'd love to play around with it.

april said...

Ok, there is a serious lack of information here in the video. Not to mention how little information is in the article, if you can call it that. I agree this seems pretty cool, but at least from what I can gather it is just a different progress for creating a type of art that has been around a long time. If you even just go on Pinterest there are a ton of tutorials on how to get this same affect on a shirt or canvas. Also I cannot decide how I feel about the video. It was not really an add nor a how to, it was more a combination of the two. On the one hand that could be an interesting idea because then you have the opportunity to get the best of both worlds but this video did not really sell me on the product, nor do I entirely know how to use it. Maybe if there was just a little bit more information presented It would be beneficial for them.

Akiva said...

This is "Cool", but I don't think it's really an "Alternative to traditional screen printing". The video looks classy and hip but there are some down sides I see to this processes. This first problem is that it seems to only be able to print with three colors red,orange, and blue. From what I can tell you can't even mix the colors to create other colors. So as someone who wants to make a cool shirt I'm pretty limited. Another problem is that this product is very expensive. I don't know how much screen printing costs but form a quick look at Lumi's website this looks like it would be a very expensive pass time. The last problem that I have with this product is that it doesn't look that much easier than screen printing. Sure you don't need a screen, but most of the steps are very similar.

I see how this is hip, but I don't see it doing things that screen printing can and I do see it being able to do less with the same amount of work.

Albert Cisneros said...

traditionally, screen printing is really time consuming and a hassle, but this video makes the whole process seem easy and less of a struggle. This year I'm designing for Lunar Gala and although I'm not screen printing anything, a lot of the lines have pieces that require screen printing. This seems like a fun and easy way to implement their ideas onto fabric and to make cool designs that are actually attainable. This method seems simple enough to even personalize my own clothing and create shirts that are unique and interesting.

Unknown said...

I don't know the entire process of screen printing, but I do know it isn't as fast and simple as this. This looks really cool and I would love to try it! And on a more educational note, I am definitely going to look into this later since I really would like to know how this works. The video really does make it look like you print, apply chemicals, wait, and then wash. Although, I do wonder how much it costs. Also, now that I skimmed over some other comments, I'm curious, and will look into, how different this is from traditional screen printing.

AJ Cook said...

I love photography and making items like this. Im glad to see that there are more commercial products out there for people to experience an old art in a new manner. Im currently exploring antiquarian/avant garde processes like this and have used light sensitive chemicals to print on shirts as well. This definitely inst a new process, but its cool to see it resurfacing again. I hope that people can look at this and then go back and see how people
MANY years ago started out with processed like this. Its quite fascinating to see some amazing work from the past and how its becoming popular again.

Unknown said...

I think that this commercial is very effective. After watching it, I think the product is very cool and innovative. What makes it so successful I think is that it shows how simple it is to make silkscreen t-shirts. However, I now wonder is it really that simple, and will the product not wash out? I guess we will learn in time.

dharan said...

This is really cool. I like how simple it is.
I don't have that much to say about the product itself, because it just seems quite simple, but I really liked the video that was promoting it. I think the video used the music to its advantage. The music was really cute and simple giving the whole feeling that this was a fun simple product.
I also like that the video wasn't trying too much to sell the product.