Hello. We print things.

Hello. We print things.

I still get surprised when I speak with people who are so familiar with the Fairwell brand but have no idea what we do. It is of no fault of theirs...but it does stand out to me that we aren't doing something right on making the public aware.

We DO have our own line of shirts and other garments...but we also extend our services to you. Our printing press does not only produce Fairwell gear... we actually print more product for start up clothing lines than we do for ourselves. Where we may do a run of 80 shirts or so...we will also outdo that by running 24 or so shirts for 8 or so different start-up companies, family reunions, schools, and small businesses.

Of course, our pride is in our own pieces however the same heart goes into each design we do for a customer but with their vision. We love clean design and as much of that we can spread around the community the better! We love building with other creatives and always amazed to see talented people doing what they were born to do. And always...whatever we can do to help out or give a little push for artists (painters, musicians, dancers, entrepreneurs, etc.) to spread their wings..we are 100% down for.

Back on topic...

We are always brainstorming ways of putting our name out...cost effective and interestingly. We are not scared to experiment and go somewhere we have never been before. I recently decided to print a poster to give out or post up or whatever. The cost of poster paper was far higher than I was willing to pay. With some looking around I came across a painter's roll of paper.. similar to a paper grocery bag on a roll. We cut out 11x17 rectangles and came up with a simple design that makes your acquaintance and informs you of our role.

Hello.

We print things

We ran off about 30 posters and have about 20 left. If you know of a good place to post them up to grab attention..hit us up and we'll shoot one out your way. Or feel free to drop by the office and snag one!

Artists Only

We are brainstorming a campaign for a specific line of shirts this year. Fairwell is all about creatives and bringing talented people to the spot light. We have ditched the 'Shirt of the Month' campaign to replace it with something a bit more amazing.

Fairwell is going to hand select artists from Virginia and immediate surrounding areas. Every month a new artist will be featured...so 12 months..12 different artists. The artist will be given free reign with the shirt design in any style they choose. The tags of the shirts will be all about the artist with contact information. On a specific release date each month a limited number of shirts will be made available to the public. Once the shirts are sold they will not be reprinted!

After the year is up and the 12 artists have had their run, Fairwell will be printing a booklet of each artist and their featured work again in limited edition prints. Also, Fairwell will host an art exhibit featuring the 12 artists and their works. The artists are going to be encouraged to push their own works at that venue.

And if that isn't enough in itself...the artists will be receiving majority of the profits from shirt sales!

ONLY CERTAIN ARTISTS WILL BE CHOSEN! We will only consider artists that stay on the grind and continuously pump out great works. Please contact us at contact@fairwelldesign.com if you care to submit your portfolio or you know of an artist we need to check out.

New packaging

For the past year it has been standard practice that whenever a customer purchases product from our website to throw it in a plain envelope and send it out. After a handful going out in a week we thought about what the customer was expecting once they committed to the purchase. Typically it would be excitement, at least I am every time I get something new. Although, we do come through on the excitement end with the product...the packaging was subpar to say the least.

Recently we adapted a new type of printing, water-based. The process is similar to our standard, plastisol, but with some differences on final product.

The main differences are the feel of the print once its dry and what we're able to print on. Water-based enables us to print directly onto paper and allow it to air dry with out being able to feel the ink at all! After a bit of problem solving we came up with an improved envelope to ship our products in.

Wanting to reiterate that we do all of our own printing and by hand at that...it was only natural for us to print us printing on the envelope. The hands are my very own...and the ink was actually pulled across a screen.

The end result is exactly what we hoped for! It puts a smile on our faces every time we send these out the door.

Now envisioning what the customer's experience is quite different. We imagine it's a pleasant surprise seeing an artful package that is truly one of a kind. Maybe even worth holding onto and not discarded like a typical mailer would be.

Feel free to make an online purchase and let us know what you think!

http://fairwelldesign.bigcartel.com

A fresh start

2010 is already upon us! Seems like 2009 just flew by so quickly. Looking back over the last 6 months alone we can be proud of so much we have accomplished here at Fairwell Design.

From opening day, June 1st, until December 31st we have grown so much. We have done work for s

ome of our favorite musicians (WAX & EOM), printed shirts for some of our favorite restaurants (County Grill, Goodfellas, Brent's), and even a fellow graphic designer across the water (Aziz Firat). Our customer base just keeps growing from all of the great word of mouth our customers are providing.

We stepped up our printing abilities to offer eco-friendly screenprinting that just happens to be the softest print you can achieve! Making great connections with fellow artist around the area has been such a pleasure as well. A very talented man, Chuck, at The Vincit Group has been working closely with us in establishing our own cut & sew line of Fairwell pieces. So far, we've completed a sick jacket from scratch and a handful of scarves.

Honestly, 2009 was so great to us and we are running full steam into 2010. Can only imagine what is in store for us. This is our first blog and we plan to keep you well informed on what we have going on from here on out!