This article originally appeared in the May 2011 issue of Milwaukee Magazine.
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| Jeff Meilander. Photo by Adam Ryan Morris. |
“I played in a band called Spitalfield, and we toured a lot. We went to Australia, Europe, pretty much seeing the world.
That’s how I got into screen printing. When I was 17 years old, my high school band was on tour. Merchandise is huge for a band to sell, otherwise you’re not going to have gas money – so I learned how to print shirts by hand in my parents’ garage.
As I was playing in more bands, more merch was needed. I always had this DIY [do-it-yourself] attitude. The idea of hiring another company wasn’t even in my head. It was something I liked to do, it was fun, and I felt more tied into what I was doing with my band.
We started printing T-shirts, but we saw an opportunity to do things like posters and stickers, pens, mugs – pretty much anything you can think of. That’s one thing I like about this – no two designs are the same.
We do a lot for Qdoba, Nokia, Pepsi, Verizon. Locally, we do things for Beans & Barley, Comet, Honeypie. We did a run of waterproof iPod cases for State Farm Insurance. We once did an order of 1,000 3-foot foam syringes that said ‘A-Roid’ [a play on baseball star Alex Rodriguez, who admitted to using steroids]. They were huge and filled half the loading bay.
We’re a relatively small shop, but we’re capable of doing 16-color press for textiles. We can do lots of colors, oversized and all-over printing. We work with a lot of artists that are doing great, creative stuff.
Right now, the staff is just me and two other people, and a guy doing sales. Being a small business owner, I work a lot. I’ll be here about 14 hours today.
I like the fact it’s a manufacturing process but also an art form. I love it when I’m walking down the street and see somebody wearing a shirt I printed. When I’m printing, I don’t always appreciate what we’re doing. Sometimes, when it’s done, I look at it and I think, ‘Wow, that’s a cool shirt. I made that.’”
– as told to Tyler Maas
