Thirty T-shirts by tonight: same-day printing for Universal Pictures

The brief

Thirty black T-shirts with a one-colour print on the front and back, finished by the end of the day. The event was the CineEurope film exposition in Barcelona, and the garments had to travel with the driver the next morning. Having just been let down once, the client was understandably nervous about it happening again.

Same-day printing has two usual snags: the print method and the stock. Both came up on this job.

What we did

We quoted screen printing first, because the artwork was fairly complex and would have been awkward to cut as vinyl. Once the order reached the print house it became clear the screen print could not be fulfilled that day, so the job switched to vinyl. The client did not mind how it was printed, only that the shirts existed by the evening.

Stock is the other constraint on same-day work. We used the sizes we had on the shelf, which the client accepted.

Late in the day the print was still not dispatched. The courier cut-off had passed, so a taxi was booked to an alternative address nearer the print house, and one of our sales team stayed on email between the client and production until 10pm. The T-shirts were delivered at 11pm on the Friday.

The result

The garments made the trip. The client told us the late delivery was not a real issue in the end, thanked the team for turning the job round at such short notice, and asked to keep us for future projects.

Why the courier plan failed

The original plan was a standard courier collection. By the time the print was finished the cut-off had passed, which on a Friday means the next collection is Monday and the driver leaves without the shirts.

A taxi to an address nearer the print house was the only route left that still ended with the garments in Barcelona.

“We would like to thank yourself and your team for being able to produce and turn around these t-shirts in such short notice. After receiving such appalling service from one printer and being totally let down it was amazing to receive such great professional and quick service and be able to at least to deliver some t-shirts to this international film event. You really did solve what would have been a real issue and therefore due to you help we did not let our client down.”

— Universal Pictures