Commission - anniversary print for bags, mugs and tshirts
I’ve just completed a fantastic project, designing a linocut print to celebrate JBT Distribution Ltd’s 25th birthday. JBT are a Scottish distribution company with a fleet of over 70 vehicles. They wanted a design that could be printed onto mugs, bags and tshirts and requested ‘something a bit different’ They were also keen to use fairtrade textile in the products - not cheaply produced untraceable ones. These were the only constraints I had, which gave me a pretty free reign on the design.
I began where I always do - my sketchbook. Here are some of my early thoughts. I wanted to connect JBT to the landscape they travel through (they were founded in the Highlands) and couldn’t pass up the chance to make a linocut lorry! The firework idea was the birthday celebration!
JBT approved the sketches, and I got to work transferring the design onto three lino blocks - the background, the text and the lorry. This process can take some time as I find carving a bit then testing can avoid mistakes later. It often evolves quite a bit from the original sketch. In the video below I am inking the carved lorry block to print.
In my 'studio' at the back of the house printing a linocut lorry block!
Once the linocut design had approval, the print was scanned and edited on a computer to make sure it made the correct requirements for the printers. The mugs were printed by a local printing company, and the bags were printed by a local eco friendly screen printer. I have the capacity to hand print tote bags myself, but here the numbers were too high to do at home. I managed the whole process with the partner companies.
The mugs and bags were sent directly to JBT. Since then, another 72 mugs and a batch of tshirts have been ordered!! I have printed the tshirts myself directly from the linocut blocks. See the video below…
The linocut blocks will be kept just in case they are required again. Happy anniversary JBT!!