Owen Mercer
Colour and Print TechnicianOwen prints the strike-offs, matches every base fabric in a kit to one colour standard under D65 light and signs the colour cards and decoration checks.
The job at the studio
Owen works at the D65 colour station. For every base fabric a kit uses he prints a strike-off, matches it against the buyer's signed colour standard and signs one physical colour card per fabric, with the colour parameters written into the spec pack.
He also owns decoration. Each logo, print area and reflective detail gets a line on the placement sheet, and before a fabric's colour card is signed he pulls the decorated strike-off along the riding stretch directions, washes it to the buyer's care instructions and checks it again. Artwork that will not hold up, such as fine lines on mesh or heat transfer on a stretch zone, is listed with a fix before sampling starts.
On this blog Owen writes about base fabrics by panel, colour matching across mixed fabrics, sublimation on mesh and how decoration is checked before it goes into a spec pack.
What Owen checks and signs
- One strike-off per base fabricEvery fabric in the kit is printed and matched to the same colour standard under D65 light.
- One signed colour card per fabricColour parameters go into the spec pack. Adding a garment only adds a card when it brings in a new base fabric.
- Pull check and wash checkDecorated strike-offs are pulled along the riding stretch directions, washed to the buyer's care instructions and checked again before the card is signed.
- Placement sheet linesOne line per decoration: garment, position, panel and fabric, process, colour card and check result.