Meet A Family Member - Nick Perry

Each month we bring you inside our warehouse to introduce you to a member of our Family.

Nick Perry

Shipping Manager

When most people hear the word “finishing”, they likely assume things have wrapped up. For our Shipping Manager Nick Perry, “Finishing” is where it all begins. Surrounded every single day by boxes, you’d think Nick would go a little crazy, but it’s actually quite the opposite. He handles his work with the type of calm you’d expect from someone who worked on a golf course, but in lieu of a quiet stretch of well manicured grass, Nick works in a bustling warehouse downtown Los Angeles.

Everything we do here at Family Industries starts in a box, and if even one of those boxes is missing it could mean the difference between a job getting done on time or a massive delay. While there’s nothing inherently sexy about handling the day-to-day logistics of shipping and receiving all of our materials, Nick does it all with the smoothness and ease of a well timed jazz solo. Nothing that comes in or goes out that isn’t within Nick’s purview. It’s because of his tireless work ethic and confidence in what he does that we never find ourselves hitting the panic button. There’s a lot of pressure that’s unavoidably placed on the Shipping and Receiving department, as much of our work is dependent on it, but Nick somehow remains cool, calm, and collected. It’s a gift really.

We couldn’t be more excited to finally introduce you to the man behind the boxes: Nick Perry…

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What do you do at Family Industries?

I'm the Shipping Manager. I oversee all incoming orders and then make sure they are correctly shipped to the customer. I have also been working to help expand our flatstock printing department to accommodate more fine art elements. Most importantly, I bring the donuts on Friday.

What piece of clothing that you own could you not live without?

Give me a super soft, raglan style sweatshirt and I'm happy.

At the moment, what are your top three songs?

1. “Blacknuss” - Rahsaan Roland Kirk

2. “Say Goodbye” - Tonio K.

3. “Of Men and Demons” - Quincy Jones

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“THE OVER-SHARE QUESTIONNAIRE”

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SHOW US YOUR WORK (OUTSIDE OF WORK)!

I'm always trying express a truth, either with straightforward representation or the silliness of the absurd, sometimes using both at the same time.

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AND FINALLY,

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN ONE GIF…

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Meet A Family Member - Joe Herbick

Each month we bring you inside our warehouse to introduce you to a member of our Family.

Joe Herbick

Head of Print Making

When it comes to having a passion for your work, there are few as dedicated to their craft as Joe. Screen printing has been a part of Joe’s life since he first started screen printing at twelve years old. Most kids that age change passions as often as they change shoe sizes, but for Joe and screen printing, it was love at first sight. Those years of practice have given way to an artist who’s work is beyond compare. His eye for color, mood, texture, and tone is truly awe-inspiring. We often find ourselves staring at Joe while he prints thinking, “if we stand here long enough, maybe some of that talent will rub off on us.” Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case, but that won’t stop us from staring… Sorry Joe.

Without further ado, we’d like to introduce you to Joe Herbick…

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What do you do at Family Industries?

I run the flatstock department. We print just about anything that’s flat, but mostly art prints and posters. I’ve worked on anything from fine art to concert posters, and everything in between.

What piece of clothing that you own could you not live without?

Pants. I always wear pants.

At the moment, what are your top three songs?

1. “Neat Neat Neat” - The Damned

2. “The Passenger” - Iggy Pop

3. “So Sorry” - Clarke and the Himselfs

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“THE OVER-SHARE QUESTIONNAIRE”

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SHOW US YOUR WORK (OUTSIDE OF WORK)!

This is the last print I completed of my own work. It’s a 6 color screen print with a split fountain on French paper. Size: 24”x36”.

This is an album cover/art project I worked on for desert/stoner rock legend Brant Bjork. This was for the 20 year anniversary reissue/remix of his first solo record, “Jalamanta”. We basically spent a weekend in the high desert near Joshua Tree reimagining the original album art from 20 years ago.

I actually made the skull while working at a bronze foundry back in Baltimore. The top of the skull is cast in dyed alabaster, and the bottom section is cast in solid bronze.

I’ve loved this record since the day I bought it two decades ago, and I am truly honored to have been part of this project.

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AND FINALLY,

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN ONE GIF…

Joe isn’t one for gifs, so here’s a super cool gif we found instead…

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Live Screen Printing Tips & Tricks - Max Hellmann (CO-FOUNDER, Family Ind.)

Last month, our co-owner Max had the honor of being invited to Chicago to speak at this year’s Printavo PrintHustlers Conference. Max had the opportunity to share some tips and tricks on all things Live Screen Printing, and luckily Printavo taped the whole thing!

“After printing for Lollapalooza, Disney, Google, Facebook, Nike, Nintendo, Toyota, Levi's – and dozens more – Family Industries is a leader in the challenging live printing game. We were lucky enough to have Max join us all the way from LA at PrintHustlers Conf 2019 to share his insights from years of traveling, hustling, and pleasing people with fresh prints.”

- Printavo

CHECK OUT MAX’S PRESENTATION BELOW!

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Interested in a closer look at Max’s “Live Screen Printing Tips & Tricks” slide show? Click the button below and check it out!

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Cured in 60 Seconds: An inside look at live screen printing

Ten years ago we ventured into the unknown world of Live Screen Printing. At the time, no one was really doing it so our gauge on whether or not it would work was… well, there was no gauge. We were attempting to build an entire business around something that had zero proof it would actually be successful. All we knew was that we had a solid idea, the skills to pull it off, and the drive to make it work.

Today, a decade later, we are doing over four hundred events a year. To say we’ve been extremely fortunate is an understatement. We owe a giant debt of gratitude to all the incredible people who have supported us along the way, and all the brands we’ve been lucky enough to work with throughout the years.

As incredibly exciting as these past ten years have been, we couldn’t have gotten to this point without lots and LOTS of practice. As cliché as it is, practice really does make perfect. We’ve had to fall and pick ourselves back up more times than not, but those falls have taught us something each time. That’s why, in the spirit of learning, we wanted to show you how we make the magic happen. From prep work to the event itself, there’s a lot that goes into live screen printing.

Here’s a little inside look into how we do what we do…

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PREPARATION IS KEY

Stagecoach 2019 Prep — Before we headed to the desert for 2019’s Stagecoach Country Music Festival, we had to prepare hundreds of pre-printed posters for the event.

Some say that “eighty percent of life is just showing up”. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really apply to live screen printing. Depending on the type of item we’re printing on, as well as the designs themselves; prep work is usually inevitable. We never want to walk into an event blindly, so we typically spend the days leading up to it practicing the activation.

Reasons for prep work ranges from types of ink we’re using to pre-printing tags and brand logos onto the items. For example, before we went to Tik Tok’s “For Black History” event in Hollywood, we pre-printed hundreds of denim jackets with the Tik Tok logo.

You may be asking yourself: “Wait. if you’re ‘live screen printing’ why are you printing stuff BEFORE you’re actually live?” That’s a solid question. What it usually comes down to is twofold: time and branding. Typically when we’re hired to work an event, a company will want their logo/branding on the items we’ll be live printing. This is completely separate from the design(s) they want to be printed live.

Whenever we’re live, we want to make sure guests of the event are given their items in a timely manner, and not wasting their time waiting in line. No one wants to wait a long time for a t-shirt when there’s food and drinks to be had! So in order to save time, we tend to pre-print any branding that the company wants on their items. That way, the items are ready to go for guests once they get to our booth. They only thing they have to worry about is choosing which design they want live printed.

Pre-printing is far from the only reason we do prep work for our live events. Sometimes we’re asked to print on an item we’ve never printed on before, and like anything you want to get good at doing: practice makes perfect.

This past April we were asked by The Fields Restaurant to do live printing on clear, PVC tote bags. While it may sound simple, printing on plastic bags can be quite tough. ESPECIALLY live. That’s why our Production Manager Mike hit the floor and practiced until we knew we could pull this off. Lucky for us, Mike is a master problem solver and came up with a system that would make this activation possible. Check out photos of the bags below!

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pack it up, pack it in…

Once we’ve got everything prepped and ready to go, it’s time for everyone’s favorite activity: PACKING! Lugging our equipment around as often as we do can be quite taxing, but practice has certainly made for a smoother operation.

Most of the events we do call for a specific type of screen printing ink. Before everything gets packed up, we need to get all those inks ready to go. Our live team will either grab something off of the ink wall that’s already prepared, or mix something up.

After the inks are ready to go, we gather all our road-ready equipment and pack it up. Depending on where the event is taking place, we either transport the equipment ourselves or ship it to the event destination.

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live from [insert location]… it’s family industries!

Stagecoach Country Music Festival 2019 - Indio, CA

Over the last ten years, we’ve been lucky enough to travel all over the country. Life on the road is a rollercoaster, but it’s like a rollercoaster in Disneyland; it never gets old, it’s always a good time, and there is very little motion sickness.

Every event is different, but load in and set up always take place before the festivities get going. After everything’s good to go, that’s when the fun begins. It can get pretty nuts whenever we’re live printing, especially at large scale music festivals like Lollapalooza and Stagecoach, but that’s kind of why we love it. We feed off the energy of the crowd, and that’s what keeps the work interesting after all these years.

Depending on the activation and item being printed, our live team can turn an item out every thirty to ninety seconds. That’s why we’ve been able to take events on like the grand opening of Toyota’s headquarters in Plano, Texas where we printed five thousand shirts in four hours. Our heads were spinning and our arms were tired, but boy did we have a great time! That’s why we’re always down for a good challenge. The more, the merrier.

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THAt’s all folks!

Bugs Ball 2019 - Warner Bros. Studio

HOPE WE SEE YOU ON THE ROAD!

For more information on Live Screen Printing and all the other awesome activations we do, head over to our website:

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE: Camp Family

As you may or may not know, we have been in the process of building our brand new facility in Frogtown, LA. We’re calling it Camp Family. There’s still quite a lot to do, but we’re too excited to keep all the updates to ourselves.

A couple weeks ago we got to witness the cement being poured onto the ground floor, and while the ground breaking had happened months prior, the cement made it all feel much more real. Then, as if that wasn’t cool enough for us, 10 days ago we got to watch the first walls go up. We know that all of this sounds way less exciting than it actually was, but watching your dream come to life in physical form is a pretty crazy thing.

Anyway, enough of the emotional blabber. Here are some pictures of the progress we’re making at Camp Family. Stay tuned for more.

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