Author Archives: llevine

2017 New catalog stock / new catalog custom/new catalog pets

 

 

Artbrands is very excited to introduce our new 2017 catalog. We feel it is the best catalog that we have ever printed. Many new designs and updated old favorites.

April 1st we are announcing a new updated website both stock and custom. This will be very easy to use and have lots of the innovations that you have come to expect from us.

 

Thanks

 

Sincerely

 

Larry Levine

 

CEO  Artbrands

llevine@artbrands.com

 

Dean Russo

Dodge

Letter From the Founder Regarding Pricing

Dear Customer,

I want to personally thank you for your business. We are very excited about the year ahead and are looking forward to bringing you more of the best in heat transfer garment decorating.

I wanted to take the time to personally let you know that after many years we have to have a very small price increase on our transfers. It is only 3 percent but I wanted to make sure that I personally told you. I don’t like surprises and I am sure that you don’t either. The new pricing will start March 1st.

We have also reviewed our pricing on a category of designs and have lowered it considerably. You can click on the link that we have provided for you. CLICK HERE

We appreciate your business and once again thank you.

Sincerely

Larry Levine
President

Heat presses, foreign or domestic ?

imgresThis is a huge issue for many of us on many levels. Aside from patriotic considerations here are my thoughts on this.

We sell heat presses so that our customers can have the full package from us. Frankly we make our money on selling heat transfers so in our minds we want to sell a heat press that will work properly, and not cause us any problems. There are many great heat presses made domestically.

We chose to stick with Hix because they have been around the longest, and they make a very reliable machine.

When we look at problems from heat presses they are almost always from off brands and unfortunately many are from China.

We have purchased and looked at machines from China, Italy and other places . The simple truth is that if you buy a cheap press, you are getting a …. cheap heat press. There may be pressure issues, uneven heat distribution. THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR T SHIRT PRINT BUSINESS IS YOUR HEAT PRESS.

We will continue to explore other heat presses but until we see one that is up to our standards we will not carry any from overseas.

In the mean time we continue to make our transfers easy to print with a wide room for heat and pressure to accommodate our customers .

Also please check out our new Deco trans designer. It is a work in process with more art to be loaded but so far the response has been terrific. We are using a proprietary paper that makes great , high quality, quick digit prints. We are also making stickers and posters.

So far this has been a ” banner year” , sorry for the pun . Thanks for your support.

Sincerely

Larry Levine

President

Artbrands llc

DTG or Transfers ?

Heat transfers or DTG ?

Heat transfers or DTG ?

I would like to know your thoughts on this subject .  Here are mine. When cable television first came out I remember signs on movie theatres that said we should ban cable television because it would kill movie theatres. Billions upon billions later for both the cable and movie theatres later they are both still here and are thriving.

DTG has its place . They are decent if you are making samples, doing one of a kind designs on the internet etc. They are however very expensive still to buy ( I dont care what kind of payments schemes there are out there) . They are most importantly very expensive per shirt to print.

I have seen dark shirt printing cost as much as 8 dollars with the average probably being 2 to 4 dollars a piece.

Here is what they don’t tell you. There are misprints. The cost of labor ( even if you are standing there doing nothing still has a cost) . The pre treatment all add up. Finally the end product can be acceptable but in my opinion can never match the colors, intensity of a beautiful screen printed ( screen printed heat transfers as well) garment or product.

There is also a few other factors. They are slow unless you purchase the industrial strength ones one cannot survive printing 20 to 30 shirts an hour if you are lucky. Each shirt takes way too much time for production. A heat transfer depending on the size, complexity, process can be as little as 25 cents on up to 5 dollars.

Our screen printed transfers also have special effects, glitter, neon, color change ( in the sun) . reflective, glow in the dark.

Our “Deco Trans” product line is a digital heat transfer that is very effective for short runs. It has been very successfujl with customers reordering consistently.

Tell me your thoughts . I may even tell you which DTG machines that I like . I have seen them all.

 

Larry Levine

Artbrands

First post for Larry Levine Artbrands

Hello,

My name is Larry Levine President of Artbrands llc

I have been wanting to do this for quite some time. I love to write and I love to talk to customers or potential customers. This is a crazy, fun business that we are in. As I have said often We are not curing cancer.

The heat transfer business is constantly changing and I have practically seen it all. My Dad was in this business way back in the 1970s and was a pioneer in heat transfers. That is how and why I ended up in Columbus Ohio. I went to Ohio State became a life long Buckeye fan. One of my sons ( I have 5 kids) even was a band member ( The best damn band in the land OSU marching band).

 

I have been in Columbus Ohio now for many years even though we don’t have mountains, an ocean it is a very cool, dynamic , growing city and I love it.

Now on to business. Let me tell you my background. I have been a stand up comedian, door to door sales person, talk show host ,writer,  and a businessman.

I have been lucky enough in my life to have met very interesting people from Alexander Haig , Jay Leno, to most of todays celebrities. It is just part of our business. I am not jaded , I am a fan and I still look in awe at people who have accomplished much and are in the public eye.

I love to create products, market , promote . It is kind of like the feeling before a big game the excitement, the thrill , the letdown and the exhilaration of having a successful product . I have had both believe me. If I have had any success in my life it is because I have I have not been afraid to fail. Yup I have failed alot but failure leads to successes and as long as we learn from our mistakes ( you have to be bold enough to make them) we will grow and learn and prosper.

This blog is here for many reasons. I want to help those who are starting out, in our business. I completely understand the small business mentality . I have been there and I have done that. I love to share ideas and hopefully help friends and customers prosper in the heat applied transfer business.

Oh, and I want you to use our products. That is the purpose of this. At least for now we are a capitalist Country and we all want to make money. Ok, I slipped ( lets not get political ) so we won’t go there in this blog .

Please ask any question that you need to ask. If it is technical I will get my “experts” at Artbrands to help . If it is about licensing, copyrignt and trademark I have a vast knowledge of it. I also am smart enough to admit when I don’t know something ( which is often ) .

Thanks for reading this and lets have fun and make money.

 

Sincerely

 

Larry Levine Artbrands

 

President

 

Artbrands llc

www.artbrands.com

www.countrygirlstore.com

www.solartees.com

Artbrands llc  Home office

Artbrands llc
Home office

 

Me sitting on the King of Thrones chair at the licensing show. ( not very comfortable ) all that fighting for this chair ?

Me sitting on the King of Thrones chair at the licensing show. ( not very comfortable ) all that fighting for this chair ?