Concepts come from all sorts of places – from places I go, from idle thoughts, from off-the-wall conversations. Capturing it on a t-shirt’s a bit trickier. I use a combination of photos, fonts and hand-drawings, and combine them all digitally.

The image is then printed in black onto a set of clear acetate sheets. These are positioned on a huge light-box with a glass top. Screens made of nylon mesh are coated with a thin layer of blue light-sensitive emulsion, and kept in the dark. When the design’s ready to go, out comes a screen and onto the light box. It’s then weighed down so no light leaks round the image to blur the design, and the light turned on for 12 minutes to burn the design. The screen is immediately rinsed off and the bits blocked by the black design wash off leaving a negative.

After drying, the screen is then positioned and clamped in a carousel, the tee slid onto a platen underneath (bit like an ironing board), and the screen lowered. Water-based ink is dolloped onto the screen and squeegeed across the image, to print onto the tee. The tee is hung up to dry, then finally heat-pressed to fix the design.

Susie (designer)