Here is our design for the 2010 Black Mountain Marathon Mount Mitchell Challenge. To learn more about the race, check out our post from last year, or check out this article from the Asheville Citizen Times.

I was checking our web stats today and discovered we received a compliment. There is an interesting website called teefury that prints and sells only one shirt design per day. Once that day is over the shirt is gone.

A local Asheville artist Ian Leino’s design Polar Beer was chosen for one day last November. “Created entirely by hand with scratchboard, this design squarely inhabits the junction of cryptic LOST mythology with classic beer label design” I am not sure but I think it sold well over 1000 t’s in one day.  That is one hell of a design!

This is the part that makes Image 420 feel good…

With the success of the design and all of the people that did not get a shirt Ian wanted to do a reprint. That is how we met.

“For this printing, I’ve worked personally with a local screenprinter to ensure the absolute highest quality prints on American Apparel garments to make a shirt that both looks and feels even better than its original printing!”

That is awesome.  Thank you very much for the compliment. It means a lot to know our customers like the work we do. Good luck with your design Ian. Spend some time at Ian Leino’s website. We have. He is a very talented artist and designer.

This is last years design we did for A.C. Reynolds Middle School’s band. Kind of a Who album cover…This year the Beatles…

Leaf is this weekend…Arrested Development • Zap Mama • Cowboy Junkies •Alex Torres and His Latin Orchestra (Mexico) • The Squirrel Nut Zippers • Los Amigos Invisibles • Los De Abajo (Mexico) • Battlefield Band • Wild Asparagus & Notorious (contra) • Sones de México Ensemble (Mexico) • Forro In The Dark (Brazil) • Mamadou Diabate • The Horse Flies • Red Stick Ramblers • Billy Jonas • River Gueguerian Project • Gordon Brown & The Bug Band (Panama) • JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound • Ol Hoopty • Jeff Oster • Soul Feather • Suni Paz (Argentina)• Cary Fridley and Down South • Elise Witt • Skinny Legs & All • Special Kids’ Village Performers including Red Herring Puppets (special Latin-themed puppet show) • Jam Tent • Poetry SLAM • Yoga & Healing Arts • Workshops & many more.

Chris Berry’s Pics

Next Saturday, the Great Smokies Craft Brewers Association will host the 13th annual Brewgrass Festival, in downtown Asheville. The Brewgrass Festival is one of the most popular beer festivals in the Southeast, and tickets have been sold out since early in the year.

Brewgrass features over 40 craft brewers from around the country, pouring samples of over 120 different beers. There’s also a great musical lineup, with some of the hottest acts in bluegrass, roots, and old time music. This year’s lineup includes such notables as Jim Lauderdale, Blueground Undergrass and local favorites Dehlia Low.

Image 420 has been providing t-shirts, design and beer taster glasses for Brewgrass for many years. This year, we’re definitely doing more Brewgrass merchandise than ever before. One of those items will be the annual commemorative Brewgrass t-shirt, which will be unveiled at the festival, and available online after that. The art on the shirt, as usual, was developed by the Image 420 Art Department, and we’re very excited to see it make its’ way out into the world.

Periodically, we like to highlight some of our biggest and best customers here on the Image 420 blog. I’m not sure how we’ve gone this long without mentioning our biggest customer, Tail of the Dragon. Maybe it’s because we’ve seen them almost every week for many, many years, and their near-familial status with us has caused us to forget to tell you about them. Whatever the reason, here is their long overdue feature.

If you’re a motorcyclist, or a sports car enthusiast, chances are you’re already familiar with Tail of the Dragon. Also known as US 29, it is an 11-mile stretch of road that crosses over the North Carolina-Tennessee border, and boasts some of the most intense riding one can find. The 318 curves on this stretch of road draw motorists and cyclists from all over the world, and a lot of those folks leave wearing one of Ron and Nancy Johnson’s Tail of the Dragon shirts. We know, because we print a LOT of them.

So check out their website, which has links to everything you’ll need for a trip to the Tail. And be sure to buy one of their sweet shirts while you’re there!

Here’s our design for the Model ‘A’ Ford Day patch next to a scan of the final emblem.

You can learn more about the event and the emblems by clicking here, or you send an email to Bruce Adams.

Here is a comparison study, between Image 420, and one of our local competitors.

Our friends at Rodney’s Auto Service have been hosting a Thursday Night Bike Night in downtown Weaverville, and needed some t-shirts. So, we created a design, and printed a batch of shirts for them. Here is a photo of the finished product:

A couple of weeks later, another local screenprinter tried to duplicate the shirt, in an attempt to lure the job away from Image 420. Here is a photo of their results:

And here are both shirts, side by side.

We’re presenting this to you not to be mean, or to brag, but to say this: We believe in attention to detail. From the art room, to the printing press, and at every point in between, we are all paying very close attention to our craft, making sure to present your art in the best possible fashion. We are not the cheapest printers in Asheville. But, if you let us print your shirts for you, those shirts will not look like they were printed at the cheapest print shop in Asheville, either.

This month’s issue of Verve magazine features one of our longtime customers, Brenda Ramer. Brenda is the director of Team ECCO, a Hendersonville-based nonprofit that specializes in marine education. You can find Verve magazine all over Western North Carolina, or you can read the article here.