Meet A Family Member - Kerin Amit

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

Kerin Amit

Fulfillment Department Manager / Master of Direct to Garment

Though it is far from finished, we’ve been working out of Camp Family (our new facility in Frogtown, LA) for quite some time now. Simultaneously managing the workflow of two separate locations would be a much more difficult and stressful situation if it weren’t for one person: Kerin Amit. Over here at the Chinatown warehouse we’re fortunate enough to work alongside our fellow Family members, with someone always there to help pick up the slack. Meanwhile, at Camp Family, Kerin has had to handle the bulk of everything on her own. Most people would lose their minds, but somehow she manages to stay above it all. She’s the very definition of hard worker, and her ability to handle everything with poise and a level head is what makes her an invaluable member of the Family. The Fulfillment Department is a non-stop, ever-changing machine; yet somehow Kerin makes managing it look easy. Add to that the fact that she’s our go-to Direct to Garment printer, and you begin to wonder: is Kerin half human, half machine? Simply put, without Kerin we would be lost. Very few people could do what she does on a daily basis and manage to keep their head on straight. There is never a moment of nuttiness (of which there are plenty) that Kerin let’s get to her. She’s Camp Family’s knight in shining armor, and there isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t make us feel lucky as hell for getting to call her a member of our Family.

Without further ado, we’re excited to finally introduce you to THE Kerin Amit.

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What do you do at Family Industries?

To put it simply, I manage the Fulfillment department and run the Direct to Garment printers. I also do live events. I can pretty much do anything. DTG, embroidery, screen print, sublimation, vinyl, heat transfer.

Breaking it down, my main job is to work with clients in managing and maintaining their online store. We offer on demand printing for fulfillment, so when orders come in, I’ll either print them or if there is printed stock I’ll pull from inventory. And then I ship everything out. We can get anywhere between 40-100 orders overnight, so it’s always busy.

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

High waisted pants.

At the moment, what are your top three songs?

1. “Lost On You” - LP

2. “Little Bit” - Terror Jr.

3. “Needy” - Ariana Grande

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“THE OVER-SHARE QUESTIONNAIRE”

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On top of steering the ship known as Camp Family, Kerin is also an incredible artist. If you attended Record Store Day 2019 at Amoeba Records, you might have snagged a shirt with Kerin’s design on it. That’s right, she’s the amazing artist behind this year’s Amoeba Tape design!

AND FINALLY,

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN ONE GIF:

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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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Meet A Family Member - Phil McDonald

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

PHIL McDONALD

Customer Service Manager

It’s quite fitting that Phil is the first face you see when you walk into Family Industries. From his unique ability to make everyone around him feel comfortable, to the always present smile on his face; Phil is the physical embodiment of what we represent as a company. Whether your a customer who’s been with Family for ten years or ten minutes, he makes you feel like there’s no one else in the world more important than YOU. Despite the occasional crap we give him for being such a sweet-hearted softy, this place wouldn’t be the same without him.

We’re really excited to introduce you to the man who’s stolen all of our hearts, and might just steal yours: Phil McDonald.

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What do you do at Family Industries?

I work with our customers one on one to help them get their projects off the ground. From their initial idea, all the way to the physical, tangible product; I am there to make sure it gets where it needs to be, and gets there on time. I work hand-in-hand with people to help them brainstorm ideas, and make sure they get exactly what they came in looking for. If necessary, as some customers don’t always have a solid idea of exactly what they want, I’ll bring in our in-house art department to help with artwork and design. From there, it’s off to the presses… well, not THAT quickly. Because our day-to-day workload is often quite substantial, I am always keeping track of our production schedule, as to avoid any potential delays. I’m also in constant contact with the customer throughout the art and design phase to make sure they’re seeing their vision come to life. My goal is for the customer to have a seamless experience with us, and for everything to come together like magic!

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

Does my Casio F-91W count? Cause if so, DEFINITELY that.

At the moment, what are your top three songs?

1. “She Sheila” - The Producers

2. “Third Stone from the Sun” - Jimi Hendrix

3. “Vitamin” - Jamiroquai

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“THE OVER-SHARE QUESTIONNAIRE”

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Outside of working at Family Industries, Phil’s in a band! They’re named Punch Punch Kick, and you can check their music out here:

Official Music Video for "Licking My Wounds" by Punch Punch Kick From the debut album available now on Lolipop Records.

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AND FINALLY,

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN ONE GIF:

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Bella+Canvas x Family Industries

This past February we invited Bella+Canvas over to the shop to shoot a how-to video on screen printing and heat pressing vinyl designs on fitness leggings.

Our Production Manager, Mike hit the manual screen press while Phil, our in-house jack-of-all-trades, hopped on the heat press. Getting the opportunity to work on a video with Bella+Canvas was an incredible experience, and it’s always fun for us to help others learn a little more about our craft.

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO & BEHIND THE SCENES PHOTOS BELOW!

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Behind the Scenes photos

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UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Camp Family

As some of you may know, we’ve been hard at work on planning and building a brand new facility. Well, we’d like to formally introduce you to Camp Family; our brand new facility in Frogtown, Los Angeles, CA!

We know, we know… the place is a bit of a mess right now. We actually have a very good explanation for this beautiful mess. As of Monday, March 11 we’ve officially broken ground on Camp Family’s construction! We are giddy as hell to finally get started on building our new home, but there’s still a ways to go.

In our continued effort to bring you beyond our walls and inside the Family, we are going to periodically share photos of Camp Family’s progress.

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CHECK OUT PHOTOS FROM DAY 2 OF CONSTRUCTION:

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Screen Printed Posters

poster printing dept.

A behind the scenes look at the FAMILY INDUSTRIES poster printing department

We love screen printing posters. The poster printing process has a lot of similarities to printing apparel, but it takes a steadier hand, more attention to detail, and experience to the get final product just right! We always get a ton of questions about how the poster printing process works and why it's different than printing apparel. Our in-house team consists of two master printers, Joe and Able. Combined they have over 40 years of printing experience. 

Our poster printing department tends to work with artists who need fine art print runs, and bands who need highly detailed gig posters. This past week, we worked with Mollie Tuggle, an experienced designer and artist who designed an amazing gig poster for the legend, Roky Erickson.  

Below we take you through our in-house process of printing a poster from start to finish!

Step 1. check artwork, print films, and mix inks

We first check out the final artwork that is approved & received. It should have layers showing the different colors that will be printed on the blank stock paper.  Next, we print films that are used to burn the images into the screens. Screens for poster printing are much larger than used for apparel prints so we can print super-sized designs! Our crew matches the waterbased inks by eye, and we do several swatch tests to ensure a great match.

2. Start printing

Screens are burned, inks are mixed, and we're ready to roll. The decision of which layers to print first is determined by the design. Making sure parts of the artwork called "traps" are in proper placement helps us in working out the best order of colors. Our printing press has a vacuum that keeps the paper in-place during all these changes. If there are multiple layers, we pause after each is completed to let the ink dry before moving to the next one! 

3. next round of color

Posters are printed in layers.  Each color needs to properly dry before the next color of ink is applied to the paper. Posters are definitely a "craft" process and need careful planning in order to achieve the best possible look. 

4. prepare for delivery

After all the printing is wrapped, we let the custom printed posters air dry. Waterbased ink doesn't need to go through a heated dryer, but rather air dries as the moisture dissipates from the stock. After that, it's time to get the prints into a box for pickup or shipping!

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