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ABOUT US
Kate, 1992,
moving screens after flooding
in her workshops
at Hamble Point Marina.
Kate
CEO
Matt
Director
Daisy
Sales
Claire
Embroidery Operator
Charlotte
Embroidery Operator
Florence
Time Waster
Ben
Print Manager
Mrs B
Packing Dept.
Emily
Visuals Creator
Georgia
Print Operative
Ellen
Branding Assistant
The Story
I was 14 years old and lived in Winchester when I came up with the ‘Printing Crazy’ name, and thought it would be great fun to print personalised teeshirts for clubs and local companies, and use my love of design to create logos for people.
Obviously still at school, I dabbled with screenprinting ( I had an amazing Art teacher who spent his lunch times teaching me how to print using handmade screens), and soon I was creating prints for bags and childrens’ teeshirts. My next door neighbour worked in London and took my hand made bags to the market near where he worked for me, selling them at £5/bag, I had a range of clown designs, they seemed popular. I also had my products for sale in local children’s clothing shops in Winchester.
By this point, I had set up with all my inks etc in the old lounge at home, and used table mats inside the teeshirts, so the ink didn’t go through to the back! I made my own frames and had iron on stencils to create the logos, and bought all my supplies through ‘Creative Crafts’ art shop, where I worked after school and on Saturdays/school holidays.
It was clear I needed more room, I had an order from the Winchester Hospital for 300 teeshirts for an anti-smoking campaign, the design was very intricate and I realised I would have to individually paint the faces, the detail was too small for my screen making! My parents helped me get a unit on a farm in Sarum Rd, Winchester, it was a large room, with a large sink next door which worked well. I had a donkey in the kitchen for company!
I moved on to using UV liquid stencil film for my screens so I could obtain more detail in the logos, using a positive of the image I wanted under glass, under UV light to expose the image on to the screen, and then wash away the negative image that doesn’t get UV light. However, I was using the sun for this – I didn’t have a UV unit, no funds for that! So business relied on the weather a little!
I worked from this unit carrying out jobs after college and weekends for the navy, army and hospital until I moved with my family to Hamble, Southampton.
1990, I set up in Hamble, at Hamble Pt, downstairs from Cougar Powerboats. I was lucky enough to be given some capital input so I could buy a ‘proper’ screenprinting carousel, dryer and curer, and the business soon picked up, the yachting fraternity soon became my main income of business and I started supplying branded crew clothing to allsorts of yachts and companies.
I stayed at Hamble Pt for about 5 years ( until I flooded throughout ), and then moved the business to Unit 15 Mitchell Point, where we are still based. Printing Crazy soon had the requirement for embroidery, and since 1993 we have grown steadily to house 18 embroidery heads, and now offer all the modern printing techniques. I decided to cease the screen printing service in 2016 and move this business over to cleaner, faster more modern printing methods. Printing Crazy has now been running 32 years, and we are renown as one of the best branding houses in the business for quality and longevity. Our branding has been round the world …. literally!
- Kate Brenton, Managing Director
Around 1988,
Kate produced a teeshirt for the Winchester Hospital Anti-Smoking Campaign.
