Ollie Chapman tells Images how Make Good Print Co in Devon switched from a manual press to an auto with the first Roq E to be installed in Europe
Ollie Chapman has been in love with screen printing since college, turning his passion into a business, Make Good Print Co, 15 years ago. Until last year, he thought it “a bit of pipedream” to transition from manual presses to an automatic. But, inspired by other garment decorators, he invested in the new fully electric Roq E auto in October 2024. It was the first fully electric press from Roq International to be installed in Europe. “I never truly believed that we would be able to get one, financially or with the space we have,” he says. “But it’s been a game-changer for us. I wouldn’t go back. I love it. It’s my pride and joy.”
He started Make Good as a side hustle with his partner, now wife, Rose Williams. Ollie worked as a graphic designer, after studying graphic design at Camberwell College of Art in London. Rose studied fashion and textiles at Winchester School of Art in Hampshire. Together, they were screen printing onto both paper and garments from the outset. Originally based at a small studio in Peckham in south-east London, they left the city five years ago, just before the Covid pandemic. They now operate from bigger premises in Dartington, near Totnes in Devon. It’s only 12 kilometres from the sea – an ideal location for keen surfer Ollie.
Fashion & Textiles graduate Rose Williams
A deep dive into automated printing
Despite replacing nearly all their equipment over the past few years, screen printing remains the focus, mostly on garments but also on paper and other substrates. They worked with a string of manual presses, most recently an M&R Kruzer for nearly four years. “We were manual printing for a long time,” Ollie says. “The physicality of that was starting to take its toll a little bit. When you’re doing a big run, and you have to do all the unboxing, lifting and packing as well. You’re done in by the end of it. Over the years, I’ve had problems with my back and my knees so there have been moments when I’ve been quite anxious. I can’t really afford to not be able to walk, and I’m a dad now so I want to be able to play with my kids.”
After much research, he settled on Roq, turning to distributor I-Sub which was already supplying Make Good with inks. “I-Sub were really helpful and I was able to see a couple of the machines in the flesh.” He visited Broadside Screen Printing in Exeter, which has a Roq You. “It is a slightly bigger machine, but very similar in its functionality. This was the first time I’d been able to explore it properly and get a deep dive after seeing lots of videos. It was at that point that I thought I really want to do this and just need to figure out how.”
Ollie opted for a Roq machine because he felt it was more appropriate for the business. “It depends on individual circumstances. We print exclusively in water-based inks and some of the features on the Roq lend themselves to that. Also, we are quite limited on space and the Roq E is perfect for the size. It is compact but with enough heads.” He was also drawn to the machine as it is modular. “At the entry point, we couldn’t afford to have all the heads but in the future we can add in another print head or another flash or a Stampinator [in-line heat press] or an iron.”
The carousel has eight stations with six print heads. However, Make Good uses four of these as print heads and one as a flash. “Most of our work is falling in the one- to four-colour bracket, so it’s perfect for what we’re doing at this stage,” Ollie explains. “We can put it on multiprint mode so garments can go round the carousel multiple times.”
Print for Devon company The Somewhere Sauna
Merchandise for campaigning social enterprise Men’s Pie Club
Bigger volumes
He contemplated finding space for the M&R Kruzer but has now sold it. “I was sad to get rid of it. It was flawless but it was a struggle to keep up with the work. If we hadn’t automated, the Kruzer would still have been perfect. I wouldn’t have changed to a different manual.” He admits he was “a little nervous” to switch exclusively to auto. “I didn’t really know how I was going to get on with it. I had a lot of anxiety about how we would manage smaller print runs. When the tech was here installing and training me on the auto, he said that once we were up and running, we’d never want to use the manual. At the time, I wasn’t sure if that would be accurate. However, it proved to be true.”
Ollie says that the auto means Make Good can handle bigger volumes and print with greater efficiency and consistency. “I no longer get anxiety when big orders come in. I know we can do them and do them to the very best of our ability. And we can provide absolute consistency across the whole run. If you get the settings all right, and you manage your inks and your flash and your drying properly, you can produce exactly the same result across thousands of pieces. It’s something you would find more difficult to achieve with a manual.”
Most runs are now between 50 and 200. They usually have placements on the front and back, plus sometimes the neck as well. Recent jobs include one of 800 pieces and others with multiple variations in artwork and placements. “We are often printing multiple placements and doing special finishes that mean a 200-piece job might end up going round the press 600 times. With the auto, I’m not physically ruined at the end of the day. My back is very thankful that we’ve made the transition.”
Will Cousins working on the Roq E
A godsend from Peckham
Alongside the Roq E, Make Good has benefited from the arrival six months ago of another printer from Peckham, Will Cousins, who works two days a week. With a background in garment printing on manuals and autos, he has been “a godsend”, Ollie says. “I’m learning so much from him. He’s revolutionised what we’re doing. It’s been really refreshing to have help, not just from a practical perspective, but making my enjoyment of work better. Like me, he’s really passionate about print, always striving to be better.” The team is completed by Ollie and Rose’s five-year-old dog, Cedar, a cockerdor – a cocker spaniel and labrador mix.
Ollie has noted the rise of direct-to-film (DTF) printing and, while heat transfers are occasionally needed, it is not something the company is planning to invest in at the moment. “I still advocate screen printing in all circumstances if the volume is high enough, but if you are doing five- or six-colour sim process printing and the client wants only 20, it’s not economical. We are still able to do smaller runs on the Roq E: there’s a bit more set-up involved on the auto but the time you lose in the set-up, you gain back in production. We can produce screen-printed transfers in-house for certain things like neck labels or a cap or an uneven surface. Transfers open the door to new possibilities and can be used for sampling, but I just love screen printing and need to be able to enjoy what I’m doing each day.”
The production set-up includes an M&R Economax conveyor dryer and M&R Starlight LED exposure unit, although Ollie dreams one day of adding a direct-to-screen system – but “that’s a big investment”. Along with a Kippax flatbed vacuum table and Kippax drying cabinet for screens, the studio features two Natgraph drying racks and a Natgraph washout booth plus a Stahls’ Hotronix heat press and an Epson SureColor SC-T3100x for acetate. Other services include relabelling, packing
and design.
Make Good Print Co is still able to do smaller runs on the Roq auto, reports Ollie
Make Good Print Co aprons
Organic growth
Make Good uses water-based inks exclusively – Ollie has never worked with plastisol or discharge. “I’m aware that there are challenges, but it’s all I’ve ever known,” he says. It fits the company’s eco-conscious ethos. This stretches from using renewable electricity and biodegradable polybags through to recycling, using no chemicals in clean-up and using water-based and dual-tack pallet adhesives. To save energy, they flash and stack prints for batch-processing so the dryer is not running all day. “We have a strong sustainability and ecological drive. We are trying our best to reduce our environmental impact and our carbon footprint. It is a big driving force behind what we do and why people choose to work with us.”
With a focus on organic cotton and truly sustainable garments, Make Good tends to print on Stanley/Stella, Neutral, Continental and AS Colour. “We look for companies that have Oeko-Tex certification and other accreditation in the supply chain back to the workers who produced it,” Ollie explains. “Being organic is not enough, as they could be falling down in other areas.”
He worries about sounding “preachy” but says it is an ethos that resonates with many customers in the region with its culture of surfing, slow food and sustainability. Clients range from local businesses and fashion brands to design agencies and record labels. Most are located nearby, but there are also customers in London and nationally. These include the V&A, Universal Island Records, the BFI, Anthropologie, Frieze London and Urban Outfitters.
Given its merchandise and fashion focus, the company mostly prints T-shirts, but also works with tote bags, hoodies, sweatshirts. Also, a growing trend – bandanas. Thanks to the set-up, Make Good has also done work on wood and glass. “If there’s a flat surface, we’re willing to try to print on it, whether paper or fabric. Anything that can be printed, we’ll give it a go.”
Although Make Good dates back 15 years, Ollie feels as though the business is still “only in its infancy”, with room for continuing “organic growth”. He has no plans for any major investments and is focusing instead on how to even out the amount of work coming in, ideally with more regular customers. “Right now, I’m really enjoying running the business, trying to make what we do efficient and smooth,” he says.
Will Cousins and Ollie Chapman working on the Kippax 4030-OA table
