Squeegee & Ink in Newbury has designed and screen-printed self-isolation themed T-shirts to help raise money for a local food bank, and local independent businesses.
Chessie Rosier-Parker, studio manager of Squeegee & Ink, said: “We wanted to keep our press running, but also raise money for the West Berkshire food bank at the same time.
“Once we raised our initial target for them, we decided to open out the donations to Newbury businesses, as many of our friends own local independent businesses like the barbers and the local pub.
“The idea is when someone comes to purchase a T-shirt, they can allocate £10 for us to donate to a local business of their choice. This caught on, and as people were buying the T-shirts and sharing them on Instagram, we continued to grow the business donation list and sell more T-shirts.”
Squeegee & Ink raised £160 for the West Berkshire food bank, and has so far raised over £550 for local independent businesses.
The company printed the design onto the Unisex Creator Iconic T-shirt (SX001) from Stanley/Stella with Amex water-based inks using its M&R Kruzer screen printing machine.
“The response has been great locally — we have recently featured in the local newspaper, and the mayor of Newbury also wrote to us to show her appreciation of the idea,” explained Chessie.
“I think we’ve won fans from the public, but also the businesses we’re supporting, who are asking for other items for their own initiatives now, like stickers and posters.
“We wanted something to bond our businesses together and give a way for customers to show support, whilst getting a cool T-shirt at the end of it.”
Squeegee & Ink screen-printed the tees using an M&R Kruzer
