DLH Screen Printing

My first “shop” outside of my mom’s garage came to life circa 2008, fresh out of high school. My days were spent hanging with bandmates and printing band merch. The shop was far from comfortable. I shared the space with a plumber who clearly wasn’t into cleanliness. His half of the shop was basically a pile of pipes and trash.

There was no insulation, no lights, no running water, and just one shared restroom. That same restroom doubled as my screen washout area after hours since the landlord didn’t appreciate a punk kid with long hair getting emulsion in his sink. Looking back, it probably wasn’t the nicest move, but I always tried to clean up after myself.

Remember how I said there were no lights? I screwed four halogen shop lights to the walls and plugged them in with an extension cord. Printing felt like working under a stage spotlight most nights. I’d even take one light down to use for screen exposure. Each screen took about 14 minutes. So, if I wanted to print a four color design, that was nearly an hour just for exposure time. Good thing I had a trusty CRT T.V and a PS2 running GTA3 to keep me company.
And that lack of insulation? Brutal. Printing at night in the winter meant wearing full snow gear. My business partner and I would take turns huddling in front of a tiny space heater, trying to warm our bones. One night we both fell asleep in front of it and woke up at 4 am, realizing we still had to finish the job to meet the deadline.

My third press (the first two were tabletop setups) was a 4 station, 6 color ’90s model Hopkins International. I actually kept that press until a few years ago. It was an absolute workhorse. I didn’t get a conveyor dryer for a couple more years, so I used two flash dryers: one on press between colors and another to “final cure” the prints. Or at least I hoped it did.
This was the era of massive full front prints. 20 inch tall designs under a 16x16 flash dryer. Let’s just say it was time consuming.

I think back on those early days often. Would I change anything? Maybe. But honestly, the way it started is exactly why we are where we are today.

Using our shirt - making powers for good has always been important to us 🥹 and we are beyond proud to have partnered with for this fall drop!

Mathieu had a dream to create a design that would share a great message but with some pizazz…and with our noggins combined, we came up with this bold, bright, colorful statement graphic!

There’s a couple days left on this presale, so if you’ve been meaning to snag your own tee or hoodie, find the link in our stories to purchase 🥳

We’ve raised over $100 for q***r & trans support organizations, and that’s absolutely incredible 🤘

There’s a lot of serious change and uncertainty in the world right now, and honestly, keeping a consistent posting schedule on Instagram hasn’t been our top priority.

But we wanted to take a minute to remind people what DLH stands for, and to make sure folks know they’re safe reaching out to us. Because we get it, there’s a lot of uncertainty these days about who you can trust.

Don’t Lose Hope is more than just our name. It’s something I needed to hear when I was looking for a future worth getting excited about. We get asked about the name all the time, and now more than ever, it feels like a message that matters.

To us, it’s a reminder to keep going when it’s hard. To speak up when something’s wrong. To stand with people who need help.

We like to keep it positive, so instead of dwelling on the heavy stuff, we want to share some of the things we’re proud to stand for:

• Supporting workers over billionaires
• Equal rights for all
• Standing up for people without our privileges
• No human is illegal
• Trans people have always existed
• Q***r love is beautiful
• Black Lives Matter
• Free Palestine
• Women’s rights are human rights
• Public lands belong to everyone
• Caring about people is not political
• Diversity is rad
• Inclusivity is cool
• Climate change is real
• Be the person your dog thinks you are

If that’s not your vibe, feel free to peacefully scoot along.

We speak up to inspire others to do the same.

We speak up so people know they’re not alone.

We speak up to find our people.

We speak up so we don’t lose hope.

- Rodney and team DLH