Today we’d like to introduce you to Rory Gilstrap
Hi Rory, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started screen printing in 2012 because I wanted to start a skateboard brand with a couple friends. After doing that for a couple years, I was gifted some screen printing equipment and a stock of shirts. Using these resources to learn the basics of garment printing, I decided to get a job in the industry. This helped me learn how to print professionally and get paid to do it, rather than waste a bunch of money learning on my own. Over the next ten years, working in and out of many different jobs in the print industry and others, I decided I couldn’t take it anymore and stopped going to my job, vowing never to bow to the tyranny of standard employment again. That decision has brought to where I am today.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Is any road worth traveling ever smooth? I could never keep it together mentally when I was working at a job, and I always used addictive behavior to deal with how much I hated being there. I want to say that my biggest struggle was something like bad bosses or stupid coworkers or unfair pay, but i think it was more putting my insecurities about myself aside and realizing I had the skill to do what I wanted to do.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a professional screen printer of 10 years, focused mostly in garment printing but with experience in skateboard printing, stickers, signs, and most other screen printable substrates. Small Dog is known for it’s high quality, D.I.Y. style of screen printing. Because I taught myself how to do the graphic design side of screen printing, all my prints have a look to them that you won’t find at other shops. Although every graphic that is printed here ends up looking amazing, the halftone images are easily the highlight of the shop. Each image is created with a method that I invented, giving them a look and feel unlike other screen prints.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
San Diego has radical skatepark’s.
Pricing:
- $25 for your 1 color photo screen printed on a t-shirt
- 12 shirt’s for $96, 1 color screen print on 1 location of the shirt
- 36 shirt’s for $250, 1 color screen print on 1 location of the shirt
Contact Info:
- Website: https://smalldogstore.square.site/
- Instagram: @smalldog_sp
