THE SOUL OF ACME
Since day one in 1999...
Acme was founded on the principle of being different from the companies we were forced to use before doing it ourselves. We were tired of the bad communication, the late orders, the sub-par printing, and the complete lack of responsibility if something went wrong.
Those companies functioned as if they started their businesses on back porches because they needed shirts for their bands. …which is exactly how we started printing, ourselves. But we made Acme a business with the express purpose of giving people the experience they deserve. The one we never got, no matter how many places we tried.
We’re excited to help you with whatever you need, from a vehicle wrap to keychains, and from pint glasses to event tents. Oh, and of course shirts for your band. We do it all because we’re here to make your life easier.
And we’re doing our best to make the world a little better too. We invest in equipment that literally eats potentially hazardous chemicals with enzymes (crazy, right?), we prevent plastisols from getting to landfills and leaching into the water table (completely legal, but terrible for you and the planet), and we donate tens of thousands of dollars to animal-welfare, human-welfare, and environmental causes every year, amongst other things.
Anyone can make stuff. We’re doing our best to make a difference.
Le Tale D’Acme: A Super Fancy Story
Love, lies, deceit and MURDER! Okay, no murder.
Acme Prints was founded at the turn of the century (1999) by Dan Hargest in Mesa, Arizona to provide shirts for his band you never heard of. Instead of picking a… What’s that? No. You’ve never heard of them so there’s no reason to say the name. No, really. You haven’t. Okay, they were called Pollen. See? You never heard of them. Moving on… Instead of picking a screen printer from the seemingly endless supply of people whose products looked to be printed on back porches with little clue of how to do it properly, he decided to BECOME one of those people on their back porches with little clue of how to do it properly. But unlike the others, Dan broke through the confines of mediocrity to create what has become the humongoid supergiant you now know as ACME PRINTS!! ALL BOW TO THE SCREEN PRINTING GODS!!! Ahem. Sorry.
So how did he accomplish such an amazing feat? Stay with us, dear reader…
Dan acquired a table-top “press” from his roommate, who wisely decided to part ways with it after realizing how difficult it actually is to put ink on shirts well. The press consisted of a lazy Susan with clamps for the screens and two stationary boards to put the shirts on. And he bolted it to a wooden crate he found (see above).
With the addition of a heat gun from Home Depot, Dan began to print shirts for his band. His first “large” run of shirts was in preparation for a nation-wide tour with ska-punksters Less Than Jake and The Suicide Machines. The shirts sold well as the band made their way to the East Coast over a month, but as they toured their way back to Arizona, Dan encountered the first of many super totally fun surprises he’d receive from the world of screen printing. As the band hoped, a fair number of people who saw them opening for the other bands came back to see them on their smaller, solo tour. Unfortunately, many had the shirts with them that they bought at the earlier shows. The only issue was that the shirts were now blank. As it turns out, there’s a 6- to 8-hour time limit for ink to be used if it’s received an additive called Nylobond (this is where screen printers lol). “Oh, that’s why I had to use a power drill to stir that ink”, said Dan.
Soon after, Dan was let go from his job along with all his coworkers. The Phoenix branch of IKON was no more. He decided that the time was now to print for himself full time.
And though the thought of standing outside for another year in 100- to 122-degree heat next to a 310-degree flash-cure unit while watching the wind blow shirts into the back yard seemed super great, there comes a point when the back porch must be left behind for something with a fourth wall and more than 6 x 15’ of space. So the search for a house with a garage began.
While meeting with a customer/friend to get a new payment to cover a bounced check [pay attention to the signs, buddy] Dan learned that his customer/friend was moving into a house with a large tool shed/workshop and was looking for another roommate to help make the house affordable. Perfect!* So he moved in, and soon after taught said customer/friend/roommate how to screen print since business had increased dramatically. At first, this seemed like a perfect situation and Dan thought about changing the name to reflect the change. After much contemplation, Dan chose ‘Acme’, not because of the Warner Brothers cartoons, but for the same reason the Warner Brothers cartoons chose it. You see, though very few people realize it now, ‘acme’ was once a commonly used word. It means, the best, the pinnacle, the zenith of something. So with the advent of telephones and phone books, businesses wanted a name that said they were the best while coming up first or close to it in the alphabetical list of competitors in the phone book. ‘Acme’ was that name they were looking for. Consequently, nearly every business changed their name to ‘Acme’. This is why almost every business in the Looney Tunes universe is named ‘Acme’. They were poking fun at the unoriginality but we were too young to get. And that… is the rest of the story.
Though there was a new name, Acme kept the same business license it had since the first days as From the Get-Go Screen Printing. But sadly, the reality of this new arrangement turned out to be far from perfect, so the search for a new place to live/work began before long.
At first, this seemed like a perfect situation...
Dan thought about changing the name to reflect the change. After much contemplation, Dan chose ‘Acme’, not because of the Warner Brothers cartoons, but for the same reason the Warner Brothers cartoons chose it.
While frequenting his favorite restaurant, Veggie Fun, Dan developed an interest in the empty spot next to it, once occupied by a magic store (a store that sold magician’s supplies, not a magical store) and he thought, “how great would it be to walk right next door to get my favorite food!? And what a wise thing to base a critical business decision on!!” After finding that the rent was a bit higher than he could afford along with new housing rent, Dan decided to live and work in the shop to avoid paying two rents. He converted an old shower stall into a washout booth for the screens, and he could also use that to shower himself.
There was no kitchen to speak of, but that’s why God invented microwaves and Taco Bell. And let’s not forget his beloved Veggie Fun.
To be continued…
*Not perfect
8 years, 4 LPs, 2 split EPs, 3 labels, 2 home towns.
