FAQ's

Don’t see your question here? Please email us at info@thehiveprinting.com with any question, concern, or service we can assist you with.

Our service hours are 10am-3pm PST Monday to Friday. Please allow 24 hours for a reply.

Getting Started

The best place to start is to send us an email or give us a call with your order details and we can create a quote for you.

 

In order to create an accurate quote, we’ll need to know:

 

  • Number of units you would like to print
  • Number of colours in your artwork
  • Number of print areas

Be sure to include a link to any artwork or design files you may have.


Please Contact Us to place an order or get a quote.

At this time, The Hive Printing does not offer one-offs or small quantity screenprinting projects. Our order minimums are as follows:
 
Screen Printing: $150 (this is roughly 10 to 12 one colour, one print areas tees)
 
Embroidery: $125, no less than 10 items 
 
Digital Printing: no minimum (white cotton only)
 
Tea Towels: 
  • digital print, no minimum
  • screen print, $150 minimum
Ideally, we receive your artwork in a vector-based format, fonts outlined, sized as you would like it printed. We can accept Adobe Illustrator files (.ai), Photoshop files (.psd), or editable PDF files (.pdf).

Screen Printing: vector file with any fonts outlined is required

Digital Printing: minimum 300 DPI jpeg, .png or .tiff file

If your artwork isn’t in one of the formats listed above, we offer 15 minutes complimentary design consulting to discuss realistic possibilities and any file conversion options.

We charge any additional design consulting services at a rate of $35/hour thereafter.
Projects take between 10 to 14 business days to complete, however this is dependent on garment availability, shipping, and studio schedule.

If you require a short turnaround, please let us know and we can work with you to meet it.
The per unit price will really vary depending on the detail of your order, so the more specific information you provide us with, the more accurately we will be able to quote you. For screen printing, we do have a minimum charge of $150 to cover the cost of printing films, exposing screens and mounting the press.

There is no minimum charge for digital printing.
We have a team of designers in-house who will help you design the best object possible. However, we’ll expect you to provide us with the necessary brand codes.

We offer 15 minutes complimentary design consulting to discuss realistic possibilities and any file conversion options. We charge any additional design consulting services at a rate of $35/hour thereafter.
SERVICES

We have a four station, 6 colour manual screen printing press. However, not all artwork is appropriate for screen printing. Generally, screen printed designs are 1 to 3 colours.

 

Screen printing is a beautiful and traditional way of reproducing art with vibrant, saturated colour and crisp, sharp lines BUT screen printing is not a digital reproduction. There will always be small variations and differences between the prints due to the hand-printed nature of screen printing. 

 

You can learn more about our screen printing services here.

 

For digital printing, there is no limit to the number of colours that can be printed. We recommend that designs are printed on light/white cotton. 

We can provide you with a digital test print. Please get in touch with us for pricing and options. 

We don’t offer samples of screen printed screen items because of the high set-up cost and time – printing films, exposing screens, mounting the press, mixing inks, doing registrations and test prints. This process is the same for printing one or one hundred units, which is why screen printing is great for higher volumes and fewer colours.

You can see samples of our printing in the studio and on our website.

We work with a variety of brands and can help find a product or style to meet your needs (whether you are working within a tight budget or have some other goals: sustainability, near sourcing, etc). Here are a few:

  • Bella Canvas
  • American Apparel
  • Gildan
  • Alstyle
  • Anvil
  • Jerico
  • Redwood Classics
  • LA Apparel
  • ATC
  • Independent Trading Co
  • Rabbit Skins
  • Alternative Apparel

Not all garments are suitable for printing and each method of printing has suitable fabrics. Screen printing can be done on a variety of fabrics: cotton, poly, blends, bamboo. Digital printing is best for 100% cotton, white and light-coloured fabrics.

We can also print on paper, wood, glass, metal and a variety of other materials. We love a challenge, and have screen printed on many ‘non-traditional’ materials. Check out our Portfolio to see what we’ve accomplished with our clients.

Please Contact Us to discuss any non-traditional material printing needs you may have.

We work with a range of professonal grade products in our studio.


Based on your design and requirements, we’ll work with you to recommend the appropriate ink, or inks, and printing methods to bring your project to life.


From our experience, the following materials work best with a specific ink type:

  • Metal & Wood: lacquer-based products
  • Garments: Synthetic or water-based textile inks



To share your design or project ideas, visit Contact Us  to fill out our form.

sustainability

Sustainability is essential at The Hive to achieve our environmental goals. We always keep sustainability in mind when taking strategic directions.

Our mission is to reduce waste sent to landfills by offering beautiful, customizable, and sustainable products for your brand to shine in real life.
Commercial textile printers generally use 2 types of inks – a synthetic ink, commonly referred to as plastisol, and water-based inks. We choose the inks based on the substrate (printing surface), client and/or project requirements; basically we chose the right ink for the job which is essential to ensuring a high quality and durable final product.

There is a common and pervasive misconception that water-based inks are inherently more environmentally-friendly but this is entirely untrue; water-based inks still have a variety of chemicals in them, such as binders, filler and other chemical additives.

Water-based inks tend to produce more waste water in the cleaning and require harsher chemicals to clean screens (which also must be done more frequently with water-based inks).

Plastisol inks, the industry standard for t-shirt printing, are drain safe, require less frequent screen cleaning (resulting in less wasted ink and water) and require less harsh chemicals to reclaim the screens. This is not to say that plastisol is more or less environmentally-friendly that water-based ink – each has its pros and cons. More to the point – it is important to choose the ink that best suits your project.

As as shop, we try our best to minimize our waste and are constantly trying to improve our processes. We do multiple exposures on both our films and screens to reduce waste plastic and water; we reduce our water and chemical use by cleaning multiple screens at once (using the least harsh chemicals that we can); we use energy efficient lighting; we separate and recycle our plastics and paper; we reuse wherever possible.

We go through a deep selection process, taking into account the design quality as well as environmental and social standards. We also wrote a code of ethics that each of our producer must accept. Read more about our transparency here.

We always prioritize in-store pickup when applicable.

gifting

Yes we do! You can purchase a physical gift certificate by visting our office at 222 Woodlan Drive, Vancouver, BC.

contact us

Please reach out to us at info@thehiveprinting.com, and we’ll make sure to get back to you in 24 hours.


If you would like to submit a quote, please visit complete our quote form.

shipping

For our online store: Most orders ship within 5 to 7 days of your purchase (*business days exclude weekends and holidays).

During high-volume periods shipping may be delayed by 1-2 business days.

At this time we offer international shipping to the United States.

NOTE: International shipping does not include duties and taxes. Your local customs or post office may charge additional fees upon receipt. 

You’ll receive an email with tracking information when your order has shipped. Please contact us if you have any questions. 

Free shipping is available for orders over $100 CAD being shipped to Canada. 

We offer local pickup to residents in the Great Vancouver, BC area. Please select ‘Local Pickup’ from the shipping option, or leave us a message in the checkout form. 

You will be contacted when your order is ready for pick up.

returns & exchanges

We offer returns & exchanges on all Canadian domestic orders when claimed within 14 days of your order being delivered.

If a gift card is used for a purchase, refunds will go back to the customer in the form of a gift card.

Still have questions?

Contact us