The Second Time Around

July 1, 2009

Rick Rondeau is no stranger to screen printing and T-shirt design. In the mid-1990s, he created and marketed the collections “alienwhere?” and “OOOH” (out of our heads) — lines that conveyed pop culture philosophies of that decade.

After a sabbatical from the decorated apparel industry, Rondeau has re-entered the screen printing business as owner of a new company, Rondeau Ink, Austin, Texas, which creates “fun, unique, inspiring screen printed products that make people think, laugh and feel good,” he says. Rondeau’s “get it om” line was named through the combination of a popular Marvin Gaye song mixed with the name of the company’s Zen character, “om.”

“Believing the world would [eventually] transition to a simplification, reduction type of attitude and recognizing the ‘Zen movement’ that was going on everywhere, I felt I had a concept that people could relate to,” he says.

Rondeau describes his staff as “lean and mean,” and says the true value of his company’s print quality is in the attention paid to detail. “We take great pride in being ‘old school’ in much of what we do,” he says. “We use a six-color Lawson HD-XL manual press and a National Equipment dryer. It’s very basic equipment.”

Keeping it simple seems key, although Rondeau offers his minimalistic designs on everything from T-shirts to stickers to coffee mugs. “There are so many great fabric resources available today, and this can make inventory management a nightmare,” Rondeau says. His company uses a variety of basic T-shirt styles and prefers Alternative’s eco-heather style for select designs. He uses STICKER ROBOT to manufacture the stickers he puts on the hang tag of every shirt, and also works with discountmugs.com to create coffee mugs. This is a new arm to his business that he hopes to develop.

The focus of Rondeau’s other lines follow basic philosophies. The “not from here” line focuses on being different and unique, and uses an alien graphic to execute the concept. The “less is more” line represents simplicity and reduction, serving as a reminder that having an ecological conscious is a great thing. “alienwhere?” is a line that symbolizes life’s cyclical nature.

Rondeau wants to help other designers and companies develop their own collections and ideas going forward. “If I could spend my days creating unique designs that made people smile, laugh and feel good and then help others do the same, then I will have arrived.” Rondeau offers design, sales and marketing consulting services, and his preprint lines are available at rondeauink.com. -- Jennifer Morrell

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