The Centre provides a commercial digital fabric printing and textile design service, consulting to large and small manufacturers as well as to individuals. The speed of this technology enables businesses to respond rapidly to new and changing markets and creates cost efficient opportunities for niche marketing.
CATdigital functions as the commercial arm of the Centre for Advanced Textiles (CAT) at Glasgow School of Art. CAT was established in 2000 with a Research and Development Grant of £661,000 from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council. The remit of the centre is to: i) provide cutting edge facilities for textile design education; ii) investigate the aesthetic, technical and commercial opportunities presented by digital textile printing, and; and iii) operate a commercial service bureau for industry and individuals.
The impact of this combination of technology, research and practice forms a key element in Glasgow School of Art’s developing research culture. The Centre also promotes the cultural and economic significance of design and its influence by disseminating research to a wider audience within the textile industry and Higher and Further Education.
Our small team regularly work with clients from across the field of Art and Design including Textiles, Fashion, Interiors, Fine Art, and many more. Between us we have decades of print experience, that includes not only digital but also traditional process.
We offer a tailored service that ensures our clients’ needs are individually met. This varies from project to project, but normally includes initial consultation, image capture/design development, sampling/production and if required we can also assist with product makeup.
Digital printing
Digital textile printing technology allows designs and images to be printed straight from the computer screen onto fabric creating exciting opportunities for customised design and allowing photographic quality reproduction onto natural fibres, such as silk, wool, linen and cotton.
We print with both Reactive inks (link to info) and Pigment Inks (link to info)
Advantages
The primary advantage of direct digital textile printing is to eliminate rapid protoyping of textile designs and products and eliminate the need for the traditional time consuming and expensive sampling process. It is no longer necessary to colour separate a design, enabling much more complex and subtle effects to be produced than have previously been possible. The carrying of stock , with the associated cost implications, is not required as designs can be printed on demand. Lead times and start up costs are minimal compared to conventional printing and quantities as small as 0.5 metre can be provided.