Today we’d like to introduce you to Travis Stevens.
Hi Travis, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
This is what’s taking me so long haha! Sorry for the delay.
Riot all started when i acquired some printing equipment. from a friend/client. I graduated from SCAD with a degree in motion graphics and broadcast design on 2005. I moved back home to Knoxville after graduation and did freelance design and video work for Scripps as well as other production companies. On the side I shot photography for salons and bands (mostly my friends) with the spare music video here and there.
I think around 2008, I did a album packaging design, photoshoot and music video for a local band and the singer offered the printing equipment up for trade on part of the balance due. I took the 1-color press, inks and 5 screens and they sat in my garage for months.
The band came back around when they were gearing up for a tour and the singer convinced me to dust off the press and we started trying to print our first shirt. After making every possible mistake imaginable we actually printed 25 or so shirts for him to sell at their shows.
Keep in mind this is early 2000’s and information about screen printing online was nonexistent so trial and error was the only way we accomplished anything. But for all intents and purposes that was the birth of Riot Printing Company.
A lot of my friends were in local rock bands so after we finished the first run of shirts business can flooding in. My other close buddy Philip (who I went to SCAD with and worked with at a design firm in Knox) joined the fold and we began printing for smaller businesses like MF Auto, and even celebrities like Jesco White (Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia)
It didn’t take long and we outgrew the basement of my Fountain City home. Through some old employers of myself and Philip actually owned the building Marc Nelson is in now, we rented the basement of that spot on Randolph St. for years until we started to outgrow that. Also important introduction, I hired a long time friend of mine Korie Clift when she moved back to knoxville and was looking for work.
In 2019 (Pre-Covid) Philip sold his portion of the business to me went on to be an accomplished designer at Oak Ridge National Labs. His departure made room for Korie to take on more and more responsibility and now I’m happy to say she bought into the business and is now our full time office manager and she ABSOLUTELY KILLS IT. I’d say she is single handedly responsible for the growth we experienced through covid. When most businesses were suffering and shutting their doors her customer service and tenacity helps Riot thrive and not only retain it’s customers but grow it’s customer base to what it is now.
We print for Yee-Haw Brewing, Peacfulside Brewery, Xul Beer Co, Baker Boy, Barley’s, Armor Gym, Central Cinema, Eagle Distributing, Robin Easter Design, WDVX, obviously Lucky and through her we did several awesome shirts for Everything Mushrooms and a killer spot in Harrogate called Gizzy’s Taproom,
We specialize in expert quality design, printing and now embroidery all in house and done right here in downtown Knoxville, TN
I hope that’s not too wordy and you can cut that down!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Covid was a big struggle, of course. We did a big drive and donated a lot of shirts to a charitable event that paid out directly to service workers in the industry that was promoted pretty heavily that helped keep us a float for a while before PPP and Economic Disaster Relief loans were available. All in all the only other real challenge we faced was growth. Hiring the right crew, with the right attitude. There was a time where we went through a slew of potential employees but we got through it and i’ve had the same base crew for years now!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
So being an art school grad, I love design. That’s really what made me want to print shirts. I used to design a lot of shirts for bands but never printed them. Sometimes I’d see the designs later and they would be terribly printed. It got to the point to where we were just like, we could DEFINITELY do better than that. Don’t get me wrong, we do a lot of printing that isn’t design heavy, it pays the bills, but the complex and difficult to print stuff excites me. We love to print BIG prints too. I invested in a full set of larger palets, squeegees and flood bars to be able to print shirts larger than anyone else in town. We also have upgraded our equipment to be able to print full simulated process prints (full color images) and HUGE on shirts. Other folks would gladly pass on that more difficult work but , we’re still young enough to go the extra mile to make sure we are doing the best prints in Knoxville or anywhere for that matter.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I love Smartless Podcast, it’s great and usually extremely positive in all aspects. I’m admittedly not much of a reader but i would happily support my dudes that run The Beacon House Podcast out of Knoxville, TN. They’re incredibly intelligent and also have infectiously positive attitudes.
Pricing:
- We have seasonal promos on our website that help newcomers to understand how pricing works and the approximate cost printing!
- For instance, 50 shirts with 2 colors on nice Comfort Color shirts would run you around 10-12 bucks a shirt!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://riotprinting.com
- Instagram: riotprintingco
- Facebook: riotprintingco
- Twitter: riotprintingco
