Published at 3:34.23 pm, 10/6/2022
Modified at 3:30:07 pm on 10/6/2022
SOUTH DEERFIELD — While Dead Eye Prints, a company that produces customized T-shirts, posters and patches out of Alex Noonan’s basement, may look modest from the outside, Noonan went through a lot to get here.
Noonan started her company in 2017, making T-shirts out of her apartment’s kitchen in Hadley. Screen printing was something she first learned at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. She fell in love the medium.
Noonan was tired of her job as a technie and wanted to work full-time in her printing company. She quit her job in tech and decided to start her own business, based from her South Deerfield home.
Part of Noonan’s career change involved saving up to buy an expensive piece of equipment called a direct-to-garment printer, or DTG.
“Buying this meant I could never turn down an order,” Noonan said, elaborating that her DTG can print infinite colors and on a variety of products including hats and shoes.
Noonan stated that she is passionate about screen printing. However, the process can take a long time and there are large margins of error.
“Screen printing is time-consuming and frustrating,” she said.
Also, Noonan worked in New England for several printing firms before she opened Dead Eye Prints. Most of these were run by men. She also felt that working for male bosses was not something she enjoyed, and decided to open her own company. She hopes to one day run a shop with employees where she may cultivate a less stressful work environment than the ones she’s experienced, and where she can offer classes to share her skills with others.
Western Massachusetts residents have embraced her “leap of faith,” Noonan said.
“There is excitement and appreciation to have a local artist doing this work,” she said. “When you order from large companies, you have no clue what the quality will be.”
She stated that her equipment is of exceptional quality, and that each product she produces takes a great deal of work.
“I’m an artist,” she said. “I want stuff to look good.”
Noonan says her unique work comes from the fact that people are able to approach her with their ideas. Customers can also come to her for help in designing T-shirts. There is no minimum order, unlike some printing businesses.
For more information, visit deadeyeprints.com.
Bella Levavi can be reached at 413-930-4579 or [email protected].