New York, NY, November 10, 2006 - During a special benefit for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation at the W Hotel in New York, Graco unveiled a limited edition Graco Mosaic™ stroller designed by Cynthia Rowley to benefit the foundation.  These are no ordinary strollers.  They have been custom printed by First2Print, a leader in large-format fabric printing services, using digital-printing technology for photorealistic accuracy and vibrancy. 

Typical textile designs are constrained to six or maximum twelve colors, yet with digital printing, millions of colors are achievable, and customization is a snap.  Through First2Print’s digital printing services, the lead time of sending a sample offshore for production is more than cut in half, taking production time from months to just several weeks.

“Typically, digital printing technology is used for samples and then many clients will offshore their final production yardage,” said Dani Locastro, director of operations for First2Print.  “With Graco, we were able to print 1,500 yards of a custom textile design, achieve a saturated black background — as well as vibrant prints — all within a few weeks.  And we were still able to provide Graco with quality textile that passed rigorous wash, wear, and colorfast testing.”

“The key was to get a rich black background, not faded out grey, and to be able to get the production yardage of a special custom design done within a short turnaround time,” added Evan Rosenberg, production purchaser for Graco.  “We also wanted to make sure that the hand of the fabric was soft, had a premium feel, and yet was durable enough for the stroller.  The benefit of working with First2Print is that they immediately understood the project, knew how to hit the right black color saturation, and had recommendations for how to get the project done quickly and smoothly.”

From an original stroller fashion design by Cynthia Rowley, the Graco stroller concept features a patent-leather scallop trim, a baby-blue polka dot pattern on a black background for accents, and fruit on a black background for the main fashion.  First2Print digitally printed all fabrics except the patent leather.  The poly micro fiber used features a special fabric pre-treatment from DigiFab Systems company.   Post-processing for vibrancy and colorfastness was performed using a DigiFab Systems DigiHeat heat setter.  In addition, for final color permanency, the fabric was washed.

About First2Print

First2print is the industry leader in digital fabric printing.  Located in the heart of the design communities in NY and LA, the company supplies digital textile design and printing services to customers worldwide.  The company combines today's most popular textiles along with using state-of-the-art large-format color printers, customized software and specially formulated inks to print the best possible fabrics. Unlike traditional mills which have a minimum yardage and long turnaround time frames, First2Print can deliver yardage in just days.  First2Print has a wide range of customers who use the company's fabric print services for prototypes as well as short-run wearable and washable production.  Typical applications include printing fabrics for strike-offs, short-run fabric and textile production, fabric and costume design, novelty print fabrics, interior design, and more.