FABWORKS · PRODUCTION ARTWORK BY DAVID CRUEY
ARTWORK ENGINEERED FOR PRINT.
Got bad artwork? I make it printable.
FABWORKS is production artwork backed by more than 30 years of real-world screen-print experience. Send me what you have. I’ll figure out what it needs.
YOU RUN THE SHOP. I’LL HANDLE THE ARTWORK THAT’S SLOWING IT DOWN.
Customer files arrive in every condition. FABWORKS rebuilds, separates, and prepares the art for the way it will actually be printed.
WHAT FABWORKS DOES
- Artwork cleanup and complete customer-art rebuilds
- Vector redraws, logo reconstruction, and missing type or font solutions
- Press-conscious color reduction and production art
- Spot-color separations, printable halftones, and simulated-process work
- Underbase, flash, and registration planning
- DTF-ready files and original artwork
- Overflow production-art support for print shops
THE FILES THAT NEED A SECOND LOOK
COMMON PROBLEMS FABWORKS SOLVES
BAD ARTWORK DOESN’T SCARE ME.
- Low-resolution logos and bad JPEGs
- Missing fonts or source files
- Too many colors for the available press
- Poorly built vectors and gradients that need printable halftones
- Registration-heavy artwork and underbase or flash challenges
- Art that looks fine on-screen but fails in production
- Old logos rebuilt from scans, shirts, cards, or screenshots
- Complete customer-art reconstruction
SEEN SOMETHING WORSE? SEND IT.
BUILT AROUND YOUR PRESS
Tell me what your equipment can handle. I’ll build the artwork accordingly. Press setup, ink count, garment, print method, and deadline all shape the file that leaves my desk.
BEFORE / AFTER · THE WORK IN PRACTICE
Each case study will show WHAT CAME IN / THE PROBLEM / WHAT FABWORKS DID / THE RESULT. Real shop files and finished results will be added here as they are documented.
THE STORY BEHIND THE SERVICE
BUILT IN THE PRINT SHOP
David Cruey’s production-art career began in 1993, when he was hired as Art Director for Shirtique Screenprint in Walnut Creek, California.
By the end of his first week, the shop had burned to the ground.
With almost no formal training, David learned color separation by studying fire-damaged films recovered from the shop pulling apart the layers to understand how artwork became ink. From hand-cut Amberlith and Rubylith separations to early versions of Illustrator and Photoshop, his career grew alongside the technology that transformed the printing industry.
By the late 1990s, David had worked as an art director across Northern California, creating production artwork for event merchandise, motorsports, motorcycle culture, apparel, and screen-print shops.
During the 1999–2000 dot-com and Y2K era, David and his business partner operated DNA Design and Printing, a small Bay Area shop that became a contract printer for companies including Adobe and Capcom. With David, his partner, four employees, and his partner’s wife handling the books, the shop handled high-volume production runs that could reach approximately 180,000 shirts.
After relocating to Florida, one of David’s first projects was artwork for Lou’s Blues. More than two decades and multiple ownership changes later, that identity remains in use. It is one of many examples of artwork and logos David created around the area that have continued to live long after the original job was finished.
David went on to spend roughly 24 years with Tropical Design, while continuing freelance production work for local printers, apparel companies, brands, and independent customers.
Over the years, David used to joke that part of the job was “polishing turds” taking the fuzzy JPEG, missing font, bad scan, old logo, or impossible customer file and figuring out how to make it printable.
Today, that problem-solving has a name:
FABWORKS
ARTWORK ENGINEERED FOR PRINT.
The work didn’t start with FABWORKS.
FABWORKS is simply the name it finally has.
WORK THAT LASTS
Lou’s Blues is one example of artwork that lasted: David’s first Florida project still carries its identity more than two decades and several ownership changes later. The same production discipline applies to large contract runs and local jobs alike.
WHY FABWORKS?
- More than 30 years inside screen printing and production art
- Art built with the press, separations, and registration in mind
- Direct communication with the person doing the work
- Problem-solving that follows the file through to a usable result
COMING SOON: FabRIP
Film output without the bullshit.
IN DEVELOPMENT
GOT A PROBLEM FILE?
Send the artwork you have, the size you need, the print method, your press limits, and your deadline. Let’s make it printable.
Crueycreations@yahoo.com · 321-446-2270
FABWORKS · Artwork engineered for print. · A David Cruey production-art practice.
