When Josh Ford and Danny Ryan started making T-shirts during their junior year of high school, they didn’t know it would one day grow into a full-fledged business.
What began as an experiment in screen printing became Giraphic Prints, a business that makes shirts and other apparel from its Baton Rouge warehouse on Balis Drive.
Starting off with primitive supplies and working out of Ford’s grandmother’s shed, the two began making shirts for friends. When that evolved into work for most of their school’s clubs and organizations, they decided to take the hobby to the next level, said Ford, owner of Giraphic Prints who attended the University briefly before leaving to concentrate on the business.
In January 2007, Giraphic Prints became an officially registered, tax-paying business. Once money was saved up, Ford moved the screen printing into a shop on Nicholson Drive, and the company built a solid client base, he said.
“From there we moved to our current location near Perkins Road in August this year, and the business has taken off,” Ford said. “It’s definitely a step up from 1,100 to 3,000 square feet and three employees to seven.” Gallery: Giraphic Prints
The shop comprises a front office and a warehouse, where ink-splattered employees burn, paint and wash the screens used to transfer designs to apparel. Finished shirts then pass through a “glorified toaster oven” to dry and then packaged for the customers, Ford said.
Making shirts for businesses like Counter Culture, The Chimes, Tiger District and Princeton University — where Ryan is now a junior — Giraphic can handle graphic design and formatting as well as shirt printing.
In addition to printing official LSU merchandise, Giraphic is an official Princeton licensee and makes shirts for official University clubs, sports and internal organizations, completing several orders a month.
Ryan acquired business in Prinston mostly through word of mouth, Ford said.
Manager and University alumna Emily Bergeron said working in a business with employees all younger than 30 makes for a great environment. Three of the current employees are former University students, three are currently enrolled, one graduated from LSU-Baton Rouge and one graduated from LSU-Shreveport.
“It’s pretty laid back and a fun atmosphere that’s not really stressful,” Bergeron said. “It’s not like we’re in this firm where you have to get dressed up, and there isn’t a scary boss. The fun youthfulness at work is refreshing.”
Ford said starting a business at a young age was intimidating at first, but screen printing has had a good learning curve.
“When we worked with some professional organizations, I felt like a child among men,” Ford said. “But once we got out and started networking and making presentations and speaking to people, it got easy. But definitely, my knowledge level is on par with other professionals now.”
Starting out with friends and teachers as clients, Ford and Ryan were able to ease into building professional relationships as the business grew, Ford said.
“The biggest challenge was learning how to deal with difficult clients,” he said. “Now I know how to deal with almost every situation, but some people are difficult and some are easy to work with. It’s the difficult ones that are ‘sink or swim.'”
Ford said Giraphic has been well received by Baton Rouge businesses, and the shop is growing quickly — doubling the work done every year since the store opened.
Davis Dicharry, owner of Brew-Bacher’s Grill, worked with Ford to design shirts for the restaurant and continues to do business with Giraphic.
“It’s been a really good experience working with them,” Dicharry said. “They’re small enough to care about the customers. They’re not a huge company, and ordering is really easy.”
 
 
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Contact Morgan Searles at [email protected]