Images Magazine Digital Edition February 2019

FEBRUARY 2019 images 33 DECORATOR PROFILE Images visited Random Generator to meet the masters of marbled headwear Marbellous creations T im Petrohilos, owner of Random Generator, started out in screen printing ten years ago after feeling frustrated at seeing £40 -shirts that “weren’t that good”. His original manual press was located in the bedroom that he shared with his brother Benji – “He was living under a carousel, basically,” laughs Tim. Having moved out of the bedroom and, eventually, into a commercial unit in Tottenham, north London – the company’s current home – Tim has built Random Generator into a thriving business whose order book is filled with work from repeat and new customers. However, that’s not the reason why Images has braved a journey on Southern Rail to pay him a visit. Inside the Random Generator print shop something a little bit different is brewing… within a large plastic bucket. Enter the premises and the scene is instantly familiar, with a manual carousel dominating the print floor surrounded by all the usual paraphernalia of a commercial screen printing operation. However, the attention of everyone in the room is focused not on the carousel but on a large, black bucket balanced on a small table covered with old newspapers. A quick peek inside the bucket reveals that it is filled with a gloopy liquid. Contrary to first appearances, this otherwise unremarkable container is, in fact, a vital piece of equipment in Random Generator’s new, somewhat unusual and distinctly remarkable cap marbling operation. Floating ink The new operation came about as a happy accident, Tim explains. “My friend has a company, and we print his T-shirts for him. At trade shows, they do gimmicky things that they give away. The first year he did it, we printed the T-shirts and my mate who does graffiti sprayed the shirts. The companies would come up and say, ‘I want my shop name on it’ and he’d spray the shop name and they’d get a personalised shirt. The year just gone though, he wasn’t available, so my friend was trying to think of things to do and he saw a clip of hydrographics [applying printed designs onto 3D items] on YouTube and said, ‘Can you do that?’” Hydrographics, which is usually applied to objects such as alloy wheels or motorbike helmets and involves transferring film that is suspended on a liquid onto an object, wasn’t practical for a trade show because of the equipment needed. Marbling on the other hand was perfectly well-suited to decorating apparel on location and creates a similarly striking The i nks ar e fl o ated on the s iz e and g e n tly sw i r le d tog e th e r t o c re ate a p at tern