Meet Neal White | Owner of a printing company

We had the good fortune of connecting with Neal White and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Neal, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
There wasn’t any grand plan in screen printing for a living. I started by learning to print with friends right after high school. Once we had some practice, and a lot of bad looking shirts, we started printing merch for our bands and that eventually led to printing for other bands and it just took off from there. A few years ago I started to work at a print shop and learned a lot more in detail about every aspect of printing. After a few years I decided to start my own company and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.

A few people in my family were contractors and I think just seeing them working for themselves had always been impactful to me. I think deep down I knew I would always do something on my own or would end up working for a touring band. I don’t really go on vacation but I do work with a band from Sweden when they’re in America. When Im with them I think of it more as a life adventure more than a vacation. Even though it’s fun, its not always easy and I love being on the road and experiencing new things with them. Neither one is a conventional life path but both feel very normal to me.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The number one thing that drives me is not having a boss. We have been doing well lately but I could probably get an office job and be more secure but I wouldn’t trade this for anything. I still have some imposter syndrome and think one day everyone is going to realize I don’t know what Im doing though but I’m slowly getting over that.

One thing we have been known for is quick turn around times and the ability to do lower quantity orders if needed. We’ve done some obscenely large orders for billion dollar companies but to be honest, its the smaller orders for a new bands first show that I like doing the most. I vividly remember being young and getting my bands first shirts and being so excited about it. It was hard for us to find shops that would do smaller and affordable orders for us since new bands don’t usually sell cases of merch. That goes back to being appreciative of our friends and being able to give back to the people that helped us get where we are.

While screen printing is our main focus, we can do embroidery and other promotional items like flags, enamel pins, koozies, tote bags and pretty much anything else you can think up.

I was very lucky to be able to have a few people teach me so much almost as soon as I started working for a previous shop. The two owners were kind of tough but were always open to any questions I had. Since then Ive been able to teach a few different people about printing, mostly friends, and I love seeing them succeed too. I want everyone to do well and hope they can go on to be successful and be happy doing it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Atlanta isn’t the place I fell in love with anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I do love it and would never move, but it’s a sanitized shell of its former self. It’s not a very tourist friendly city and I couldn’t imagine having to fill a whole week but for someone who has never been here Id do the typical World of Coke, skip the aquarium. Antico is my favorite pizza in the city so we’d probably go there for lunch and depending of who was here maybe hang out the Earl, who has the best burger in the city, at night.

Another day I’d probably suggest going out on the lake. I grew up on Lake Lanier and still go up there all the time, despite it being what seems to be a lake filled with dead bodies. After that just find friends to hang out with in the city and go to a show if there’s one going on or to a movie.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would have never even been able to begin if it weren’t for my friends. I started doing this because of my friends. At first the concept of how to print more than one color just couldn’t process in my head. My mom let me set up a poor mans printing area in her basement, that over time was completely ruined, and I spent countless ours printing and learning as I went because she let me use that space.

Once I started doing it for real every single order I had was from friends for at least the first year. It was mostly their bands and schools they worked for but I was lucky enough to get some referrals for some people and companies I still print for now. Luckily I’ve sort of become the go to shop to print for quite a few different music scenes in the south east and it wouldn’t have been possible without my friends, and I can’t appreciate them more for it.

We also like to give back to our city and community. Last Christmas we did our first Tomahawk Toydrive along side a local swap meet. Im really excited to be able to do that again this year. I was very lucky to have a great family growing up so its really important for me to be able to give back to people and especially kids who may be having a rough time. We’ve also done a few shirts and donated to local causes we think that are important, like Planned Parenthood.

Website: www.tomahawkprints.com

Instagram: @tomahawkprints

Facebook: Facebook.com/tomahawkprints

Image Credits
Kate Lamb @wildinlovephoto