Article: Who turns a fairytale into reality?? Meet Steve!
A story is built by it’s characters, some that you see written about more than others.
But there are so many that work in the background, building the foundation of the story, moulding growth of the main characters.
For Uplift, our brightest background character is Steve, a sprightly, energetic artisan who manages a screenprinting business and wanted nothing more than to help us off our feet and grow alongside us.
Part 1 of an exclusive interview with Steve Woods (creator and owner of Imprinter). In this video, Steve describes his reasons behind supporting Uplift, a st...
We’ve had Steve since Uplift’s thumb-sucking days. He was our biggest supporter after switching to screen-printing and has remained there since. Without him, who knows where Uplift would be right now. He mentored us through so many details and opportunities that screen-printing provided, so that when we started, we had enough knowledge to get our program running.
So we took this chance to ask what got him to where he is now. Lets step into the life of an enthusiastic individual sacrificing his time and effort in helping our cause!
Tell us a bit about yourself
“As a kid I was just an illustrator, I eventually became a graphic designer and went to Uni and did all those graphic design things. My big thing was, I was just like, the full scope of production, I’m half an artist but I’m also half a business person who likes entrepreneurial spirit. I’m also a cook, a trained baker pastry cook and I always loved turning these shops into Willy Wonka chocolate factory everyday.”
Why Uplift?
“It’s a transformation, it’s not about learning how to print so much, but we are using print as a beautiful vehicle but what we are doing is that this is a personal transformation vehicle. We are taking these kids and adults the same, pretty much people who are little bit on the end and we are taking them through the process and showing them the commercial viability in the real world. And that’s why I work with Uplift.”
“… that self expression point is everything. Especially when we are dealing with programs like Uplift, where we are dealing with people in isolated communities. This becomes a process of assimilation, and it becomes a process of an idea becoming valuable. Even a person that didn’t find great value in what they are producing, we are showing them that the process of their idea is actually worth this time to make this product and it is actually worth a dollar value at the end of the day. So we are taking people who are previously in lower skill bases and showing them the process of turning their idea through to product. And that’s the difference and that’s why things like Uplift is just priceless.”
Why Screen-Printing?
“With printing it’s always in demand, when the economy goes down people need to produce advertising and promotional material and the produce new brands out of necessity to bring the market up and if the market is up, people are naturally trying to expand and cold market. So it doesn’t matter if the market is up or down, there is always a need for printing.”
“In this place, I’m the illustrator of a certain style. I love light and thinking in terms of detail, I have a story about my work. I like changing a market, changing the way people think. The beautiful thing about working here is I have people from all sorts of schools and all sorts of styles and my job was just to execute it. I know that I can’t do those styles and that’s a beautiful thing. When they start discussing their ideas, that’s when the beauty comes out. Printing needs to be done with a friend, at least 4 people. Someone’s gotta go get coffee, someone’s gonna tell you your colours wrong, someone’s gotta hold up the t-shirt, *phone rings* and someones gotta answer the phone! It’s about collaboration. The greatest artwork comes out of collaboration.”
Uplift has never wanted more than to give back to the community that supported and helped build us. Steve has done all of this and more, and since our launch, we’ve been looking to give back to him however we can.Arcade Screenprinting is a popping business that Steve is currently a manager of. It’s where Uplift has gone countless times to learn and grow as an enterprise, all with the help of Steve and his team.
Steve summed up to Uplift can’t be better defined than by this quote by the man himself:
“I was actually once given a Chinese symbolic name – which I could never pronounce or remember but it meant “dragon with a happy heart” … and in your case… Dragon with screens, ink and a dark room.”
Thank you Steve, and everything you’ve helped us with.
