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Bayard, Stacey & Kinga

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Ocelot Print Shop

What is Ocelot Print Shop?

Ocelot Print Shop is a commercial screen-printing shop in Cass Corridor. We do commercial printing as well as offer a membership program where printers can pay by the hour or by the month to use the space. We handle all kinds of screen-printing from t-shirts to postcards to business cards to fine arts posters, pretty much if it’s flat, we’ll print on it. The more members we have, the more interesting our work as artists gets. We see people that come here doing really interesting things, things we haven’t tried yet. It’s a circular learning space and we are all constantly learning from each other. People stop by a lot and say hi too. We are very much a community space as well as a community screen-printing shop. It’s a place where we spend a lot of time laughing and a lot of time solving problems.

What was your experience in Build?

Being in class was really helpful– I had no concept of what running a business was like whatsoever. Delphia was my facilitator and she was just so laid back and calm and above all, encouraging. It became about more than just the curriculum, but that encouragement which was really powerful. It was also great for the connections. We learned about Kiva through Build and Build actually sponsored us to get the Kiva loan which helped us buy a brand new press for our shop.

ocelot print

 

“It was also great for the connections. We learned about Kiva through Build and Build actually sponsored us to get the Kiva loan which helped us buy a brand new press for our shop.”

 

What are your recent developments?

We’ve made a lot of investments into the business this year including: a new big press for production, a used (new to us) member press that’s been upgraded, a new exposure unit and a wash out tub that we bought from the city sign department. We are doing intro classes each month. We’ve also started doing one on one classes. We just got a new website, redesigned by our member Melissa Dettloff. It’s really easy to use, and it’s easy for us to use as well!

What is your long-term vision?

Our plans are to continue to grow at a sustainable pace. We’d like to have youth interns from Detroit high schools. We’d also like to have enough money to pay members to print with us. We are interested in making money to support ourselves and the shop but we are also interested in being a part of the community. We really like that we can say that we are growing in line with our values.