We are dedicated to providing high quality screen printing services and supporting the DIY and home based screen printers in our community.
Our Story
The idea for Ocelot Print Shop (OPS) was born in early 2012. While traveling, two of our founders visited community print shops in other cities and were amazed at what a great resource they were. As artists who worked from home by themselves, they both wanted to be part of a working space that provided a greater amount of feedback, inspiration, and flow of ideas, and loved the idea of working at a community print shop. They were connected through a mutual friend to a lifelong screen printer who had visions of a space that was commercial but also inspiring to work in. He wanted his equipment to be used by more than just himself once his family shop was sold. So we started talking about what we wanted in a space, and how we wanted to be part of the community, and create community through printing, and it all started coming together.
After spending a year eating lunch together and planning, planning, planning we opened our doors in June of 2013. We had been awarded a $1000 grant through the Awesome News Task Force, as a newsworthy project that is happening in Detroit. That was our budget and all the start-up money we had. With that $1000 we built a dark room, a light table, a wash-out booth, and bought some basic supplies. With this and some older equipment, we had the bones of a print shop. We opened in time to partner with the Allied Media Projects (AMP) and the Detroit Future Media (DFM) classes (DFM teaches media-based skills to Detroiters for grassroots community work). The graphic design class applied their skills to a tangible output through learning to screen print. The screen printing portion of the class took place at OPS, and that was our first educational experience in the shop. It was so much fun to have people in our space working and learning.
Since those first months we have taught an Introduction to Screen Printing class every month, and we have now taught hundreds of students how to screen print. We have supported over 200 members to create beautiful work, and made countless t-shirts, posters, business cards, invitations, and many other printed things. From shop profits, we have upgraded our equipment, and were granted a Kiva loan to buy a brand new press to increase our production. We still value ingenuity and reuse of old materials and creative use of resources.
In 2015 we were honored to be a recipient of an NEIdeas award for small businesses. With that money we were able to buy new equipment for our members to use, as well as more equipment to make the commercial printing we do go smoother, faster, and look even better. We are constantly learning technical skills as well as increasing our flexibility to work with the changes that are inevitable in life and business. We have hosted several Interns and Artists in Residence, we are collaborating with other organizations to spread the love of printing, and always looking for fresh ideas and inspiration.
In the next six years, we grew and changed in many ways, and fulfilled our vision through lots of hard work, trial and error, and hands on experience. We filled our Shop Monitor Schedule with local artists who traded shop time for overseeing and helping other Members. We had art shows in the Community Space every year. Our classes were popular and fun, and helped a lot of people either find their footing in screen printing, or discover that they did not want to invest in screen printing equipment :) Through shifts in ownership and staffing, we were still figuring out whether all of this was really sustainable business-wise when COVID-19 came through and closed our doors.
We were shut down completely for months. Then slowly we began to come in one staff at a time to pick up on printing jobs to continue to be able to pay bills. Taking the virus very seriously, and dealing with long-haul health consequences, we decided to be flexible instead of sticking to a rigid idea of who we are, and shrunk our operations to conserve vitality and focus our energy into one direction instead of three. And this is where we are in 2023: We continue to provide screen printing services, and supporting the local screen printing community with screen services and press rental. We have learnt that COVID is not a simple flu that everyone can ride out without consequences, some of which alter lives drastically. We are not taking it lightly, for all of our sake. And, as we have already seen, the spirit of creativity lives everywhere: people’s homes and backyard workshops, and we are so happy to be able to support the work and fun of so many Detroiters. Cheers to another day and another way emerging from our rich experiences as we learn from each other!
We are located at 3535 Cass Ave, in the heart of the Cass Corridor. The building we are in has a strong history of fostering community based grassroots organizations. The Cass Corridor Neighborhood Development Corporation (CCNDC) owns the building, and are deeply invested in the immediate community, and its place in Detroit. We are neighbors with Back Alley Bikes, a Karate studio and an Italian Deli. Practice your Kiai with a mouthful of Canoli next time you’re in the neighborhood!
Kinga & Bayard