Some mugs…

Just after the lockdowns ended and we were once more allowed to mingle I organised a small Christmas Party at Pizza Express for my department at PlayStation. As it was our first gathering since the pandemic started I wanted to make it as special as I could, so I bought some tiny gifts for everyone. That set a kind of tradition for myself and this year I decided that instead of buying small gifts for the team I would make something. At first I wanted it to be a t-shirt but in the end I settled on making them some mugs instead.

The group I work for is called the Global Developer Technology Group and we are considered the Subject Matter Experts (SME for short) for The PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. GDTG covers many areas but I work for the Systems & Graphics group and we help partners solve technical issues with their games and also educate them on how to make games on our platform. More recently I’ve been concentrating on graphics. So if you were a registered PlayStation developer and needed to know how the GPU works on the PlayStation 4 and 5 then you’d be speaking to one of my colleagues or myself. This is a preamble to say that I wanted the mugs to say “GDTG Systems & Graphics Team” with some kind of tech looking artwork in the background.

Here’s the design I came up with. An abstract swirling line pattern. In this instance this mug is for one of my colleagues who works in the Global Operations Team of GDTG.

Once I was happy with this design it was time to print it out and get it onto the mugs. I’m lucky in that I have a dye sublimation printer, an Epson SC-F100. The image prints in mirror because it has to transfer to the surface of the mug and infuse into the ceramic through a high heat pressing.

The next stage is to cut the image up into the appropriate side and attach it to the mug with heat resistant tape as well as a couple of layers of paper to prevent the image bleeding through and imprinting on the mug press.

Then it’s into the Mug press that heats up the paper and infuses the dye into the ceramic of the outer layer of the mug. I use a Cricut mug press for this. It’s simple to use and not too expensive to buy.

The end result is a mug with the design infused onto it. Tomorrow I take these into the office and place them onto the desks for my colleagues to find the next time they come in, which should be for our Christmas party.