It started with one shirt that had the wrong name on it.
Brown’s Printing House is Jeannette Brown’s shop — a small operation in Chicagobuilt around the idea that a printed thing should feel like it belongs to somebody.
Personalized work is not a product category. It is somebody’s name, and it has to come out right.
We keep the shop small on purpose. Shirts go through the press by hand, one screen and one colour at a time, or through the heat press for a full-colour transfer when the artwork calls for it. Our scented candles are poured, wicked and labelled at the same bench where the shirts get folded. There is no warehouse and no middleman — the person who prints your order is the person who reads the note you wrote on it.
That means we can do the things a big printing house can’t: fourteen shirts in fourteen different sizes, a name heat pressed onto every cap, a name printed on every mug and glass in a wedding party, a label printed with the date of a wedding. And it means we will tell you honestly when a deadline is too tight, rather than taking the job and disappointing you later.
Most of what we make goes to people in and around Chicago — teams, small businesses, schools, churches, families marking something. If that sounds like you, we would love to make your thing.
Screen printing
Water-based inks, one colour at a time
Heat press
Bonded transfers for full-colour marks
Mugs, glasses & plates
Personalized drinkware and keepsake plates
Scented candle pouring
Soy wax, poured in small batches
Label printing
Custom labels for everything we send
How we work
Three promises we actually keep.
You see a proof first
Nothing gets printed until you have seen a mockup of your design and said yes to it.
You talk to a person
Every order is answered by Jeannette — not a queue, not a template reply.
Made when you ask
We do not run stock we hope to sell. Your order is made on purpose, for you.
Ready when you are.
Browse the shop for something small, or tell us about a bigger order. Either way, you’ll hear back from a person.