Brandon Bassett, LDI Solutions: A 2025 WFI Rising Star

For Brandon Bassett, print provided an escape from the monotony of the retail world. “I’ve always been passionate about art, so even though I had no idea what I was stepping into and had no experience in the field, the idea of being in a more creative position was very appealing,” he notes.

And seven years in, he hasn’t looked back. Bassett started his print career at LDI Solutions, which is where he remains today, as the design studio production supervisor. He began in the textile inspection department, and nine months later was moved into the print and design studio by print production manager Katie Drew, his boss and the person who nominated him as a Rising Star.

A Problem Solver

Drew notes, “Brandon has helped find innovative ways to print on material that is not meant to be printed on, with Mimaki entry level eco solvent printers. This material has massive stretch, in different directions, from 10% machine direction to 40% diagonally. The material is also prone to pucker when in contact with the solvent. If any other shop tried to run this material, it would destroy print heads, and the inconsistent stretch that makes blurring impossible to avoid with a standard unwind. His outside the box thinking and willingness to fight through the ‘impossible’ makes him a valuable asset in the print industry.”

And figuring out that material is also one of the biggest challenges Bassett has overcome. He notes, “We moved to a much more stretchy substrate and it started to give us a lot of issues when feeding through the printers. The material would pull and bunch up, then the printhead would scrape right across it. As you can imagine, this was not good for print quality, and we were breaking printheads left and right. Katie and I were able to come up with a whole new unwind system that helps keep tension on the back of the printer steady through a run and to mitigate the pull on the front of the material. We’ve been running with very few issues, even less than on the old substrate, for months now. It’s rewarding to face those challenges that seem so insurmountable at first, but then you come out the other side better off than before.”

Solving those kinds of problems, and being immersed in the world of print, is something Bassett has realized he is passionate about. “I’ve learned how much more rewarding your career can be when you actually care about what you’re doing each day,” he says. “I worked in a kitchen as a teenager, and then did years of retail, but had no passion for any of it — and certainly no desire to do it forever. Now, I get to come here and make something each day that I can take pride in. It feels good.”

Looking Forward

As he looks to the future, Bassett hopes he can keep learning and growing at LDI, where he not only loves the work he does, but also loves the people he works with every day. Not to mention, he still sees so much potential — for himself, for LDI, and for the industry. He notes, “I’d love to be able to mix more design into my day to day as we take on more custom print work, and I’m excited to see where the industry as a whole goes as printers get better and better.”

That doesn’t mean he does not see room for improvement, however. Color, in particular, is one area Bassett wishes more people understood — both those already in the industry, and those just coming in. He laughs that if he had a magic wand, he would “give everyone who does — or is going to seek out — print work a Pantone swatch book. Once you get everyone speaking the same color language, you eliminate so many problems and a lot of unnecessary back and forth. Color can look so different from screen to print and from just different screen to different screen, so starting with an established Pantone that can only look the way it looks in the book gets everyone on the same page right out of the gate.”

Insight for Others

And for those considering a career in print, Bassett advises that first and foremost, they shouldn’t be afraid to apply to anything and everything print related, whether they think they have the current skillsets or not.

“I was running the backroom and selling rugs and furniture at a HomeGoods before this; I had the graphic design degree but no professional experience at all. I took a chance to come into something I knew little about, and LDI took a chance bringing me on with little experience but a willingness to learn. I think it’s worked out quite well.” he says.

Bassett is the perfect example of why the industry needs to do a better job of talking to graphic design students about the many opportunities it has to offer them. He stumbled into a career in print, and his passion for art and ability to look beyond the established “this is how it’s always been done” make him an invaluable employee, and one of our industry’s Rising Stars.