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The Work We Do: Michael Grigg, House of Print

I’m Michael Grigg. I’m the owner of House of Print, 49 East Main St. in Riverhead.

We do custom apparel for businesses, schools, fun events. We sit down, we have consultations together. We talk about the art. We want to make sure that you’re looking your best and that you’re happy with what you’re getting, even if it takes 15 or 20 times to go over.

You can come to us with any design, any idea you have. We can get it done.

The first thing I usually do in the morning when I come in is check my email. Then I figure out what needs to be finished for that day in terms of what orders we have that need to get done.

It’s a daily grind but it’s a great grind. If we have to print 200 T-shirts, we’ve got to print 200 T-shirts. I put my music on, let it blast a little bit in here and get to work.

I worked at [East End Sporting Goods] in Mattituck for five years and learned everything I could from Mr. and Mrs. King. They are outstanding people. But it was time for a change.

I was always an artsy person.

I always liked to make things look better than what anything else was. Most of the designs I do myself. I taught myself to use a program called CorelDRAW. I’ve done some things for the Riverhead School District, Mattituck and Greenport as well. It’s all word of mouth. People want to come see the new kid.

I’m a Riverhead graduate. From coming up and growing up in the ’90s … a lot of my friends were killed. There weren’t a lot of opportunities here in town for minorities. My father worked here in Riverhead for 36 years for Sears on Main Street.

It was a place, you know? You went to Swezey’s. It was just the place to go, Main Street in Riverhead. It seemed like it got lost. I really wanted to come back to the place where I knew and loved for so long.

The best part of the job? Connections. It’s good to talk to and meet new people, especially people on Main Street and other businesses. I’m a people person.

They say history repeats itself, so maybe I’ll be here for 36 years, you know? Maybe 50.

“The Work We Do” is a News-Review multimedia project profiling workers around Riverhead Town. It is made possible by Peconic Landing. See more photos on Instagram @riverheadnewsreview.