About
48 years of doing it when others said it couldn't be done.
DDM Group is built on a single foundation: the deepest working knowledge of direct-to-object decoration in the industry, applied to the surfaces and geometries that defeat everyone else.
The reputation was earned, not marketed.
Brett started in industrial printing when the trade was built on craft knowledge — before digital, before UV-LED, before any of the technology that makes today's work possible. He learned the fundamentals on flat substrates and spent the next four decades moving into the geometry that defeats conventional methods.
Oval, concave, convex, textured, powder-coated — these are the surfaces that send manufacturers back to the drawing board. Brett built a reputation as the person you call when something supposedly can't be printed. That reputation wasn't built through marketing. It was built through solving problems that other people walked away from.
The drinkware engagement is the clearest example. A major manufacturer had a decoration problem on a difficult substrate. The recommendation was simple: "If it can be printed, call Brett, he'll find a way." He found a way. The process he developed went into production.
DDM Group is the structure built around that expertise — a parent company with a family of specialized brands, each serving a specific market with the same underlying process discipline.
48 years. Four eras.
1976 – 1990s
The Foundation
Started in industrial printing when the trade was still built on craft knowledge — screen printing, pad printing, hot stamping. Learned the fundamentals on flat substrates before the geometry got complicated.
1990s – 2010s
The Hard Problems
Moved into oval, concave, and convex substrates. Developed processes for surfaces that defeated conventional methods. Built a reputation as the person you call when something supposedly can't be printed.
2010s
The Drinkware Engagement
Recommended into a major drinkware brand engagement on exactly that reputation. "If it can be printed, call Brett, he'll find a way." Developed a production-ready decoration process for a substrate and geometry that had stumped previous vendors.
2020s – Present
The UV-LED Era
UV-LED direct-to-object digital manufacturing changes what's possible. No screens, no plates, full photographic color in a single pass. Rebuilt on this technology with far greater capability than the screen-and-pad era allowed — and 48 years of process knowledge behind it.
USA Owned & Operated
DDM Group is American-owned and operated. The expertise, the process development, and the production work stay here.
Process First
We don't sell equipment or consumables. We sell process knowledge — the hard-won understanding of what makes a print hold on a difficult substrate.
Honest About Fit
If a job isn't right for us, we'll say so. We'd rather lose a job than deliver work that doesn't hold up. That's how the reputation was built.