Hutto graphic design business makes face shields to help with COVID-19 response

Hargrove says he had no idea creating one face shield for his friend to use would turn into hundreds.

HUTTO, Texas - A graphic design business in Hutto is using its materials that would go towards making signs and business cards, to help thousands of healthcare workers.

“I started this business when I was 17 in high school and have had it ever since,” said Drew Hargrove.

Hargrove is the owner of Fingerprint Ideas in Hutto.

“We are a design, marketing, and print company and what that means is we design pretty much anything that needs to be seen on social media, website, or print,” said Hargrove.

Recently, COVID-19 precautions caused Hargrove's sales to halt. He says it was around that time when he stumbled across a friend's post on Facebook.

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“I saw a good friend of mine that was a doctor locally. I thought it was a joke, honestly, he [posted he] was going into a procedure
wearing a transparency sheet that we used in eighth grade or in middle school,” said Hargrove.

Hargrove says that got him thinking. He believed he could produce something better and safer.

“We've got the clear [plastic], we have white polyethylene that we have cut down into one-inch strips, and together those literally make the mask,” said Hargrove.

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He created a face shield from materials he used on an everyday basis at his business. Hargrove says he had no idea creating one face shield for his friend to use would turn into hundreds.

“Within three days, we had an order of 500,” said Hargrove.

Since then Hargrove has donated and sold over 1,000 face shields to first responders across the country and even internationally.

“This one's going to Mexico. That's going to South Austin. This is going to McAllen, Texas. That one's going to Georgetown, and then we've got two orders. One's going to Venezuela and then one's going to the U.K.,” said Hargrove.

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Once social distancing policies took effect in Austin, business owners had to get creative to continue selling their products. 

Hargrove is creating these shields to help, but this also hits close to home since his wife has been a nurse for 16 years.

“She's been around for the Ebola thing, for SARS, for all of the stuff, but it's just a different dynamic that these healthcare workers
are seeing like this is something that's never been done and so no one was ready for this,” said Hargrove.

Hargrove says he plans to continue to make these shields for as long as he possibly can. He says he has bought out the materials for these shields from every supplier and hopes he is able to buy more soon.

“Just because we're not printing signs or we're not printing business cards doesn't mean we can't help in this,” said Hargrove.

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