design dissertation. joe weaver 000666275/. graphic & digital design. anastaios marigiannis. university of greenwich. www.socialscreenprint/ ing.wordpress.com.
what i t means to pull print
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what i t means to pull pr A critical exploration of what it means to produce screen printed posters.
How have screen print posters evolved from mass production of commercial imagery into limited edition framed prints? Has digital design influenced the personal value of screen print posters?
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ABSTRACT. Printing methodologies throughout history have evolved with and conformed to the new digital technologies that are introduced. Screen-printing was once a tool for purely commercial creation such as the bus route maps in San Francisco. It was used for producing mundane items of functionality. It underwent a radical change of purpose when it was adopted by Andy Warhol, Rob Ryan, Roy Lichtenstein and many other similar artists, most of which were from an American background. They would create highly conceptual thought provoking imagery from its minimalistic qualities such as Lichtenstein’s iconic “Whaam!” which is on display at the Tate Modern. The new adaptation of the process was often met with criticism. The simple aesthetic styling’s, and the fact that it used largely as a means of appropriation of existing imagery lead people to question its status as a valid form of creating art and design pieces. However it boomed during the pop art movement and became a staple process for artists and designers. Contemporary screen print posters are very often objects of personal pleasure that we buy for ourselves. They are kept in frames and hung on walls through admiration and respect. Shops and exhibition spaces are dedicated to the displaying and purchasing of these prints. It has been born again during the current digital era and therefore brought new qualities and
connotations with it. Over time it has matured and become an object of which we, designers and non-designers alike, now hold with high regard. Which is in contradiction of the responses it originally evoked and the ways in which the process was originally adapted. Myself, as a designer, am a collector of screen print posters. My collection is made up of posters that I have been given for free whilst at an exhibition or gig and those I have picked up cheaply within my price range. I cannot afford to fully indulge myself in the new screen print collector culture because of the price tag attached to it. This affects my collection, leaving me on the outside, looking in at posters I would love to own. This could mean screen print poster collectors are of a certain financial class. Despite that I may not be a part of it, my collection of posters was born within the current resurgence of screen print. Making me a part of the new wave of appreciators of this process. In this paper I will explore two major time periods of screen printing as a poster creating methodology, the 1960’s in which it was adopted by artists, and modern day as it has made a return to the forefront of design culture. Through critically analysing the history of screen print posters and exploring its evolution, this paper will aim to understand screen print posters rise from quick prints crudely plastered over brick walls and it’s poor reception as an artistic method, to its current point of being a luxury purchase and a glorification of a simple methodology. Looking at how we are on the cusp of a return to screen print, based the current abundance of digital design processes and trends.
CONTENTS. Background Information. 9. Methodologies. 13. Definition of Terms. 14. History of Print. 15. An Exportation of Screen Print Posters in the 1960’s. 18. - Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn Diptych”. - Social Serigraphy. Historic American Screen Print Posters. A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Screen Print Posters. 27. - American Gig Posters. Modern American Screen Print Posters. - The Impact of the Digital Age. - Inkjet Versus Screen Print. Conclusion. 35.
L I S T O F I L L U S T R AT I O N S . Figure 1. End The Air War. http:// ribbonaroundabomb.files.wordpress. com/2012/03/serigraphy-1.jpg Accessed 7th January 2014. Page Figure 2. STRIKE. http://foundsf. org/images/thumb/2/26/M3-45. jpg/340px-M3-45.jpg Accessed 7th January 2014. Page Figure 3. Vacaville. http:// ribbonaroundabomb.files.wordpress. com/2012/03/serigraphy-3.jpg?w=900 Accessed 7th January 2014. Page Figure 4. Muse by Todd Slater. http:// musecdn.warnerartists.com/ugc-1/ product/459/1392_large.jpg Accessed 7th January 2014. Page Figure 5. Gold Marilyn. http:// classconnection.s3.amazonaws. com/788/flashcards/412788/ png/golden_marilyn_ monroe1317671446197.png Accessed 21st November 2013. Page 17. Figure 6. Marilyn Photo Portrait. http:// moma.org/wp/moma_learning/wpcontent/uploads/2012/07/MarilynPhotoPortrait-332x395.jpg Accessed 7th January 2014. Page Figure 7. Jay Belloli. http://foundsf. org/images/thumb/3/38/S3-191. jpg/420px-S3-191.jpg Accessed 21st November 2013. Page 21. Figure 8. Screen Printed Flag. http:// www-tc.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/ static/media/cache/f8/e9/ f8e9205176a69fea1d55ceaa57affdcf. jpg Accessed 8th January 2014. Page Figure 9. Trips Festival by Bill Graham. http://media.boingboing.net/wpcontent/uploads/2011/09/tripsssss.
jpg Accessed 8th January 2014. Page Figure 10. The Get Up Kids Live In Chicago. http://gigposters.com/ posters/139883.jpg Accessed date 30th November 2013. Page 25. Figure 11. Digital Poster Spaces. http://www.informationdevelopment. com/assets/images/Espirit_digita_02. jpg Accessed date 27th November 2013. Page 27. Figure 12. Bowie Glam Velvet Edition. http://cdn.shopify.com/s/ files/1/0071/5192/products/ BOWIE_Glam_Velvet_edition_medium. jpg?v=1367407988 Accessed November 9th 2013. Page 29.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Anastasios Maragiannis. For guidance in formulating questions and structuring the writing as well as for providing feedback. Gail Morrison. (Graphic Arts Workshop, San Francisco Bay). For providing a catalogue of names linked to the American historical screen printed posters. Vaughan Oliver. For allowing me to talk about my subject in depth and providing an understanding of contemporary screen print designers.
Backgroun informat io
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Designers throughout time have adored the tangible qualities of screen print posters. The limited stenciled visuals that displayed not only conceptual but physical depth from just the ink itself laying on top of the paper. The idea that a designer has physically dragged ink across a silk screen in order to leave the marks on the page contributes endlessly to the piece itself on a different level to its obvious aesthetic beauty. It’s a level of personal interaction with your work that is not often seen in todays design environment that has become dominated by digital processes. When the designer executes the piece they not only exert mentally, but also physically, in the pulling of the ink across the screen. In todays design society, screen print posters are objects of luxury. They are sometimes held with such high regard that they are numbered, so that each one becomes an individual in itself. They are framed so they do not perish with time like most print will inevitably do so. Designers and non-designers pay large sums of money to own these pieces. They are collectors items, “Print Club London” hosts exhibitions showcasing nothing but screen-print posters, that are available to buy signed by the artist. People who attend the exhibition can take the pieces home to add to their own collections. There are also various online sources for artists to “showing off” their favourite prints. Tested magazine has a “show and tell section on their website. “This week, Norm shares his love for collecting art prints from independent artists and talks about the screen printed poster scene.” (Tested Magazine, 2013).
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3 Every designer would want their work to evoke this response, to reach this level, to hold this gravity and to be hung on the walls of peoples houses and offices, becoming decoration for the homes and lives of the people it reaches. Pieces of the designers mind, deemed worthy of being framed by strangers, for their eyes to touch every day and believe is just for them. These are the environments of which contemporary screen print posters have begun to inhabit and the reactions that they create. The situations in which screen print posters are found nowadays are a stark contrast from its humble origin in the far eastern regions as a way of printing patterns onto fabric for clothing and materials. It’s first westernised purpose was originally to create items such as banners and flags during the war as every day items of no design
importance compared to its artistic uses today. Screen printing was considered to have been “Hijacked by fine artists”. (Vaughan Oliver, 2013). The word “hijacked” highlights how the artists took something that didn’t belong to them or their profession and took it in a new direction. It was not known for being an artistic tool and this likely influenced the reaction to their work. Those who were considered early adopters and hijackers of the process as a way of creating imagery initially had their work ridiculed and looked down upon. They took a risk, adopted a new visual styling and invested in it’s exploration. Using, at the time, a commercial process and seeing what they can create from it in an artistic sense. Only to have it be deemed too simple, and that it is not a real art form and that it lacked meaning. Appropriations such as Warhol’s famous “Marilyn Diptych” were met with negativity. They were considered rebellious rejections of typical artistic values. However screen print works soon began to find their niche amongst the vigorously energetic pop art movement, and their simple aesthetics created dynamic and conceptual pieces that evoked a personal response. During the same time period screen printing was being credited as a key element in the “Social Serigraphy” movement.1 These posters highlighted the opinions of those who made them, and the environment and social spaces they inhabited. This group of people, of the same social class, who were linked by their shared beliefs, now stood united by a single print that captured their opinion on social and political issues. It’s documented that not only designers, but anyone who wanted to be involved were able to visualise their thoughts through this process. They were able to bring their opinion out of their mind and onto the page. Then show it to the world, all because of screen prints ease of access. It’s simple execution became a vessel for the social underclasses.
“Screen printing gives artists the chance to create a piece that is far more interesting and collectable than the standard, glossy, big budget designs released to the masses, making each piece truly special”. (Kurosh Farhadi. FESPA. 2012.)
The rationale behind the designers choices when considering the band itself demonstrates how much of the event itself is injected into the print. This is one of the posters that I have bought. Because of the connection that Todd as the designer, helped create.
Further to the above statement we will need to consider if this is why screen printing has reached such luxurious heights in terms of print? It’s execution? The fact it hasn’t just slipped through a design studios printer on to whatever stock of paper was loaded that morning. Is it the cost of its production? Do people pay more because they know it cost more to create. It’s a quality product. Is it the places in which it is found? You don’t come across them as you move through your everyday activities, as you do standard forms of print. They are typically found at venues for performances, music gigs and other live events, or sold in specific retailers after the event in an effort to document it. The print becomes part of a moment, It’s a piece of time as well as a piece of print. There is a connection between the design and the consumer, because you and the screen print have experienced something together. It becomes a part of your history, as well as the designers and the event itself. “I wanted to make something that felt really grand in size that would capture the feeling of seeing Muse perform. I came up with this idea of representing the vastness of the audience by creating an interconnected image of the 12 animals in the zodiac. The Zodiac is based on a twelve year cycle, each year in that cycle relating to an animal sign. I was born in the year of the horse. The person to my left may be a sheep and to the right could be a dragon. There is a feeling of unity hearing a stadium full of people all chant the same lyrics.” (Todd Slater. 2013).
1 Social Serigraphy movement; a social and political movement in which crude posters were made with the screen printing processes depicting imagery and typography portraying the opinions of the social underclasses.
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METHODOLOG To answer my question of how screen print posters have evolved from a mass production of imagery to limited edition framed prints, I will aim to create argument through critically analysing chosen poster designs. Understanding the positioning of the piece in the time in which it was produced. It’s impact on the environment in which it was created, and the responses and reactions of the people that it reached. Understanding the influences of what was happening during that time period that informed the reaction to screen print posters and therefor how it was used. I will chose specific imagery from both historical and contemporary prints and break them down conceptually to understand the differences between the two time periods. I will aim to use various first and second hand research resources that will inform my opinions on the subject. Creating a knowledgable and informed assessment of the posters that I look at. Which will be focused towards Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn Diptych”, Andy Hanson’s gig poster for “The Get Up Kids” and Justin Hampton’s “ Glam Messiah, David Bowie”. Drawing upon texts and designers practicing during the 1960’s to explore my subject from the historical stand point. Visiting screen print shops and studios as well as selecting works of practicing contemporary designers. Breaking them down visually and conceptually to understand the current status of screen print posters within the design industry. Combining the two areas to form my own opinion and conclusion as to whether or not screen print posters have been influenced, in terms of personal value, by digital design processes and trends.
GIES.
DEFINITION OF TERMS.
Screen Print Poster : A piece of design, produced on a single sheet. Created through the screen print process of dragging ink across an image exposed onto a silk screen. Typically used by the alternative social classes and cultures as a means of capturing an moment in time, whether that is a political or social opinion expressed at that point or a physical event that took place. There are connotations of being a hand made process attached to screen printing that separates it from most printing forms found in contemporary design environments such as ink jet printers. Social Serigraphy: A domestic poster movement of political and social focus in San Francisco bay during the 1960’s. Of which 2 out of 3 posters were created with the screen print process. The movement has been credited as creating a culture of poster designers, contributing to the evolution of posters as a design methodology and the awareness of general public on that of poster design. This lead to the birth of posters being created for public events such as theatre showings and local music events.
HISTORY OF PRINT. “Perhaps it’s because print has been the world’s number one communications medium for so long we tend to overlook its impact and power”. (Anon. The Print Council. 2006). Humans as a collective are known for our innate need to communicate, to pass on what we learn from our own personal experiences. We are a social species. “Over time, early humans began to gather at hearths and shelters to eat and socialize. As brains became larger and more complex, growing up took longer—requiring more parental care and the protective environment of a home. Expanding social networks led, eventually, to the complex social lives of modern humans.” (Human Origins. 2013). Print, is one of the dominant forms of which we, modern humans, communicate. We use it to archive personal thoughts and understandings mainly because of its longevity and it’s sustainability compared to word of mouth. It’s tangible knowledge. We can physically pass on what we know. “The first known example of printing was found on the Greek Island of Crete, back in 1908” (The History of Print. 2008). Titled the “Phaistos Disc”, a small round plate littered in symbols. Scientists are not able to decipher the meaning of them,showing how much human existence has attempted to utilise print, as far back as we know. Our inability to read the disc2 shows just how much our interaction with print has evolved, we’re no longer able to understand the first primitive materials. Woodblock printing, followed as the next noticeable jump in printing techniques over 1000 years later, in 200 BC. The first of many forms of carving out reliefs and using ink to
press the mark into the paper. Including the Intaglio Printing Press in the early 1430’s. A much more advance version of the woodblock print that replaced the wood with a copper plate. Although the processes remained largely the same the etched design, rather than being pressed, was now rolled onto the paper to leave the mark. (Encyclopedia Britannica 2012). It was only 9 years later that the first printing press was born. In 1439, our ability to create communicative materials was revolutionised. The printing press utilised moveable type forms used to stamp, rather than a single etched image. Before this date printing was not widely accessible and pieces were produced in limited numbers, and were rarely seen by mass audiences. In the middle of the 1450’s Johann Gutenberg invented a method in which single movable lead letters were able to be placed by hand for multiple pages of printing, of which he used to create the first book, titled “The Gutenberg Bible”.3 This was the start of what would become commercial production of books and the first form of mass production of printed material. The repercussions of which were endless, and are still in effect today. “From the sixteenth century it became impossible for the illiterate to obtain either wealth or influence, and this has largely occurred due to the invention of print as a medium of communication in the fifteenth century”. (Daniela Lesley Evans. The Impact of Print. 1998). People began to engage with print. It was thrust into the eyes of the public. It required personal adaption. It was revolutionary. People began to see print as an object of which they could communicate with. This is the point of which print became an object to the everyday person. The first time people were able to purchase items of print.
At the turn of the 20th century, screen printing appeared in Manchester England, thanks to Samuel Simon who invented the very first screen print process in 1907. Derived from older practices of stenciling. A thick ink is mixed and forced through a stencil exposed onto a silk screen. Thus, screen printings original name of “silk screen printing”. There were various reiterations and refinements of Simon’s process. American, John Pilsworth, a San Francisco native commercial artist devised a way for screen printing to be used to create banners and signs when he was experimenting with ways on how to use the process to print posters. Until the late 1930’s screen printing remained predominately used for commercial purposes. Pilsworth’s method being used to create bus maps and advertisements for the new bus system in San Francisco. It was at the forefront of the commercial design industry. Screen printing was being defined as a functional tool, not an artistic one.
2 We have not been able to read the disc because of the fact that the message on it was made of symbols, that we cannot decipher as language has developed from imagery to letter forms. This object has been subject of many studies. Steven Fischer has claimed to have deciphered it and that it was a document in an archaic form of Greek. 3 The Gutenberg Bible is the first substantial book printed in the West with moveable metal type. Before its printing in 1454 or 1455, books were either copied by hand or printed from engraved wooden blocks.
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A N E X P L O R AT I O N O F SCREEN PRINT POSTERS IN THE 1960’S. The 1960’s were pivotal years for screen printing, these were the years in which it was adapted as an artistic process and brought to the forefront of design culture. Screen print posters began as a simple minded tool, an accessible methodology. Initially a commercial tool and some 50 years after the birth of screen print, artists and designers alike began to adopt the styling and processes into their practices. During the late 1950’s, the pop art movement began to gain momentum in America. Pop artists would include existing imagery from different media sources. Such as news broadcasts and advertisements. This new movement encouraged artists to rethink the processes in which they worked, and led them to look for new tools. Is this what lead artists to reach out and adopt screen printing as their own, but why? This is what I will aim to explore through an understanding of Warhol’s “Marilyn Diptych”. - Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn Diptych”. “The industrial studio he called the factory changed his style from hand painting to assembly-line silk-screening on canvas”. (Andy Warhol: Marilyn Diptych. 2009). Screen printing as a methodology was responsible for the change in aesthetics of Warhol’s work, a change that created a visual styling he is now famous for. Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn Diptych” created shortly after the death of Marilyn Monroe, is quite notably one of the most famous examples of screen printing as an artistic process. Not
just due to Warhol’s social status as a well artist and designer, but for the way in which he manipulated the simple visual qualities of the screen printing process to create an incredible opinionated, deeply conceptual piece on the life of Marilyn Monroe. He harnessed the potential of an, at the time, a printing processes that had become synonymous with commercial design and forced it into new life. “Warhol’s screen printed portrait of Marilyn—stylized and glamorous—draws attention to the superficial qualities of her legendary public persona and in doing so subverts the characteristics of traditional portraiture”. (Christies, 2012). Why did Warhol choose screen printing as a tool to create this image? The styling of the imagery in terms of depth colour and size, which it gained from the process in which it was created, manipulate the viewers perception of Marilyn Monroe and injected new meaning into her appearance. The level of depth in her face is minimal and because of screen prints stencil like qualities, it has been reduced down to simple black lines and simple blocks of colour. The colours are flat and harsh, accentuating and exaggerating on her physical appearance. The gold of her hair is a sharp yellow, her eyeliner is almost neon cyan instead of a pastel blue like she wore and the other parts of her face are made with similar shades of colours. Warhol is making reference to celebrity appearance being devoid of reality and generally faked. The qualities of the piece that were defined the screen printing process have added new meaning to the print. It is because of the fact that it is screen printed that we understand it as we do, and come to the conclusion Warhol intended. The image has been appropriated, and the original image would not evoke the same response.
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The print has been carefully constructed piece by piece, layer of ink by layer of ink. Like all screen prints must be. Warhol has delicately built this image and it has been printed to be precise. He is utilising the step by step process of screen printing to make a comment on the structured and fabricated identity of Marilyn Monroe as a celebrity figure. The physical process of screen printing has been employed to inform the concept of the final piece. Warhol has understood the limitations of the commercial process and adapted them to have artistic meaning. Warhol did not even create the portrait of Marilyn, but rather appropriated it from an existing one. Making use of screen prints ability to reuse existing imagery. Which only added to the conceptual depth. Warhol continued to make various versions of his “Marilyn” prints. He would repeat the same portrait over different mediums and in a variation of colours. However he maintained the same aesthetic stylings. The same lurid colours and simple structured composition. Only altering this to create rows of the same image. These pieces were made in reflection to screen printings commercial purposes of creating multiples of the same print in quick succession. “Warhol acknowledged his own fascination with a society in which personas could be manufactured, commodified, and consumed like products”. (MoMA Learning, 2012). Warhol again uses the physical qualities of screen printing to implant conceptual meaning in to his work. He exercises screen prints ability to quickly create multiples of the same image, something that other artistic processes were not able to do, to make reference to the throw away culture of celebrity societies. By creating multiples of
the same image in quick repetition he is lessoning the importance of each one, in his own work. In doing so he is able to expose his opinions on the way in which celebrities come and go in quick succession. Their fifteen minutes of fame becomes irrelevant. Warhol being the person to coin the phrase “fifteen minutes of fame” when being interviewed about his work during one of his exhibitions, he said "In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.”. (Andy Warhol, 1968). Warhol has used screen printings commercial process to create multiple images making strident remarks on superficiality and Marilyn’s media presence. The commercial printing process is a perfect tool of which to make comments about a woman who has become a commercial product. Warhol successfully transitioned screen printing into it’s artistic realm, but he wasn’t alone in his adoption of the process. Many of the pop artists around that time found themselves experimenting with it, but why? In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s America was on a wave of captivation with their celebrity idols. With televisions becoming a common house hold item, being able to view these media figures in their own homes lead to a newly found idolisation of them. The ample amount of developing pop artists, such as Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist and Richard Hamilton took advantage of this culture of celebrity worship. Creating various prints using well known imagery across different mediums. The adaption of screen printing by artists as an artistic tool was done so in order to make references to the media sodden culture of commercial imagery. The artists embraced screen printing as a commercial printing process and turned it on its head, subverting its meaning. With screen printing being known as a commercial process and the society
around these artists becoming more and more focused towards these commercial designs and media figures they were able to repurpose the process and the imagery it was associated with. Creating pieces of art that rejected what it had become and what it was known for. This was the artists reaction to the world around them becoming industrialised and media focused. They were able to get on board with the new printing method, but whilst doing so they were also able to take and appropriate imagery of which they felt was meaningless. There by creating artistic pieces containing a deep conceptual message. “Twenty of Warhol’s paintings are consigned to the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. Reporting a negative reaction to his work she cancels a planned solo exhibition for December� (The Warhol Effect 2012). Critics commented that these artists and designers had sold out by adopting this commercial process. That it had no place as an artistic tool. By using imagery from media sources, even going as far as to include brand names in their work they were considered far too commercial, were only being used for profit and to gain attention from the same media figures of which the prints appropriated. How ever, the use of screen printing as an artistic piece was simply the artists moving with the time they were in. The first resurgence of screen print as an art tool was born from a forward movement of accepting that culture had evolved. Getting on board with it and bringing it into their own lives. It was the first time in which a commercial design could be considered a piece of art. Considering this, it could be argued as an object of graphic design. Commercial art of great importance. Communicating a message through colour, space and image.
- Social Serigraphy. Historical American Screen Print Posters.
“Posters are one of the most historically political, inherently democratic forms of visual art. In the 1960s and ’70s, the Bay Area was the ultimate hub for the emerging art of serigraphy”. (Michael Rossman. 2007). Around the same time in which Warhol was exploiting the screen printing process. A social movement driven entirely by poster designs was taking place in the San Francisco Bay Area. A movement centered around the action of printing poster designs highlighting the political and social opinion of the different classes of society. “The poster movement has flourished most vigorously in the San Francisco Bay Area, where more than 25,000 designs appeared during its first two decades. Silkscreened work accounted for one design in three, in part for technical reasons. Serigraphy enables anyone to produce vividly-colored, large posters in modest quantities. Anywhere quickly and relatively cheaply, with little equipment and training”. (Michael Rossman. 2007). Why was screen print so essential to the rapid personal expression of this movement? Through an understanding of it’s engagement within the San Francisco culture the following chapter will aim to answer this question. A series of local community workshops4 were set up by designers in the Bay Area, inviting people to join and giving them the chance to print for themselves. This raised awareness of design, and screen printing as a printing methodology. Whilst doing so increased the importance of them both in an everyday environment. This lead to a new wave of designers, who through attending the classes were now producing work of their own.
4 Off the back of the unrest of the civil rights movement in America during the late 1960s the first workshop was formed at the University of California. In these workshops, a trained designer worked with a small group that involved other young artists and staff members, how ever it was mostly untrained student volunteers, who helped with printing and attempted their own first designs. The workshops would sometimes produce up to 50 new posters.
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The Social Serigraphy movement, in combination with screen prints ease of access created new designers and therefor more posters. Aesthetically, the prints were crude, the majority of which would be comprised of harsh lines and shapes. They were in no way sophisticated, although to screen print in this time period meant that you were socially aware and opinionated. “Their strongest posters echoed the recent French student work, yet went beyond it, not being bound to illustrate slogans chosen by committees, with taut, brutal images that explained themselves -- the upraised fist surmounting the ivory tower , the club dripping blood spelling "education" (Michael Rossman. 2007). The Social Serigraphy movement was a hub for people who did not like the world in which they lived and wanted to express their own thoughts and feelings in contrast to that of the media, or government controlled sources. Screen printing, at this time, had acquired all these new connotations. It was evolving beyond its initial means not only physically but conceptually.
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Not only was screen printing now being used for artistic execution and being hung in art galleries it was now being explored as a tool for designers. The results of which were being plastered across walls through out San Francisco. Despite the fact that Warhol was exhibiting his pieces in galleries and the San Francisco native designers were exhibiting theirs in social spaces such as parks and street corners, the reasons of which both chose screen print was very much the same. Much like how Warhol took to screen printing as a way to infiltrate the commercially vibrant culture that had evolved around him the Social Serigraphers were appropriating the tool to create commercially produced opinions on the industrialisation of their
country. They created posters of antiwar statements and imagery through factory like production. Print after print like Warhol did, they took something that was being used for, in their minds, a negative outcome and injected their own meaning into it. Creating pieces that went against screen prints original roots and gave it new life. Using the industrial processes to make remarks about the industrial mind frame of the government, of which they were under, when it came to violent wars going on around them. Screen printing was being used to create flags and other print objects for the wars in this era. “Here in America, silk screening became mainstream during the first World War when it was used for mass printing military flags, posters and banners. Almost anyone who could print up the 2 color flag on a white piece of cloth had a job.” (The Real History of Screen printing 2013). “Beginning in the 1960s in San Francisco with the birth of the dance concert, a rock poster accompanied almost every show that was put on during that era. Soon, people began pulling the posters off of the telephone poles, almost as quickly as they were put up, and promoters such as Bill Graham started to give them out at the end of his shows to advertise the next week's show. The art, both beautiful and edgy, closely parallels the changes in American culture throughout the decades.” (Gary Grimshaw. American Artifact. 2009). With the idea that making posters was something worth teaching, and community classes being held to create more designers. Poster design flourished through out the 60s and posters were printed for almost every event that was happening. This, although reminiscent of screen prints original commercial purposes, allowed for designers to create art work and beautiful designs that brought the
attention of passerby’s to the poster. It was screen printings birth into the design world, to be worked with not just by artists such as Andy Warhol but every day designers who wanted to be a part of the new movement. Screen printing helped catapult poster design to the forefront of the public eye and captivated designers along the way. Through out this time period screen printing underwent a change. Due to the fact it was now being used in every day situations and environments. It was the people who were willing to take risks and wanting to make an impact that chose screen printing as their means of communication. It’s rise to a position of artistic value was created from the designers wanting to take it away from its commercially controlled roots and change its purpose. It was established as a cheap and yet conceptually rich means of producing artwork. commercially controlled roots and change its purpose. It was established as a cheap and yet conceptually rich means of producing artwork.
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A C R I T I C A L A N A LY S I S O F CONTEMPORARY SCREEN PRINT POSTERS. As time has passed and technology has evolved screen printing has remained a tool for designers. In terms of commercial purposes it has been replaced the various advances in printing between the 1960s and modern day. How ever, screen printing was not always at the forefront of the design environment. Only in recent years has it made a return. - American Gig Posters. Modern American Screen Print Posters. “Today, America is seeing a resurgence in this art form brought upon by the popularity of websites like GigPosters. com, and the ease of screen printing. Artists like EMEK, Tara McPherson, and Jay Ryan are creating beautiful works
of art for contemporary groups like The Decemberists and Death Cab For Cutie.” In modern America, in similar places to those of which the Social Serigraphers would have worked, there has been a massive return to screen print. An inspired homage to the work from the 60’s, but born from entirely different reasons. It is an example of the fact that we are in the middle of a resurgence of screen printing, but where has it come from? Unlike the Pop Artists who adopted the processes as a means of getting on board with the commercial world around them, the American Gig Poster movement is a reactionary trend. There is a culture of people who feel like the digital era
has lessoned their control over their own work. They want a return to the hand made. Their works are a throwback to the times in which the designer expressed themselves not only through the visual of the design, but also its execution. The return to screen printing has been born from a frame of mind, an attitude, and an appreciation for the physical beauty that can be found off screen. “It wasn’t just the economy of screen printing that appealed to me but also the culture: the kids who were burning screens in their bathrooms and printing in their bedrooms”. (Mike Perry. 2011. P13). A group of people, designers artists and illustrators, with an appreciation for music and wanting to do justice to the bands they believed in chose screen printing as their tool to visualise the sounds they heard. People such as EMEK, Tara McPherson and Jay Ryan are creating contemporary reflections of historical screen prints. In order to capture the theme, the sound, the psychology and genre of the bands that they approach for work.
serif fonts clearly depicting the name of the band and nothing more. Despite being a promotional piece, the type that explains the date and location of the gig is the least prominent part of the piece. This suggests that it’s importance and focus didn’t lie within the actual promotion of the gig but as an artistic piece that would capture the expression and mood of the show. This enables it to become a valuable and emotional memory for those who were there as opposed to a factual piece of communication to get people to go to the gig. Is this the new screen print?
In a similar sense to the Social Serigraphers community meetings to create poster art, an event run by the API (American Poster Institute) entitled “Flat Stock” now takes place annually to showcase the best of American screen printed poster design. There is a vast community of designers and consumers that are energising the new American Poster movement. “Some of the best illustrators I know ended up going into things like roofing, because they Adam Hanson’s limited edition of 40 couldn’t make a living doing illustration screen print promoting The Get Up work anymore, and now because of Kids gig in his home town of Chicago these gig posters and this poster thing is an great example of contemporary we have an entire new generation of American Gig posters. As the social American illustration”. (Art Chantry. serigraphers were an anti government American Artifact. 2009). Screen movement the current wave of American printing is once again finding its niche in gig posters centre around the punk, the American design culture, carving a rock and indie music culture. Similarly new legacy from its first resurgence, and themed with the dramatised expression playing off the expanding sea of digital of personal opinions and emotions. designers to create a new environment There for, to some extent, the imagery for an appreciation of the physical. and some aesthetic stylings have been retained from the historical poster - The Impact of the Digital Age. designs of the 1960‘s, such as the sharp contrasted colours and rough “Posters are trying to survive in a world textured papers. However, despite the where they have fewer and fewer places similar themes Hanson has clearly been to exist in public space, and they have influenced by modern trends. The crude become smaller and smaller”. (Yann lines and aggressive messaging have Legendre. 2012. P122). The digital been replaced by neat curves and san ages impact on print has been well
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documented. We are considered to be in a post-physical era. The movement to screen based design and screen based information has lessened the use of print dramatically. Newspapers and books have been replaced in large by digital versions. This has had a knock on effect on poster design. Places in which posters would once existed have been renovated to house digital screens. Which allows multiple advertisements, information and messages to be displayed and changed without the need to reprint. There is less of a call for paper based posters as points of information. What with digital posters being cheaper to produce an infinite amount of. As well as the fact that they can be installed in any of the multitude of digital screens now found across big cities. “In a recent survey undertaken by the company into consumer behavior, half of its panel thought that technology on the move was important, and 45 percent use their mobile phone to access the internet – figures which increase to 66 and 50 percent respectively when counting Londoners only. A sensible level of animation on a digital poster increases attention by up to 28 percent, and some sites in malls were
viewed for twice as long as six-sheets in comparable locations.” (James Matthew-Paul. Output Magazine. 2011). Studies have shown that the original print poster, in terms of its function of communicating a message, has been show to be far less efficient than its digital successor in todays modern and fast moving consumer life styles. Does this mean that print posters are dead? Having lost at being functional objects to digital posters, have screen printed posters been allowed to evolve into objects of form rather than functionality. Are they now allowed to be objects that are entirely devoted to visual beauty rather than the communication of a message from an advertisement. When print posters are still used today, they face new rules and regulations regarding where they can be placed, stifling their ability to reach mass audiences as digital posters do. It has been deemed an “environmental crime” to put up posters on public and private properties. Some councils will go as far as to impose a fine for those caught publicly plastering posters to walls. On the spot, 50-70 pounds for fly posting. If the case is taken to court a massive 200-250 pounds per poster. Areas such as Brick Lane, in with the plastering of posters is not controlled, breathe new life into poster art. Designers gather in areas of freedom, where the putting up of posters is not only allowed but encouraged. A slew of designers display their work proudly around the streets. The events they promote are advertised correctly and strongly despite being amongst thousands of others adverts for similar events. The posters have become part of the local culture, as much as the events are. Despite the digital design revolution and the decrease in mass production of paper based poster designs, paper manufacturing company GFSmith’s most
profitable year to date was 2012. GFSmith provide bespoke high quality papers that are used predominantly for one off, or limited edition, prints. This would indicate that designers are choosing to create print work that is more exclusive and extraordinary in its physical qualities. The information gathered demonstrates the fact that print has evolved. Potentially to adapt to its new positioning in the design environment with the introduction of digital posters. We are seeing more unique, high quality luxury prints as opposed to the mass production of cheap prints. With digital design providing the fast pace production of information, print has been allowed to explore new ground. It is no longer required to fulfill the role of being easily accessible and cheap to acquire. Now there is less need for mass production of poster designs, they are being printed in smaller numbers. This in combination with the better quality of paper, that is able to be used because of the smaller batches meaning a smaller print cost, is creating posters that are rare and almost fragile in their individuality. Limited, numbered and everyone one a original and personal event. In response to the digital era globalising design and making everything unified, poster designers have been began to create entirely unique pieces of work. Designers are responding to the digitisation of their craft by going against it. Now, print has more conceptual value than it ever. The Flood Gallery, a boutique gallery store in Greenwich known for its limited edition posters, charges £120 for a single limited edition screen print of a poster of David Bowie by artist Justin Hampton. The piece is a limited edition that was commissioned by the The Flood Gallery themselves, 18x24”, a signed and numbered edition of only 40 pieces and printed on Gold
Velvet paper. This piece highlights the potential of screen printing from a financial point. As well as the extent of how luxurious it can become as a physical piece of design, and the lengths the designer can go to in order to produce something of value from the simple methodology that is screen printing. It has the ability to create these grand and valuable posters from the ways in which it is used and the paper it is used on. Although the Gold Velvet paper will be an expensive paper to print on, it alone does not justify the price tag. The fact that it is a screen print, and its status as a limited edition physical print has escalated its price massively. The Flood Gallery is just one of many dedicated shops to the new appreciation for screen printed posters. These are screen printed posters as commodities. This poster draws striking similarities to that of Warhol’s Marilyn. Both posters produced via screen print onto gold backing, with the subject at matter being a celebrity figure. Hampton’s glorifies Bowie as an object of admiration, in contrasts to Warhol's belittlement of Marilyn. This shows that although as a methodology screen printing has not changed but conceptually the way that it is being used has evolved along with modern society. The same print by Justin Hampton is worth £160 when bought in a frame. With the option for further bespoke framing. You can now find tutorials in digital spaces on how to frame your print posters. We have reached a point where some print is so rare and special to us that it is worthy of being framed in an attempt to extend its longevity. The way in which we view print has been altered dramatically by the way in which we interact with digital design so frivolously. It is a special event to share a moment with print. So much so we want to remember that moment by
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placing it on the wall behind glass. “There has been an unparalleled democratization of design at the moment, with greater access to computers and design software. Simultaneously, there is a push toward the handmade, for the very same reason. People want to work away from the computer more and reclaim their arms and fingers as their own. Put those things together and you’ve got a ton of screen printed posters”. (Nick Butcher. 2012. P198). It could be argued that print has not died, in fact print has found new life. Almost as a historical artifact would when it is placed within a museum. Print has not degraded and become defunct, it has simply aged and become something of almost nostalgic value. In an abundance of intangible design, having a poster of which you can feel on your finger tips is a reminder of physical charm. - Inkjet Versus Screen Print. “Despite the advances in digital printing, when I first started screen printing in 2001, it was still cheaper for me to screen print one hundred posters than it was to have them digitally printed. (Mike Perry. 2011. P13). In contemporary design practice, in which it is effortlessly easy to print, why do designers turn to screen printing as a tool when although financially it may be cheaper it is a time consuming process. Which often doesn’t fit within the modern cultural expectation of instant results. We have become a civilization that not only WANTS instant gratification, we EXPECT instant gratification. And, thanks to all the technology filling up our lives, in most cases, we GET instant gratification (Yahoo Voices. Jesse Emerson. 2007).
When we do chose print over digital, why choose to screen print instead of the typical inkjet printer found in almost every home, office and studio. Even when the end result is to go behind a frame, and never be touched by hands, why do designers expend both physically and financially to creating a screen print over a standard inkjet print. Prints major draw is its tangible allure. With screen print you can print on to any material. Only certain inkjet printers can print on certain weights of papers. Screen printing doesn’t have this as one of the challenges it must overcome. It allows the designer to print how ever they imagine. With one of the biggest advantages being able to physically mix the colours to define them exactly as required. As well as the ability to print white, something inkjet cannot do. The way in which the ink is dragged through the silk screen onto the page, leaves the ink sitting on top of the paper contributing to the physical depth of the piece. Inkjet printers can produce copy after copy of the same image without the assistance of a person. When produced by a machine the print loses some of its personal value. All of these things in combination contribute to the tangible elegance of screen print. Making screen print a completely viable and favorable option. This is before you factor in that it still remains a cheaper process for the designer to produce the print themselves, by physically dragging the ink across the screen that they had exposed the imagery onto themselves themselves, despite all progression of print technology over recent years. The screen printing process allows the designer to control the quality of his own work. The level of ink applied, in what order, over which spaces within the composition. Its a truly personal experience. It is It shows a greater care and want for the design to be the best
it can. “Where is the fun in knowing exactly what’s going to happen when you press the print button?� (BolgerSchuth, 2012). When the print button is pressed on a computer, the result will be the same every single time. When it is in the hands of the designer each print, through intentional and unintentional means, will gain exciting unique qualities.
CONCLUSION. This study set out to explore the idea that screen printing is on the verge of it’s second revival as a design methodology, and that under influence of the digital era it has been born again with a new meaning and new reasoning. The paper also looked at whether the role of the designer, and their cultural surroundings contribute to the design choices made when approaching the methodology. As well as analysing the current financial stand point of screen prints as commodities and aesthetic objects of desire. The significance of this research is that it could suggest that we are on the cusp of a new trend, not just in the design industry, but as a social movement back towards the appreciation of print. This paper documents the current state of screen printing, in terms of the environments in which it can be found and the financial price tag attached to it proving that it has undergone a drastic evolution from its roots in the San Francisco bay. How ever further research could be done to analyse who is buying the contemporary screen prints. Whether there is truly a revival of an appreciation for print from the general public, of whether it is designers who understand the intricacy of the screen print methodology. From the various texts that the paper explores it can be argued that due to the arrival of digital screens and our communication on mass with them that our interaction with print has been significantly lessened making each moment we share with a physical print unique. There for reinforcing the argument originally made that to screen print, is a much more personal experience for not only the designer themselves but the person who
purchases the print. This in combination with screen prints aesthetic and tangible qualities in contrast to the that of the safe and obvious results of ink jet printing, when critically comparing the two, it is further evidence that screen printing has a niche within the modern design world as an alternative, and is been sought out by those wanting to embrace it.
APPENDICES. - Interviews Vaughan Oliver. “I Look at it from where I am, and I have these pieces of work that I cherish and if anything happened to them I’d be devastated. I go to these places like the flood gallery and they’re all behind perspex glass in frames. So I started looking at them like that, in terms of like, luxury items. Then I started to look at the history and started to delve into that. I came across the Social Serigraphy movement, have you heard of it? It was in San Francisco and it was about and there was these, aesthetically they were horrible, these crude posters that people would just, anyone would just screen print screen print screen print” V: “When was this?” “1960 something, around the same kind of time as pop art?” V: “Yea, but is this about music?” “No it was all about social opinions, of like, the underclasses and I wanted to look at the “where it was” in terms of it being this easy accessible tool for expression and how its ended up as something that we put behind glass and have kind of glorified” V: “Oh right yea that’s interesting, well again there’s two strands there. It’s serving its social purpose in the street pinned to a lamppost because its cheap and immediate, my dissertation was the renascence of print in pop art and that was because artists were using, there was a big return to commercial art and artists and painters were copying commercial art and using commercial processes so it was quite natural to get hold of this commercial process and see what you can do with it in an artistic way if you like. So you had all the pop artists, but in particular Robert Rauschenberg. Who was his mates? Can’t remember now, but they
all had a shot at it, but now, there’s been a big return to it but I think its born out of different reasons. There’s been a big movement in the states, a return to screen print, I can’t remember what the book is, blue cover, but its music gig posters etc” “I’ve started writing about that at the moment.” V: “Good, there’s some really interesting work out there. I think there’s a really fellow who’s book that you should read. John Foster. Posters that he’s collected. Some of these guys are in there. I think we covered them before maybe. I think we did when we did the posters for music business. There were a few of these San Francisco American artists that came up, so there is but what I think that is is turning away from technology. Its a reaction to the technology, a reminder of the beauty of the tactile of this process. That’s kind of different with what happened with Pop Art, which was getting on board with the commercial process. This was actually, because it was a different time, this is a reaction to technology. Get off the screen! I don’t want to be digital. I want to pull a squeegee with ink across a screen and leave a mark.” “I’ve got a whole chapter about how screen print posters now are about sharing moments with the design itself. The idea of the designer, designing it and then pulling the ink through it. It’s the full product of him, and how about we buy gig posters for gigs that we’ve been too because we’ve experienced something with that poster. That’s what I’m trying to get at, and where it’s come from, like you said its, I don’t know... a commercial... I don’t know.” V: “Process! It was a process that was used commercially, but then was hijacked by fine artists. Which is good. That’s what fine artists do. They look for, how can we look at a process and take it and make you look at it again, or abuse that process. Artists got into it, it’s the idea of creating multiples... or an addition of something rather than doing a one off piece. Which again is kind of a commercial idea. Antoni
Tapies, you should check out his prints. His not a pop artists, but fantastic work.�
BIBLIOGRAPHY Tim Mara (1979). The Thames and Hudson Manual Of Screen Printing. London. Thames and Hudson. Josef and Shizuko Muller-Brockmann (2004). History of the Poster. London. Phaidon Press. Janis Hendrickson (1994). Liechtenstein. Cologne. Benedikt Taschen. Mike Perry (2011). Pulled. Princeton Architectural Press. John Foster (2012). New Masters of Poster Design Volume Two. Rockport. Andy Warhol: Marilyn Diptych. Available: http://www.personal.kent.edu/~rlokay/ Misc/page4.html. Accessed 18th Sep 2013. (2012). Andy Warhol and the Art of Screenprinting. Available: http://www. christies.com/features/andy-warholand-the-art-of-screenprinting-2752-1. aspx. Accessed 18th Sep 2013. Michael Rossman. (2007). The Evolution of the Social Serigraphy Movement In the San Francisco Bay Area, 19661986. Available: http://mrossman. org/posters/socialserigraphy/ socialserigraphy.html. Accessed 19th Sep 2013. FESPATV. (2012). Working with famous artists - The Life and Times of Screen Printing . (Online Video). 20 April. Available from: http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=OU3BA9kjV0w. Accessed: 23 September 2013. Maggie Burgan. (2009). Details of His Life. Available: http://www.awdsgn. com/classes/fall09/webI/student/trad_
mw/burgan/final_project/pages/details. html. Accessed 28th September 2013. MoMA | Andy Warhol. Gold Marilyn Monroe. Available: http://www.moma. org/learn/moma_learning/andy-warholgold-marilyn-monroe-1962. Accessed 9th November 2013. The Screen Scene Chicago Reader. Available: http://www.chicagoreader. com/chicago/the-screen-scene/ Content?oid=925416. Accessed 18th November 2013. The History Of Print. Available: http:// www.cartridgesave.co.uk/news/thehistory-of-print-from-phaistos-to-3d/. Accessed 20th November 2013. American Artifact Movie. Available: http://www.americanartifactmovie.com/. Accessed 1st December 2013. Output. 2013. Has print lost its poster girl to digital signage? Available: http:// www.outputmagazine.com/digitalsignage/intelligence/trends/has-printlost-its-poster-girl-to-digital-signage/. Accessed 9th December 2013. Tested. 2013. Show and Tell: Collecting Screenprinted Posters. Available: http:// www.tested.com/art/movies/455137show-and-tell-collecting-screenprintedposters/. Accessed 8th January 2014.