We have to screen print a deck of cards as our final project for screen printing. Originally I was thinking tarot cards, and Jeremy suggested a typography theme. I played with the idea for awhile, but I kept hitting my head against the wall. I normally avoid working with my assignments head on; I try to find a weird, “out of the box” sort of approach, which turns out gimmicky at times, I think. For example, I had to execute a letter-sized magazine ad for intro vcd, and I ended up with an odd fold-out and a die-cut for jetBlue. My cd project had transparent overlays.

So I’m doing a straight up poker deck, 52 cards + 2 jokers. Hands are the theme, though I’m currently deciding between making the shapes of the actual numbers or just holding up fingers for cards 1-10. I’m leaning towards the former since that looks more interesting, but it’s kind of a pain to figure out how to position and contort my hands. Also, the photography’s all Photo Booth—it’s really hard to take pictures of my own hands!

Right now I’m kinda hanging on how to do the spot colors on the backs of the cards. I’ll probably ask my instructor tomorrow on how to break it up. I think it’ll look really cool if I can pull it off.

(My sister also calls this my “gang sign” project.)

I really love reappropriation art. It’s exciting as a means of interacting with art, to take your interpretation of a piece and create a physical manifestation of it in a sense. There’s also taking an image and placing it in a completely different context than its original. I know that some artists can feel violated by seeing their work used in a way they didn’t intend, but once you put your art out there, interpretation is fair game. It seems silly to me to try to control that.

Meanwhile, here are more recent screen printing adventures of my own:

PRINTED IN GOLD.

1) Japanese Art textbook – I’m taking two art history courses this semester: “Art of China and Japan” and a special topics class on Dionysos. I’ve always preferred learning about Greek art more than any culture’s, and the nuances of Dionysos as a god and character are exciting. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to remember all the periods of Chinese history … the names are harder for me to remember.

2) Easisolv – This is to wash out the screens in my screen printing class. I had a really bad experience with Pocono Screen, and thus am still waiting for my screens to come in … I wouldn’t recommend them. They apparently have a recurring issue with sending shipments to the billing address instead of the shopping, and I got serious attitude from customer support. I have a much higher tolerance for mistakes when the company attempts to be apologetic or sincere.

3) Girls Aloud “Out of Control” – A late late birthday gift from my sister. I love Girls Aloud, but that stretched type on the packaging makes me so sad.

By the way, here are my first attempts at screen printing with an old 110 mesh screen (with some ink already dried in it …)

I had used a stencil with the screen before, but this time I actually used the photo emulsion and such. Anyway, the test print on the left turned out much better than the shirt print. I tried on the shirt twice, and there’s some offset from multiple attempts. Fabric is HARD.

Okay, I also don’t know nearly enough designers, so I’m gonna try to keep track of the names I hear and look ‘em up.

Jay Ryan – A Chicago-based designer who specializes in screen printed posters for bands.

My Morning Jacket / Minneapolis – six screens used

I’m trying to break down why he needed six screens for this. Two for the gradient background, 1 for the black, 1 for the grey, and isn’t the yellow the color of the french cover he’s printing on? Either way, I dig the deco imagery, and I guess I never really thought about trying to print gradients …

Hero Design Studio – Another music-focused design studio, though based in Buffalo, NY. 

A poster for Queens of the Stone Age

I got this for Frazier for Christmas since QotSA’s one of his favorite bands, but also because that’s a fucking hot ‘Q’. I’m also really impressed by the detail of the imagery!

Jason Munn – Okay, yes, music, again. San Francisco-based, and awesome to the point of having a permanent spot at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Um, a poster for Beck

Munn’s compositions definitely skew towards minimal, but good Lord, that’s a 4-screen print and those colors are overlaid GORGEOUSLY.

If you know any prominent designers who specialize in screen printing, lemme know, especially if they don’t do band posters. I wanna see more uses of the technique. (If you say Warhol, you are not being clever.)