The paper is on the vacuum press. Swope lowers the screen and draws the squeegee across it.
For Getting Upper, Klausner invited 26 California designers, including a couple of prominent graffiti artists, to reimagine a single letter — to deconstruct it, if you will, in the context of graffiti letterforms. Klausner wanted Getting Upper to feature screen-printed posters rather than digital prints — he had never worked on a screen-printed project before.
F, by Keith Knueven, floats effortlessly in space. No special effects, just great design and great printing. H, by Michael Worthington of Counterspace, is a “giant-brutal-modernist-robot-helicopter-landing-pad-transformer-skyscraper-hospital-building-block-kids’-toy.”
Is the paper you use much of a factor?
It’s a huge component. The ink contains a lot of water, so I’m adding a large amount of it to the fibers, which can cause the sheet to expand. The sheet can literally grow or stretch almost 1/8 in. The paper we used for this project — Mohawk Loop [Smooth 110# double thick cover] — behaved really well. I didn’t really run into any issues in this regard, and that is probably the greatest endorsement I can give. It has a nice surface, it accepts the ink well, and it didn’t cause me any trouble — so I was free to focus on other issues. I couldn’t ask for more.
The base colors Swope uses to mix his inks do not correspond to Pantone base color formulas.
What are those other issues?
I’d say there are three main concerns: color matching; overall quality, including holding detail and registration; and — this is the most subjective — realizing the artist’s intention. Sometimes you have to choose your battles, but if the art is designed with the medium in mind, most issues can be overcome in the prepress phase of the process. There is no command-Z once it’s on the press. At some point you have to give yourself over to the process and move forward. It can be humbling and a bit frustrating at times. But more often than not, the final print looks a lot more interesting than the file on the monitor. Whether that’s despite the flaws or because of them, I’m never sure.
Q, by Denise Gonzales Crisp, “flaunts [its tail] like a bruised crown worn upside down, exaggerated to new purpose.” Jason Schulte‘s J was inspired by lace doilies his grandma crocheted.
Let’s start with color then. I think super-saturated color is what most people associate with screen printing.
Color matching can be the hardest thing of all for me. People respond to color in an emotional, visceral way. You can communicate a lot with color. For these reasons, clients really want you to get it right. And sometimes it’s hard to nail certain things. I need a Pantone number as a reference, but often it is just that — a reference, an approximation. An offset-printed swatch of color in a book is going to look a lot different than a screen-printed field of color on different stock. And color is not immutable, it’s not static — it takes on different hues and values under different light. And of course, whether the stock is bright white or off-white makes a difference.
Burning the screen
How do you decide on the sequence of colors to lay down? Is it generally lightest to darkest, or do you evaluate each design on its own?
Typically, I print light to dark. The real key is understanding transparency and opacity. Just because an ink is darker doesn’t mean it’s more opaque. So first I determine the print order based on color values and opacity, then I create my traps. I do it manually, and there aren’t really any rules. The whole trick is to cover your tracks — I don’t want the traps to be evident if I can help it.
T by Tony Quan, a.k.a. graffiti artist TEMPT ONE . Quan, who is paralyzed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, continues to create work using Eyewriter, a software tool that tracks the movement of his eyes. W, by Mario Ybarra Jr. and Emilio Venegas of Slanguage, is pretty witty.
The traps I typically need are huge compared to what offset printers employ. It’s just not as precise as offset printing. I print one color at a time, rack the posters, let them dry, then set up the next color. It’s pretty laborious.
Once the exposure is completed, Swope removes the screen and rinses it out to create the stencil.
And what about helping your clients realize their artistic vision?
Good communication. If I see something that looks problematic it’s better to say so before I start printing. I have the good fortune of working primarily with clients that really know what they are doing. I learn from them, too; it’s a two-way street when you’re working with good people. They push me to do things I might not think prudent or possible, and more often than not, I’m wrong.
With clients that are new to the medium, I find it’s about managing expectations as much as anything. It’s really not about computer wizardry or technical know-how. The advice “Keep it simple, stupid” comes to mind. It’s kind of corny, but these days I find myself saying to people, “Let’s not try to create something perfect, let’s try to create something interesting.”
Two of Nat Swope’s favorites:G by Mike Giant and L by Brett MacFadden. Swope comments, “I like when someone figures out the strength of the medium and emphasizes that, and I like work that’s conceptually grounded.”
May I ask what you did before opening Bloom Press in 2001?
I was interested in graphic art from an early age, although I was only dimly aware that there even was such a thing; I had absolutely no idea about the process behind it. Now I feel like design in general — whether it’s graphic design, industrial design, packaging or furniture — is on everyone’s radar. That certainly was not the case in the ’80s.
I shot photos and made skateboard zines in high school — Xerox, glue stick, rubber stamps and scissors. They are painful to look at today, just awful. My dad is a photographer, and my aunt introduced me to screen printing when I was still in high school. She demonstrated the rudiments of the medium for me in about 10 minutes. A few years later I started printing T-shirts. I worked in various shops all over the place, big and small. Ultimately I wanted to do something that felt a little more meaningful or artistic. You would think that printing T-shirts and flat printing would be the same thing, but they aren’t. They require different approaches and focus, and the projects and clients are a lot different.
At Bloom Press, client work by (l to r): Ken Davis , Nat Russell, Morning Breath Design, Nat Russell.
Anything else you’d like to say about the Getting Upper exhibition?
Well, I’m a boutique printer. I typically print no less than 50 and no more than 350 of any one design. One hundred is kind of the sweet spot — limited but not too precious. But this project was 26 times 100 posters! It was a big project. It went pretty smoothly though, thanks largely to Amos. He was fantastic. The most rewarding aspect of the project was working with him. He has an uncanny ability to make you believe you can do things you probably can’t — or shouldn’t.
Top photo: A (lowercase) by DesignIsPlay; B by Snow Kahn; C by Katie Hanburger
Nat Swope has a lot to say about screen printing. We hope to entice him to contribute a guest feature.
Amos Klausner learned the ABCs of design while working in the architecture and design department at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. After leaving the museum, Klausner spent five years as the director of the San Francisco chapter of AIGA. Today he is a freelance writer and curator, and the author of Heath Ceramics: the Complexity of Simplicity, published by Chronicle Books.
