Screen Printing?

When I use the term screen printing or silkscreening most people have no idea what I'm rambling on about. To be fair if you used words like burn, coating, film, emulsion, dryer, and silkscreen in front of me a year and a half ago I would most likely guess you were giving me a list of a few things I needed to build and finish a house not elements of a process that can be used to print t-shirts. 

Yup, that's right. I know all the dirty little secrets that go into printing your favorite graphic t-shirts. Well, not all but a lot and it is definitely gets dirty. No not in that way creep. 

What I mean is that it gets messy in the way every artist loves. I became interested in screen printing after taking a course with one of my favorite professors my sophomore year of college. I had an issue with almost every project I did, spent countless hours after class asking questions and fixing mistakes, and often took home more ink on myself than the paper I printed on. Still, the intense frustration over trying to fix my mistakes never was enough to steer me away completely and to be honest I kind of liked being covered in ink.

I had the opportunity over the summer to take my experience even further interning at an awesome screen printing and embroidery company in my hometown of Toledo, Ohio. However the catch was that I would be helping to print apparel not paper...yeah not the same thing. Luckily I knew just enough to adapt without fu- I mean ruining any orders or screens and my overall consensus is that apparel printing companies can be a great place to put creative minds to work. 

To oversimplify the process and leave out many steps lets say it starts with a graphic artist creating a design for a woman needing three hundred t-shirts for an annual charity 5k. Once the design is done it is printed on separate transparent film pages according to color. It is then exposed or "burned"onto a silkscreen using an ultraviolet light source. The relationship between the coat of emulsion, the transparent print taped to the screen blocking out the design, and the ultraviolet light, is what makes the print appear. 

Here is a good photo of what the room I worked in looked like with film taped to a screen next in line to be burned. The red part of the screen is the coat of emulsion.

The screen will then be soaked in what is known as a dip tank which helps to loosen the unwanted emulsion from the design area that is then sprayed out with a power washer. It is  left to dry before it is taken to either a manual or automatic press, aligned to the machine, loaded with ink, and printed using what is referred to as a squeegee to print by pulling the ink over the blocked out print.

below is a photo of what this would look like on an auto press. When programmed the t-shirts loaded on the boards will be printed when the screen lowers and a squeegee automatically pulls ink over the design on the opposite side. The t-shirts are then pulled from the boards and sent through a dryer meant to set the ink (think of a conveyor pizza oven only bigger). The t-shirts are then pulled from the dryer on the opposite side, boxed up, and sent off in time every runner to promote the cause by wearing the t-shirt  during the race and most likely posting photos on social media.

Here is an example of a squeegees after a long day of work. These are for a manual press. The ones for an auto press look a little different. A manual press is most often used for smaller orders and prints containing fewer colors. 

Now that I have bored any poor soul reading this half to death with information that probably still doesn't quite make sense I just want to reinstate the fact that it can truly be a great environment for creative people to work in. Don't get me wrong it's a lot of work and I could write a book on all the mistakes that can be made when attempting the perfect print but I loved being able to put my previous silkscreening experience to the test and seeing how important apparel printing is for so many customers.

I was also able to learn about embroidery, marketing, graphic design, and even had the chance to put my photography skills to use taking photos of products for their website and social media. 

So if you are looking to learn more about silkscreening, embroidery, graphic design, and want a hands on experience, check out apparel printing companies near you! I can promise it is a great opportunity for creative people.

However I can't promise my experience will be exactly the same as yours. Call me biased but I would like to say the company I worked for is the best. Between the awesome employees and storefront full of local and midwestern prints it will always be number one in my heart.

Oh, and because mine had Penny. She takes her work very seriously.

Grace