The art of screen printing

A little history

Today we're talking about the art of screen printing. This true phenomenon in Europe and the United States first appeared in China during the Song Dynasty, in 960. It's safe to say it's an ancient technique that's been around for a while. It arrived in the United States in the 19th century due to significant Chinese immigration and gradually developed across the Atlantic.

Primarily used during the Second World War, the technique spread worldwide. It gained great success when used by renowned artists such as Henri Matisse and Andy Warhol.

By the late 1970s, screen printing was ubiquitous and used on all types of surfaces, including signage, stickers, CDs, concert posters, clothing, and industrial materials.

But what exactly is screen printing?

The art of screen printing is a direct printing technique. It allows ink to be deposited directly onto fabric through a screen (stencil). Originally, screens were made of silk, but today they are finely woven polyester or nylon.

To do this, the printer uses a screen, which is coated with ink or a photosensitive emulsion. A film is placed on it to protect the area to be masked from UV rays. Subsequently, by reacting to light, the emulsion spread on the screen hardens and impregnates the substrate.

In modern screen printing, a more efficient screen printing machine is used. The screen, which was originally a silk fabric, is replaced by polyamide and polyester. While the frame, which was once wood, is now aluminum.

There are several types of industrial screen printing:

Flatbed screen printing: used for flat surfaces
Rotary screen printing: used for printing cylindrical objects
Textile screen printing: a more elaborate process, especially for color printing.

Its many advantages

The art of screen printing combines the advantages of several printing techniques. The quality of marking, color reproduction, pricing, flexibility, and numerous possibilities. This makes it, today and for several decades, the benchmark marking technique, especially in textiles, and not without reason. Most companies use screen printing for their t-shirts, sweatshirts, aprons, tote bags – the possibilities are almost endless. In short, resistant and flexible, screen printing allows a wide and varied choice of possible textile supports (organic cotton, polyester...), including for thin and light textiles. Indeed, this type of printing is not very aggressive to fabric fibers, hence the flexibility in the choice and maintenance of the fabric over time.

While screen printing is widely known for printing on fabrics, it can also be used on various other materials, including:

Screen printing on glass
Screen printing on wood
Screen printing on plastic

The technique varies depending on the support, but the results are the same: high quality, very durable, and virtually endless possibilities.

Artists who have serial-graphed

The art of screen printing

By Andy Warhol

Screen printing made a big comeback in art during the 1960s. Among the most famous artists, we find Andy Warhol, who popularized this technique in the 1960s with his screen prints of Marilyn Monroe and numerous celebrities from the world of stars and politics, whose portraits he created in series. These infinitely reproducible "icons" became consumer images. He reused an existing and popular image like Marilyn Monroe, a celebrity photo published in the press, and multiplied it infinitely! From work to work, or on the same canvas, the image repeats itself like on a sheet of stamps, patterned wallpaper, or the label of a mass-produced can. Thus reproduced in series, it becomes more than ever a cliché... to the point of losing its meaning.

An artist who produces works on an assembly line, in different colors. For many critics of the time, Warhol was a sacrilege. With formidable nonchalance, the American flouted the traditional idea that the value of a work depends on its unique character. A provocation he fully embraced, as his studio, which employed many assistants since 1963, was simply named "the Factory"!

The duo Gfeller + Hellsgard who master the art of screen printing with brilliance

In the 2000s, a French-Swedish duo, Gfeller + Hellsgard, emerged, practicing various activities using screen printing as a medium for experimentation. This vibrant duo was born from a meeting between Anna Hellsgård, a Swede, and Christian Meeloo Gfeller, a Frenchman, who were respectively a photographer and a graphic designer at the time. The chemistry quickly worked between them, and they set up a screen printing studio together. This would be the starting point for a rich and varied body of work, ranging from artist books to monographs, from installations to painting.

In contrast to artists like Andy Warhol, who used large-scale screen printing as a medium popularizing the mass production of art itself, Gfeller + Hellsgard conceive each print as unique. They constantly push boundaries and experiment, which is easily seen in their work that plays with imperfections, misalignments, and other unforeseen results offered by screen printing. Screen printing is an accessible medium and does not require state-of-the-art facilities to produce high-quality prints: Gfeller + Hellsgard are an example of this.

The art of screen printing present in fashion

The emerging punk culture quickly embraced this economical and efficient method. And the English designer Vivienne Westwood was quickly captivated by the art of screen printing. Punk fashion was characterized by a global lifestyle of recycling, modification, and criticism of the society in which youth felt trapped. A desire to personalize one's identity down to one's clothing was more than present. In the 80s, Vivienne Westwood drew inspiration from these "handmade" clothes to create her first collection. To maintain the raw look of the designs, she used the screen printing technique. Whether on already assembled garments or on textiles, printed "all over" and then reassembled.

During the same period, Yohji Yamamoto, a Japanese fashion designer who conceived his projects as artworks, resonated with punk culture and the art of screen printing in a different way. Like his collaboration with Levi's, where he "parasitized" iconic models of the brand to insert verses of poetry.

Today, some designers work like these, using the screen printing technique to parasitize and recycle textiles.

More recently, fashion designers like Virgil Abloh collaborated on a limited series of t-shirts in partnership with artist Takashi Murakami. A DIY screen printing kit was sold, with a pre-isolated frame ready to use.

The art of screen printing for everyone

If screen printing is so successful, it's because unlike other printing techniques, such as lithography, xylography, and engraving, which require more complex setups and more expensive materials to be used with caution, you can easily set up a small screen printing laboratory at home. So, if screen printing catches your eye and you want to try this practice at home, it's possible! Here's a small guide for beginners to get started:

The stencil technique seems ideal for beginners; you will need:

a screen, or a wooden or aluminum frame with stretched polyester mesh
a squeegee, a tool with a metal or wooden handle and a rubber "blade" for printing
a scoop coater for spreading the emulsion
a photosensitive emulsion
a solvent for photosensitive emulsion
ink ; classic acrylic paints are also suitable for screen printing
an ink retarder ; a liquid to mix with colors to slow down their drying and suitable for use on the screen
a screen printing exposure lamp or a simple spot light
a sponge
and adhesive tape

Here's a small tutorial that will explain it better than us ;)

Starting Screen Printing! Printing Clothes

For the most beginners among you, and even for children, we offer a very simple kit accessible to all to create dinosaur series.

Become a killer screen printer by Aire

At Aire, we're also interested in screen printing and want to diversify to please as many people as possible. So, we've released a very simple and easy-to-use kit perfect for children!

And yes, we're not leaving them out! It's true that screen printing can be a complicated technique for our little ones, but don't panic, Aire to the rescue. Here's our little guide to successful screen printing at home: