3. Screenprinting
At this stage in contemporary design practice, a design might be polished and printed on a digital press. However, the nature of this research project sought something deeper. Work that extracted repeated motifs and patterns of culture and identity representation, to represent and combine these with my own work of graphic design.
I was interested in seeing whether the process of my exploration might be developed through the limitation of material during Covid-19 over an additional stage in the artwork design and the engagement of the participants in the process of graphic design.
This was the process of screenprinting.
The limitations of the manual screenprinting process allow for an unexpected form to emerge, resulting in the disruption of preconceived visual ideas. For example, the application and variation of pressure while handling printing can induce significant changes in the texture and depth of colour in a print. This varies from print to print giving a unique personality for each aspect of the design. This variation breathes unique life into each print version of the narration. Every print has its own voice, although it contains the same elements.
About Screenprinting
Screenprinting is an early method of printing. It involves passing ink or any other printing medium through a mesh or screen that has been stretched on a frame and to which a stencil has been applied. The openings in the stencil determine the image that will be imprinted.
Screenprinting requires certain equipment:
A screen that consists of a frame with tightly woven mesh starches over it.
Emulsion: a light-sensitive chemical used to make the stencil on the screen. It is applied to the screen as a coating and is then left to dry.
Positive: used to expose an image to the screen that has been coated with emulsion.
Squeegee: used to force the ink through the screen to make the print.
Exposure unit: UV light that hardens the emulsion when it exposes the image to the screen.
Other equipment like ink, papers, tape, sponge, glass and stir stick.
Under the Covid-19 restrictions, I challenged myself and requested a screenprint home kit. All the equipment is accessible, easily to use and home-friendly, except the emulsion (because it is light-sensitive) and the exposure unit, which has specific requirements for exposing the image to the screen.
Despite these challenges, I managed to avoid daylight by coating the screen with emulsion at night and storing it in a kitchen cupboard to dry. Also, I made my own exposure unit by using a 500W portable halogen work light
When I initially applied screen printing to my experiment, the aesthetic quality and the details of the images were ambiguous. This was because of the low quality of the mash on the screen; it allowed more ink to go through the mesh. In addition, the exposure unit was not efficient for images that had a lot of detail. Therefore, this stage was not good at addressing the fluidity and complexity of culture and identity. Therefore, I began to combine screen printing with other printing techniques to explore an alternative representation of culture and identity.
Selections of various screenprinting outcomes are presented below.