2013 Alumni Show / Screen Printed Tees

Left: Exposing the image. Right: The finished screen

In a few previous posts I mentioned I was helping plan and design posters for The Art Institute of Pittsburgh's Alumni Show, a show which looked to shine light on the work of recent alumni. For this show the school developed a newly formed committee reaching out to students of various majors and some faculty to help organize gallery events and worked hard throughout the quarter to design and produce posters, hand-outs, signage, display pieces and curate the event. After a few months of planning the gallery committee pulled together a really nice show. For the show we wanted to use the logo designed by Mark Saville for t-shirts. It was proposed that at the show, students, faculty, and other attendees would be able to come up and screen print their own t-shirts.

I’m not by any means a pro at screen printing so the design did come out a bit choppy at the bottom, courtesy of my makeshift set-up. I also initially intended for there to be two designs in which participants would be allowed to choose from but I mistakenly managed to expose the image in reverse, hence properly fucking things up but all-in-all I think it turned out rather nicely, albeit the minor imperfections.

A few of the wall mounted displays showcasing the work of the school's alumni.

Some fantastic catering and music was provided during the reception.

The two above photos are from the reception day event which included a mix of staff, students, and the featured alumni as well as music from members of the design committee and some fantastic catering. 

Above are some examples of my posters being used throughout the school to advertise the reception event. I'm really pleased with how well they turned out in print form.

Shane and Sean trying their hand at printing.

Shane holding up one of the shirts.

The reception of screen printing booth turned out much better than I had anticipated seeing as nearly all 75 of the shirts were used by students for the duration of the show. As the show slowed down, with fewer people coming in we decided to try experimenting with mixing a few of the colors we had together.

Having fun with mixing ink.

While it was a tiring and very busy quarter, seeing everything come together so well was more than a payoff and a great learning experience working with everyone who helped out.