Oberlin’s small but vibrant community of silkscreeners is one of the most visible segments of Oberlin society. It is also one of the most mysterious. While silkscreened posters appear all over campus advertising all sorts of events, most students don’t know anything about the silkscreening process or the printers themselves. And so we here at the Review decided to provide you with this handy guide, a.k.a. Silkscreening 101, courtesy of one of the “pros,” Sam Withrow.

In every major city, silkscreen posters advertising rock, punk, and hip-hop shows can be seen on walls and telephone poles. Because screen-printed posters are hand-made, they command more attention than a simple photocopy or mimeograph.

Most Oberlin printers got their start in Professor Pearson’s silkscreen class and subsequently “went pro” or made screen printing a major component of their senior thesis work.

The silkscreen process can seem unusually mechanical compared with other visual arts. There is a lot of prep work and the design must be finalized before any printing takes place. The image must be composed in layers because each color is printed separately. One screen per layer needs to be prepared, using any available technique, into what amounts to a very high-performance stencil. Then, after mixing inks, cutting paper and checking registration (how the layers line up with each other), printers are ready to run off any number of prints, assembly-line style, one layer at a time. In preparation for printing, the printer is designing and assembling a human-powered machine that will ultimately create his or her finished product.

For each layer of each print of an edition, the printer has to lift the screen off the previous print, take that one out and put it on the drying rack, coat the screen with ink, slide the next print into position (usually with some kind of registration guide), swing the screen back down, and then press down while pulling the squeegee towards themselves, forcing the ink through the open holes in the screen. The actual printing process takes a very short time compared to all the preparation, as long as things go smoothly. If there is a leak on a screen in the middle of a run of 70 posters, you have to act fast so the ink won’t dry into the open parts of the screen, clogging areas that were supposed to print. In a figure with lots of detail, it may be impossible to clean out dried ink without damaging the stencil. In that case you have to either start all over with that screen or give in to the idea that it’s just not going to match your vision. Each step depends on the previous one, and when things go wrong it can take away a good chunk of your day or night. Because of this, the best printers either run a tight ship or are great improvisers.

Some printers work alone for the 6 to 12 hours it takes to design, prepare, and print a good poster. Others like to have someone assisting with printing — a common work division is that one person handles the squeegee work (“pulling”) and the other one puts the pieces of paper into and out of position (“moving”). After you’ve gone through the process 10 or so times, you figure out what you like and what works. It’s nice to have company, as long as they understand what they’re getting into. The huge amount of time it takes to do a poster often necessitates an all-night session in the silkscreen lab; it’s normal to see some of the pros lurching around like zombies in the early morning when everyone else is starting his or her day.

Student printers here have gone on to work in professional printing shops and as freelance designers in the big city. Last year, a student ran a silkscreened clothing store as a senior art show. Another recent graduate has made posters for bands in the U.S. and Europe and sold a collection of his work to the college for permanent display.

If you need a slick poster for an event and you don’t know anyone who can do it, just ask around – somebody knows someone. If you’re on a tight budget, track down someone who is taking the intro silkscreen class; one assignment requires students to print a poster. Better yet, take Professor Pearson’s class yourself and learn what it’s all about.