The History of Screen Printing

Carpenter Screen Printing Co. Circa. 1907

Modern screen printing

Modern screen printing has been the leading method for placing images onto object, as well as a great way for artists to showcase their work on unique surfaces. But where did it all begin? The first recognizable evidence of screen printing is shown in early China during the Song dynasty (960 A.D. - 1276 A.D.) and slowly but surely worked its way throughout the rest of Asia, and then Europe.

Europeans that had traveled back and forth to Asia were introduced to this advanced method of printing during the early 18th century. It took many years for Europe to accept the idea and expand the industry in to their own countries.

Screen printing wasn’t accepted popularly until westerners started experimenting with photo-reactive chemicals to make stencils. One specific group had conducted a new experiment and went on to change the screen printing game forever.

Roy Beck, Charles Peter and Edward Owens were scientists/printers in the early 1930s. They experimented with different chemicals (chromic acid salt sensitized emulsions) to create photo-reactive stencils. Eventually these three scientists had developed a revolutionary way of printing. This more safe and effective way of screen printing took many years to be accepted, but as time went on, the industry had eventually embraced the method of printing with open arms.

The modern use of screen printing has been credited to Andy Warhol, renowned visual artist, director, and producer. Warhol popularized artistic screen printing with his unique pop-art. One print that struck him with popularity, was the piece he did of Marilyn Monroe in 1962, who at the time was the most popular public figure in the world. His methods of printing had quickly became popular among artists.

Andy Warhol Untitled from Marilyn Monroe 1967.

Contract Commercial Screen Printing

In the mid 1960s, the first rotatable multicolor garment screen printing machine arrived, thanks to entrepreneur Michael Vasilantone. This machine was really developed to create logos for bowling teams, but eventually got caught in the new trend of printing images on t-shirts.

Today contract commercial screen printing on garments has become over 50% of the industry, with a lot of people doing their own screen-prints in their garage, house, backyard, etc. Now.. let’s go make some shirts!