The Process: My First DIY Screen Print (and What You Should Do So You Don't Make the Same Mistakes)

A few weeks ago, I decided to try my hand at screen printing. It seemed like a simple, straightforward process: Get the supplies and make it happen. Well, I made it "happen" and ended up learning a bit along the way. Here's my process and the things to watch out for when starting out.

There are a number of simple kits out there with all the supplies you need to get started. While they all seem to be complete, you can get better materials by gathering it all yourself. Here's my list of everything you'll need for $50 - $100. 

Make the Screens:

The first step is making your screens. While I used scrap wood in my shop, I wish I

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Everything You Need to Get Started in Screen Printing for about $50 (or Only $100 to Go All Out)

We all have designs, and we all have ideas. And sometimes, they just have to get out of our heads and into the real world. Screen printing is a great way to ink art on just about anything from shirts to posters to wood. If you figure out how to do it right, it's the easiest way to create dozens of copies fast. So here's our look at the right gear and techniques you'll need to get started today.   

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How to: Mount Posters and Art to Plywood for an Affordable Modern Look

In my hometown there's a poster shop that makes letterpress posters for every band that plays at The Ryman Auditorium. The fun part is you never know what size the poster will be and you can count on the size being something that could only be framed in a custom size.    

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A Movie Poster a Day

Australian designer Pete Majarich began a pretty big project for 2016. Each day, he'll create an imagined movie poster from his favorite (365?) films, working in his own style and highlighting the memorable visual and thematic elements that stuck with him most.     

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Skill Builder: How to Get Started In Screenprinting

We all come in contact with screenprinted goods every day... there's a good chance you're wearing something screenprinted right now. It's is an impressive way to personalize just about anything you can think of, and it's really not that hard to start. Here are a few starter kits to help start down the road to making your own art and customizing everything you can get your hands on.  

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Free Poster: NATO Phonetic Alphabet Chart

How about some free stuff to start off your week?

Outside Open is offering a free poster featuring the NATO phonetic alphabet chart (you know, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) for use on all your International Radiotelephony needs. It'll certainly come in handy on your next call with tech support and all future covert military operations, and also features semaphore delineation (pre-electronic flag letter signals for naval communication represented in a circle), Morse Code,

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How to: Turn a Boring Photo into a Sweet DIY Block Printed Poster

Editor's Note: this post kicks off our 2015 partnership with Adobe Photoshop Elements. We're excited to be working with them again (remember our rustic wooden ornaments?) , because creating digital images is a part of our daily routine. We'll be sharing tips, tricks, and full-blown DIY projects for the next few months, so make sure to follow along!

They say a dog is a man's best friend. Like most pet owners, I have an unhealthy fondness for my hound, a full-blooded beagle. Is there anything better than a man and his dog? How about a cool, rustic-framed print of said dog? To do it, I dusted off my Art 101 skills and tried my hand again at block printing. Here's how I used Photoshop Elements 13 to turn my photo of Bailey into a timeless piece of art.    

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PlanetQuest: Vintage-y Graphic Space Tourism Ads From NASA

I dunno how you boys feel about interstellar travel, but I'm a hardcore sucker when it comes to anything relating to the subject. Whether it's a comical take on its treatment in movies or a serious treatise on the realities of the universe, I check yes every time. So you can imagine my excitement when NASA's subsidiary computing project, PlanetQuest, came out with these fake, retro travel advertisements for recently discovered planets.    

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A New Type Of Linguistic Tree

I've always believed that it's impossible to truly understand a culture without having a firm grasp on the language. Natural linguistic differences lead to differing linguistic thoughts and perceptions of the world, and those differences can have lasting impacts on the evolution of cultures. For the brief period of time that I was a Classics major in college I put a lot of time into my Ancient Greek and Latin, with the exciting result that I was able to maneuver my way through Italy speaking nothing more than bastardized Latin. 

Linguists tend to draw a basic language tree to chart out the evolution of languages over time, but the image

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Seriously Awesome Film Posters for Non-Existent Movie Sequels

"Sequel" is a project on Iam8bit where designers and graphic artists create movie posters for imagined sequels to some of their favorite films.   

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The Art of Sports Architecture

From the Roman Colosseum to the new Levi's Stadium, sporting arenas with all of their sights, smells, and local flavors, are a major part of the sports experience. Ballpark Blueprints LTD creates these original artistic renderings in an attempt to capture the beauty of sports stadiums.   

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The Many Varieties of Whiskey

Pop Chart Lab released their latest project, a categorization of all the styles, types, regions, and labels of whiskey from around the world.    

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Famous Movie Quotes as Minimalist Charts

Flowing Data has assembled 100 great movie quotes and visualized them as simple, black and white charts. The process works better with some than others, of course, but when they nail it, they nail it.    

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The Chart of Hand Tools

We're always big fans of Pop Chart Lab's work, but we get especially jazzed when they start talking about a most ManMade of subjects: hand tools. 

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Super Minimalist Movie Posters by Michal Krasnopolski

Polish artist Michal Krasnopolski has taken the minimalist pop culture trend to its most, um, minimalist. Using only straight lines and a single circle, Michal summarizes dominant imagery of the film, or creates a reduced version on its (existing) iconic poster. 

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The Most Complete Charting of Beer... Ever.

The designers at PopChartLab have completed The Magnificent Multitude of Beer, a quite sizable 

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Atlas of True Names: A World Map with Locations Replaced with their Original Meanings

Okay...phew. I know that's a somewhat strange post title, but this project is fascinating and totally worth sharing, if not eloquently. The "Atlas of True Names" is a series of maps that substitutes the official names for cities, states, countries, and geographic areas with the meaning of their names in their original language....etymological topography!

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National Parks Explorers Guide Checklist

I have a new goal on my life list: visit every U.S. National Park. As of now...I've been to exactly: two. I don't really live near too many, and as a kid, my family tended to travel to the same few places every year. But, I'm legit serious about this one, and I'ma get started this year on my next vacation: a trip to all five National Parks in Utah in late summer/early fall 2013.    

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The Great Lake States Project

For those of us in the middle of the country, we don't always know what to call ourselves. Sure, there's the Midwest - but living in Ohio is pretty different than Kansas, and the landscapes of Nebraska and Michigan look nothing alike.

So, I like the designation "The Great Lakes States," and I love this new Great Lake States Project by artist and designer Meng Yang.   

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How to: Make DIY Papercut Alphabet Art

It's seriously cold outside...nearing zero degrees with the wind chill, and the air is full of that ice blastiness that's bouncing off the fourteen or so inches of snow that's covering everything, and has no plans to disappear.It's that sort of day when you look around your home for what you need, cause there's no way you're going outside. Hit up your pantry for stuff to make for dinner, watch that DVD you bought six years ago and still haven't unwrapped, and check your supply stash for materials to make a rainy...err snowy day project.

Like this clever torn paper typography. Inspired by a piece by designer Konstatin Datz, Finnish artist Riikka created this papercut typographic poster from twenty six squares of kraft paper, and a bit of posterboard. 

Little DIY Projects for Rainy Days [Weekday Carnival]

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