OUGD505: Studio Brief 2 - Tote Bags: Screenprint

OUGD505: Studio Brief 2/ Product, Range and Distribution  

Tote Bags: Screenprint

With the context of this resolution developed into a screen printed tote bag, It was appropriate to create mock ups of this physically using the colleges facilities. Critically  understanding if the concept was approved by the client this would be outsourced however for pitching and development a physical mock up would be beneficial to the project. Understanding that this would be a complex design to print due to the number of colour and registration needed I predicting this would be challenging to produce however set aside a full day for printing and was confident I could create a strong mock up for submission. 

The IT technicians aided my preparation applying halftones to the tonal blues to make this a singular colour to refine the screen printing process. Printing on fabric was a new process for me having only experimented with paper screens therefore mixing the inks with pigment as opposed to paint was a new skill learnt through this process. Preparing to print I set taped out registration makes for each colour where the screen would need to be positioned in order to align successfully, this would make the job of physically printing far easier especially when removing the screen to place the next tote bag on the bed multiple times.

Unfortunately the screen prints were unsuccessful as these registration precautions didn't work in successfully aligning the design on the bag, Changing this technique I tried aligning the colours by eye however this was equally as unsuccessful, I had a limited number of 8 tote bags to print with and from this the below image was the most successful however it can clearly be seen that this is still very off centre, when asking print staff for feedback they suggested better preparation and alignment that they admitted comes with practice, being a relatively in-experienced screen printer I put this issue down to trial and error. Due to the un-sucessful application of this second colour I chose to not apply the third and fourth colour and spend the rest of the day being more productive producing the coasters as there was drop in space on the laser cutter. 

Due to the limited time-scale to complete the rest of my resolution before the deadline there was in-suffient time to plan and produce a second attempt at printing the tote bags. This was a shame as a printed physical bag would have created a physical mock up that could be pitched to the client, due to the unsuccessful nature of the screen print, A digital mock up was made to simulate how this finished product could look, admittedly less successful that a physical product however this was the best resolution available with the remaining timeframe.