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Sarah Agnone is a senior in the Stamp School of Art & Design. Her passions and talents span many topics, and she is currently working on projects focused on the interconnections of art and sustainability. She is inspired by the people around her– “The things that people have contributed or the ideas that change the world, I want to be a part of that. It’s an exciting and demanding time to be a designer; there’s so many solutions the world needs but it also seems that there’s so much potential around me.”

Sarah grew up and Phoenix, and eventually found her way to becoming an artist–her parents are doctors, so she says, “I never thought I’d go to art school… it didn’t occur to me.” However, she got her creative start in high school, painting and making jewelry to sell. Now, Sarah is proud of being a designer, and works with graphic, product, and systems design, and hopes to bring more meaning to people’s relationships to the physical objects around them. For her thesis project, Sarah is exploring fashion and creating a sustainable business model. “I’m trying to apply the idea of quality vs. quantity to my life, whether it’s in relationships, the way I buy things, etc.”

One of Sarah’s favorite projects she is working on is a series of sculptural coasters. “They’re sculptural pieces that function as coasters. I wanted to take an obsolete object and change perceptions of something that traditionally has just one use. Everyday things are exciting.” Her sculptural coasters are comprised of two shapes–circles and triangles, and are laser-cut pieces of light-emitting acrylic. Sarah says, “I prototyped for a long time to see which shapes and colors made the most consistently beautiful combinations.”

After graduation, Sarah wants to work in design consulting at a sustainable product design/industrial design firm, or enroll in a graduate program. She concludes that, “My goal is to keep learning and following my intuition and create projects that make a difference.”

Do you ever wonder how a design was printed on a shirt, poster, sign, etc.? Well I am here to inform you, it was most likely done by silk screen printing! *golf clap, golf clap*

Silkscreen printing is an art in which one creates a design and prints it onto an object with clean crisp precision, that you can’t get with painting, drawing, etc. It is a technique that uses the mesh of a silkscreen to print a design onto a surface. The design is transferred in areas where the silk is permeable compared to areas blocked off. 

In any type of printing, one must think of their design and how it can be created in layers. In contrast to painting, when printmaking you have to print colors in different layers and with different shapes. 

A common type of printmaking is relief printmaking also known as block printing. This is a form of printmaking in which the image being printed is carved out from a surface(linoleum, wood, etc.). The pieces of material that are removed are the parts that will not be printed and the pieces left will be printed. For this process, think of a stamp. If you look at the face of a stamp whatever will be printed is the raised surface. The face also displays the backward image of what you are printing. 

Although silkscreen printing relates to relief printing with its technique of layering designs to create a piece, it differs in process. The materials used in this process are a silkscreen, squeegee, emulsion scooper, harsh light, UV screen exposure light bulb, screen printing ink, emulsion, and a surface to print on. To put your design on the screen you must expose it on the screen. To expose your design you put a thin coat of emulsion on your screen and shine light onto areas of your screen you don’t want to be printed. Once the emulsion catches the screen you have to rinse out the areas you want to be printed and then your screen is ready to be used in the printing process. 

When pulling ink through your design, one must consider transparency/opaqueness. This affects how your design will be perceived by your audience. Furthermore, when using this process to print a design one must note that the steps for exposing and printing each layer is time-consuming but in the end is very rewarding.

The technique of silkscreen printing is not easy to learn but once it is practiced it can be a very useful skill to have. Silkscreen printing is a beautiful and remarkable type of art and to see some examples of well-known screen prints or screen printing companies around Michigan look below!

Warhol

Lichtenstein

Fairey

Check out Stamps alum Ron Watters business One Custom City in Detroit!!!