Ape on the Moon: Contemporary Visual Culture » Screen Printing

Interview with Husband and Wife Creative Duo, Lab Partners

Philip Dennis — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:29:54 +0000

Husband and wife team, Lab Partners have been collaboratively producing enjoyable, illustrative prints and other designs since their move to their now base in California. They founded their creative studio almost by accident when they worked together on a letterpress print to let their friends and family know about their move back in 2007.

They enjoyed the process so much that they decided to continue their joint venture as a place where they could experiment and play around with a medium that they both love.

As one member of the duo, Sarah Labieniec brings her experience from her previous positions in a creative agency and letterpress studio, as well as a long-standing passion for illustration, having dreamt of being a Disney animator from a young age.

Born in Tokyo then spending time in Germany, Hawaii, and Texas among others, Ryan Meis also comes from a design career, having been art director at an ad agency. With such varied backgrounds, we were keen to find out more about how their different influences create Lab Partners as a whole.

How has your work as a team developed since founding Lab Partners back in 2007?

When we first started LP, it was just a fun side project that we worked on in the evenings after our day jobs and we were really just doing art prints for ourselves.

We started coming up with concepts together, passing sketches back and forth and experimenting with a bunch of different things.

This really helped us develop a working process and set the tone before we started doing a lot of client work. Now that we’re both doing this full-time, which we feel super fortunate about, it feels very natural and like second nature at this point.

What have you found to be most beneficial from working together as opposed to how you have done before?

We really like the collaboration process and having someone else there to look at things in a different way and bounce ideas off of. And you have someone to share the less fun sides of running a business like book-keeping and feeding the cat, he’s quite gifted when it comes to pestering us for food.

How are the more illustrative elements in your work approached? Are they split down the middle or do each of you have certain parts you tend to work on more?

You know this really depends on the particular project and what else we have in the mix at the time. Sometimes one person takes the lead and the other helps out here and there and sometimes it’s pretty 50/50.

We’re working on this large project at the moment that has these long, almost animation backgroundish scenes, so on that one we usually have one person rough in the whole composition and then we’ll both work on fleshing out details within, like adding different animals and plants and such.

We’ll pass the file back and forth a bunch of times and in the end we’ll sit together and really adjust color and tweak little bits until we feel it’s finished. For our ‘Colors Are Magical’ print we divided the two main elements of the piece, I drew the girl and Ryan made the rainbow prism, and we just slapped them together, so sometimes it works like that too.

How has having two different backgrounds and sources of inspiration influenced your work?

Well we both wanted to be animators when we were kids so we definitely bonded over our love of old Disney and Chuck Jones movies. But otherwise we had very different experiences and interests growing up, I pretty much lived in the same small town and Ryan got to live all over the world.

I would have been very jealous of him as a kid haha. I think having different backgrounds helps us look at things from different view points and explore different types of subject matter, at least I hope so.

What has been one of the more challenging projects for you so far?

We’re working a large project with the Seattle Children’s hospital, which has probably been our longest on going project to date, and that’s been challenging not only in the scope of the work but also in who the audience is and what the artwork has to offer them.

They are adding on an additional building to their main campus so we’re working with them to revamp their entire art program so most of the art in the building will hang together stylistically and function as way finding system within the hospital.The work is going to live in the space for many years so it has to feel timeless and not only be something small children would enjoy but teenagers as well, so we’ve really had to put a lot of time into working through what that would look like.

What are your plans for the future of Lab Partners?

We’re actually in the process of figuring all that out this year, I think we want to make more personal products and art prints for sure. And definitely throw a kids book in the mix there. We’re also working on a couple of side projects, some individually and together, so where we take LP also kinda depends on what happens with those.

Either way we’re really excited about the future and we’re enjoying the journey.

Sam Brewster Composing Scenes in Brush and Ink

Philip Dennis — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:24:24 +0000

Sam Brewster creates his bold and tactile work by mixing his drawing, printing and computer skills. With a good grounding in brush and ink drawings, he works with a light box to create layers in a similar way to working with transparencies for screen printing. We like the handmade feel this technique brings, even in his larger, more arranged compositions.

He tells us more about it and his interesting homemade light box.

I always start with pencil & paper, to get down as many ideas as I can in a rough and rushed way.

Once I’ve managed to come up with an idea and composition that I like, I’ll clean up the drawing and then trace several layers with a bespoke light box (cannibalised computer monitor), using ink and a brush to get the appropriate feel to the drawings.

These then make their way into the digital world to transform into the colourful scrawlings that you can see in my portfolio.

Alien and Mystical Characters Painted and Printed by Jesse Tise

Philip Dennis — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 06:50:13 +0000

‘Of Gods and Monsters’ is the name of the illustration portfolio for American artist, Jesse Tise. It’s a fitting name for work filled with weird lifeforms that are both alien and mystical. We like the vivid colours in the mixture of painting and printing used here. The character design has a ‘Lost in Space’ feel to it, with the same sense of intrigue and adventure. Jesse tells us more.

I’m an L.A.-based artist / designer / astronaut. When I’m not working on freelance client work, I like to keep busy with lots of personal projects, which include making zines, pulling prints, casting toy figures, and most recently, stop motion animation. My work process includes both analog and digital materials and techniques.

I like to paint and draw with cell vinyl and gouache paint, usually on paper. I also mimic this process in Photoshop, using custom brushes and scanned textures to create digital pieces with the look and feel of my paintings (although sometimes I use Illustrator to create purely vector-based graphic work).

Recently, I’ve begun using my digital work process to generate images for screen printing; I usually print 1-3 layer images using a Yudu silkscreen unit.

A Range of Printing Techniques and Humour with Quentin Duckit

Philip Dennis — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:22:52 +0000

Quentin Duckit creates bright and humorous illustrations using a variety of different kinds of printing. In all of them, there’s a lot of colour and humour. His good use of line works well with the kinds of printing he uses, including screen printing, linocut and wood block. We like the use of overlaying, and the witty kind of comedy, like in his illustration chronicling the stages of mankind. He tells us more about his interests and techniques.

I’m a big fan of multiple printing techniques like screen printing, linocut, and woodcut. I discovered it some years ago and it changed my way of thinking about images in my work forever.

I like to use these mediums, but I also like to work with watercolours, acrylics, indian ink, pencils and of course Photoshop. My influences are medieval art, tarot art, English or Spanish press illustration etc …

Ryan Gillett Tells Us About Brush and Ink Techniques for Texture

Philip Dennis — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:54:36 +0000

I was recently very lucky to receive this lovely, little promotional book from Ryan Gillett. The book is screen printed and full of tactile, two-colour drawings. The touchable quality of his illustrations comes from the textures he brings through brushing techniques, which he tells us more about below.

It’s a nice introduction to his website, where you’ll find more of his textural ink work, plus some great full-colour illustrations.

I create my illustrations in a screen-printed style, everything I draw is done individually, then brought together to build layers. Using stippling brushes and thick pencil crayons, I aim to give my drawings a unique texture and feel, like a hand drawn version of bitmapping. My inspiration ranges from classic art deco posters to 50s adverts for toys.

Hand drawn aspects and minimalist colour are my passions. I strive to create cheerful scribbles that will hopefully brighten up someone’s day.

Drawing Lines and Colourful Printing with Marie ERR

Philip Dennis — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:04:14 +0000

Here are some fun illustrations from Marie ERR, showing off her great passion for colour. She was kind enough to give us a backstage look at some of the printing processes she uses.

I usually sketch my ideas on random papers or in sketchbooks, the trouble starts when I try to look for them, usually without much luck. Depending on the type of work I’m doing, I usually draw lines with either indian ink or markers, and then I add colour with Photoshop.

If I’m going for handmade only, my favorite medium is acrylic on plywood, the colour always gets super bright, just the way I like it! And, if I like the design enough, I can always screen print it! It’s so much hard work but so much fun to do, I love it!

Ben Phe’s Fresh and Original Layer-driven Style

Philip Dennis — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:40:18 +0000

We really like the thickly-laid patterns and the play with layering in Ben Phe’s work. Building on qualities found in screen printing, such as offset layers and moiré patterns created by the interaction between sets of parallel lines, Ben paints onto panes of glass to explore and develop this technique.

His sense of experimentation into his process in a natural and personal way definitely makes him one to watch if you’re interested in following the development of an artist’s personal style.

“So, basically, I love pattern, shape, color and form. These are the key ingredients to my work. With my glass work, mostly, it is instinctual, I’ll have a basic idea and let loose, letting the shapes work with each other. I’ll paint on a splodge of paint then etch into it and repeat on the other side. I love working with thick glass as it gives a lovely offset feel, like a screen print, especially if the sun shines through.

With my illustrations, I’ll work with a Pentel GFKP, and use tracing paper/layout paper to work with the layers. Then, images will be scanned in and fiddled with. A lot of my inspiration comes from outsider art, folk art and artists such as Paul Klee and Joan Miro.”

Dale Edwin Murray’s ‘Hip Hop Head’ Series

Philip Dennis — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:15:48 +0000

Here are some examples from graphic artis, Dale Edwin Murray. We like the scanned-in textures he uses in his dital imagery, giving it a screen-printed, tactile feel. For more of sharp-edged forms and bold colours, check out his more recent ‘Hip Hop Head’ series on his site.

“I’m an illustrator and graphic artist and my work covers editorial, advertising, greetings cards, art prints and apparel graphics. All of my work is produced digitally but is made to give the impression, to varying degrees, of hand made printing techniques.

I try to combine halftones and textures with a bold, conceptual and stylised approach to create a contemporary take on mid-century aesthetics.”

Bright Screen Prints and T-shirt Designs by Dooom

Philip Dennis — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 12:48:17 +0000

Dooom creates bright and simple designs, which have so far been made for a variety of T-shirts and prints. I like the slightly rounded, less refined edge to the forms, which is sometimes lost in work with a graphic look. Dooom tells us about the equipment used.

“My equipment is pretty standard, my favourite inking pens are Microns. From time to time I use a Sakura brush pen, when adding line weight to the design is important. I mostly stick with the Microns, though, as I feel they give the cleanest lines.”

“This picture is inspiring to me as I grew up on the Queensland coast, right next to the Great Barrier Reef. Brings back good memories, which helps when your stuck with rain 90% of the time … (Thanks England!)”

Monika Aichele Describes her Love of Colour and Screen Printing

Philip Dennis — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:33:27 +0000

I’m really drawn to the entirely mixed media aspect to Monika Aichele’s work. There’s always so much going on with material, colours and textures in her illustrations, which has created in a palette and visual style so definitely uniquely her own.

“I work in different techniques, ink on paper, silkscreen prints and acrylic colour. Computer-generated illustrations have been an easy method for me while travelling, still my love for real silkscreen prints is stronger. In my Berlin neighbourhood I am regularly seen at the silkscreen workshop ‘shining’ and loving mixing colours and creating my images.”