While artists employed screenprinting methods as far back as 960 AD during the Song Dynasty, early forms of stenciling were found in caves and date back to the prehistoric period. But modern screenprinting techniques took off in the 1960’s in the era of Andy Warhol when artists came to realize how screenprinting techniques could help them reproduce images faster and more efficient than other techniques such as painting. As the music world grasped the popularity of screenprinted t-shirts they employed stat cameras, ruby cutting and overlays to produce t-shirts and proofs. Above is an example of an early t-shirt proof that we came across for a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt while the image to the right is what proofs look like today. Big changes have taken place over the past 50 years or so and technology continues to advance making today’s process more efficient than ever.
