Joshua Robertson from the White Duck helped us print our Past Present Future Tees. He talks us through screen printing the newly released Rouleur Peace Race prints.
At White Duck we aim to produce beautiful and enduring screen print each and every day, and offer our clients both 17 years screen print experience and an unflinching commitment to producing astonishing works of print.
Everything we produce is done so by hand, rather than by an automated process, and our skilled staff approach every project with the same consummate dedication as the last.
When Rouleur got in touch with their Peace Race posters, we were pretty excited by the prospect of printing the editions. Firstly the posters were of an unabashed size - larger even than A1, these prints were clearly going to be impressive. Secondly, the design of these posters, some close to 50 years old, was quite beautiful, and would clearly be offering us something of a challenge when it came to the separation for print.
We spent over ten hours separating the four images, which included a fair amount of cleaning up and redrawing - these were photographs of original posters from the 60's and 70's, after all - but were extremely happy in the end with what we took to press.
In total we produced 19 screens with which to produce one two-colour edition, two five-colour editions, and one seven-colour edition. All editions were of 150, plus run-ins and AP's, which overall is around 3000 individual prints, all pulled lovingly by hand through a silk screen. We printed for over five solid days to finish the four editions, before trimming and numbering each print ready for despatch to Rouleur HQ.
When it came to paper and ink, it was perhaps more straightforward. For the paper we didn't have to look any further than our poster stock of choice: Mohawk Superfine with an Eggshell finish. This paper has a weight of 270gsm, is acid-free and archival, and furthermore it is FSC certified and carbon-neutral. Beyond that, however, it is the unrivalled print results this paper enables that win us over every time.
The ink we use is tried and tested, and has great scope for adaptation on an edition-by-edition basis. The Rouleur prints certainly pushed the envelope here, as we found ourselves mixing solid spot-colours with those that were extended for overlays, all of which were specifically pantone matched accurately to the original artworks.
It's these elements that make us tick.
The bottom line at White Duck is that we would like everyone to appreciate how truly exceptional screen print can be, and the Rouleur prints are a perfect example of how the screen print process allows very special things to happen when reproducing already beautiful works of art or design.
Peace Race posters are available exclusively in-store at Condor.