Silkscreening goes to school
The ink that will soon be pressed through the silkscreen looks edible -- the black looks like cake icing, the white like marshmallow creme.
The designs shouldn't be put in your mouth, but the Flagstaff High School students who make them would like to see them on your back.
Flag High is now home to its own silkscreen print shop. Ink'd Up Designs is a learning opportunity and a real money-making business for students with a knack for the artistic and mechanical.
Sabrina Greene, a senior, had taken web and graphic design before taking up silkscreening. Popping a tiny hole in the screens can be frustrating sometimes, but she finds the work to not be too hard.
Teacher Mat Young teaches the web and graphics classes and introduction to business, but he is also interested in hands-on business administration to tie it all together. Support from administrators allowed him to start it this school year.
He said school teams spend a lot on specialty T-shirts, and they can save money by going to the in-house shop.
To be sure, some graffiti murals are visually striking, showing an intuitive understanding of graphic design (though their representational iconography is usually pure adolescent male wish-fulfillment, featuring drug paraphernalia, cartoon characters,