SGIA presents wide-ranging history book to educator members

Fairfax, Virginia - A new book about the history of the screen printing industry has been released. “A History of Screen Printing” by Guido Lengwiler chronicles the rapid advancements in the ancient art of stenciling that took place during the late 1800s, and how it turned into screen printing as we know it today. Hundreds of never before seen product photos, machine designs and some of the first art prints done in the 1920s in California are included, as are special chapters on fine art printmaking, ceramics and textile industries.

In recognition of ongoing efforts supporting graphic arts communication programs, SGIA is presenting this historical and comprehensive book to educator members across the country.

“I first saw this book at the last SGIA show, in Orlando. As a professor of screen printing at a community college, I have been waiting a long time for a comprehensive document like this,” said Kristin Pilon, professor at Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA. “Like many screen printers, I have wondered about how this amazing process developed over the years. This book will surely answer many of the questions my students and I have about the screen-printing process.”

With help from the families of the pioneers, industry supporters and more than 15 years of research, author Guido Lengwiler has rescued an almost lost history that covers the period up to and including World War II. The book tells the interconnected stories of how a relatively small group of people — many of them artists, signwriters and entrepreneurs working in the dawn of the American advertising age — helped create entire industries that continue to exist in today’s global marketplace, all using screen printing in the production of an unbelievably wide range of products.

The author, Guido Lengwiler, is a teacher of screen printing at the Schule fuer Gestaltung Bern und Biel, Switzerland (Bern and Biel School of Design). He has more than thirty years of screen printing experience and was elected to the Academy of Screen and Digital Printing Technologies (ASDPT) in 2009 for his work on “A History of Screen Printing.”