Wear your art

Who says art should be framed and mounted on walls? Why not wear it and show it off wherever you go?

“We want to inspire the youth to express themselves by designing t-shirts,” said Cristine Villamiel, creative director of t-shirt brand Artwork, which has an ongoing t-shirt design contest until October 20.

To help prepare teens interested in designing, Artwork held recently a screen printing workshop during its Kick-off Tee Party at the TriNoma mall in Quezon City.

Students and other young mallgoers were encouraged to design their own shirts. Six silk screening machines were installed in the lobby for their use, along with templates, paints and other materials.

Combining colors, they made the more than 10 design templates their own. They photographed every screen printing process and showed off their shirts when they finished. Each screen printing machine had two printers to assist those using them.

For Kirsten David, 13, it was a fun learning experience.

“I enjoyed creating the design,” she said. The teener came up with three overlapping pink, green and orange skulls for her shirt. “I love neon colors!”

Rebecca Paguio, who is in her 20s, combined red and black for a striking “two smiling teeth” shirt.

Paguio, who documented every step with her pink camera, had probably one of the most complicated designs. Combining different colors, she used masking tape to keep them from overlapping.

Paguio and the assisting printer first painted a red tooth. They then covered part of the smiling tooth template with masking tape and painted the remaining part black. The result was a black tooth behind the red.

Two teenage boys, wearing black eyeliners, created a black skull design that reflected their goth fashion style.

Other participants went for simpler designs like trees and cats.

Production supervisor Jun Sadiwa and two printers demonstrated how t-shirt designing was done.

A shirt was placed inside the silk screen printing machine with the design template on top. The printer put paint on the template and pulled the squeegee from top to bottom to even out the paint. They used a heat gun to dry the paint.

To be able to participate in the screen printing workshop, mallgoers bought a plain white shirt or tote bag worth P195.

Artwork launched its 5th Annual T-shirt Design Competition simultaneously with the “Artwork 5×5” exhibit featuring renowned artists AJ Dimarucot, Everywhere we shoot!, JP Cuison, Nick Automatic and UP Dharma Down.

From Trinoma, the exhibit has moved to Ayala Center Cebu (ongoing until September 15) and will be in Abreeza, Davao September 16-25.

Villamiel said the top 25 shirt designs would also be showcased in an exhibit and the top 10 would be reproduced.

Registration for the contest is ongoing until October 20 in all Artwork stores nationwide.

Designs would be judged based on concept and message, Villamiel said.