Friday, October 19, 2012

AFH STUDIO SPOTLIGHT: SCREENPRINTING!


Meet the talent behind the AFH Screenprinting Studio!


There is a 20 -year history tucked away in the AFH Screenprinting studio!

Nice shirt, Chineye!

In 1991, AFH co-founders began designing, screenprinting and selling graphic tees in order to fund our first projects of the newly incorporated Artists For Humanity. But, instead of the cool Artists For Humanity- The Store, now open in Historic Faneuil Hall, all the tees designed by co-founders Jason Talbot, Rob Gibbs, Damon Butler and Carlo Lewis were sold out of a push-cart they parked in front of the old Filene’s in Downtown Crossing! They had the good sense to know--success in sales depends on "location, location, location." After seeing the public’s interest in the AFH “Salted” tees, Filene’s asked the teens if they’d like to sell their shirts inside their store, which led to a commission of an AFH store display and a cool mannequin Jason made out of recycled wire. Eventually, Filene’s sold out of the designs, but by then the AFH team knew they were on to something big!


We can screenprint all kinds of things!

Then, thanks to a serendipitous meeting with Tom Kershaw, owner of Cheers Boston, Susan and her team of early AFHers began screenprinting their t-shirts through Kershaw’s company. And who should work for Cheers, but our current Screenprinting Director and Special Projects Coordinator, Tom Donovan and Graphics Project Coordinator and Mentor Joe Ramirez! These talented friends officially joined the AFH team in 2006 and 2008 respectively and have been enormously influential in the growth of our t-shirt sales, and ability to produce t-shirts in-house at the Screen Printing Studio in the EpiCenter.

Meet Tom Donovan!
Since our early push-cart days, AFH Screenprinting not only custom-creates AFH t-shirts, but also for a wide variety of clients including Jasper White’s Summer Shack, State Street, Eastern Bank, Pappas Enterprises, and the Boys and Girls Club.  And best of all, AFH clients have access to the freshest designs and coolest graphics created by the talented teen artists in the EpiCenter's Graphics Studio. 

AFH's impressive Screenprinting Press gettin' groovy!


AFH Screenprinter Vanessa Rios


AFH Screenprinter Chris Rogers

AFH Screenprinter Donnell Baez
AFH Screenprinter Daniel Martin




AFH Screenprinter Emilia Lima


AFH Screenprinter Jose Hernandez 

AFH Screenprinter Supien Almeida


AFH Screenprinter Ramon Hidalgo

Under the mentoring of Tom and Joe, AFH currently employs a group of hard-working screenprinters. A special shout out to Donnell Baez, Vanessa Rios, Jose Hernandez, Supien Almeida, Ramon Hildalgo, Chris Rogers, Emilia Lima, and Daniel Martin!  Together they produce 52,000 tees a year that helps support all our AFH programs!

Lexi's shows off the infamous Bahk Bahk shirt designed and produced by AFH teens-artists!

Carlson points out Screenprinting's meticulous craftsmanship. 


Meet Screenprinting's mascot, Alejandro!  
Strike a pose! 
Take a moment to get to know Tom Donovan in the interview below, filmed and edited by AFH teen-artist Nathan Allen. And be sure to stop by AFH-The Store in Faneuil Hall to check out the popular Bahk Bahk Boston Terrior t-shirts (We’ve sold 1317 since our grand opening in May!) or schedule a tour to come by the EpiCenter and meet all of our screenprinters, artists, and staff who have helped keep AFH thriving for over twenty years! 


Tom Donovan and Alejandro 


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