Meeting Dane Clement: Screen Printing Artist, Educator, and Industry Innovator

AT THE 1992 ISS SHOW in New Orleans, LA, I was introduced to Dane Clement (an artist) by Connie Griggs of Vieux Carré Screen Printing. He wanted to learn how to design and separate graphics for screen printing on black shirts. This was back in the day when he used his airbrush on frosted vellum to do the separations and a graphics’ camera to output the film.

Dane would create a design, send it to me, and I would tell him if it was good or if it needed adjustments. One of the most difficult things to visualize is what a design would look like on a black shirt. To understand this, I had the designs done on black illustration boards. You cannot really understand what a design will look like when illustrating on a white board. The thing to remember is to make sure the design and the shirt are viewed as one. That means you should make sure the black of the shirt is part of the design.

Working through the mail took a lot of time back then and the biggest criticism I had was not making enough use of the black of the shirt. Dane would send me a design file, and I would respond, “More black.” The most successful black shirt designs rely on great contrast. How do you get more contrast? By having bright colors next to black. We learned from each other quickly about each of our strengths in the graphics world.

Dane is known for his dynamic artwork. Through his decades of writing and speaking all over the world, Dane has become unrivaled in the screen printing art scene.

Moving On

1995 saw the close of my company, Bullseye Screen Printing Supplies in Denver, and the splitting up of my partnership with Dick. But a new partnership had developed. I asked Dane if he wanted to work with me at the ISS shows.

He would help me set-up and break-down my workshop and would conduct a session on artwork as part of it. Eventually, the management at ISS asked him to break away from my workshop and do his own seminars and workshop on artwork. I think Dane is not only one of the most creative artists in the industry but has become someone that does great seminars and workshops.

We have done many consulting visits together where he handled the art department to make them more efficient and I took care of production.
One of the jobs we did together was in Canada. This particular shop’s owner wanted to learn how to design and work with high-density ink.
We flew up to Canada and, when we got to the shop, were informed that the exposure unit that was ordered had not arrived yet. The problem was, they only had a fluorescent unit and not the 5K metal halide unit we thought would be there.

That was a challenge we somehow overcame. Then we focused on everything from Dane working on straightening out their art department and getting artwork ready for me to me putting in an integrated registration system to make the shops presses run more smoothly.

There were three printers in this shop — two guys and a girl. When I was showing how the registration system worked, I asked why the guys didn’t call over to the girl. I was informed that the girl didn’t know how to register a job so there was no reason for her stop what she was doing. I asked her to come over anyway and showed them all how the system worked. The guys were convinced that the way they set it up was faster than the system I showed them. I wasn’t arguing — I get paid for information whether you use that information or not.

“T-shirt Artwork Amplified for Adobe or Corel Software” is one of four books Dane offers. It is a digital book that the industry recognizes as “the Holy Grail to learning all T-shirt art.”

I demonstrated how to attach thick film for working with high-density ink. When the artwork came out, we needed to shoot the screen. With a 5K metal halide exposure unit, the exposure time is 90 seconds per 100 microns of film thickness. I had put on a 200-micron film so the exposure time should have been 3 minutes. Since I was working with a fluorescent system, I had no idea how long to expose the screen and if it would even expose. I exposed for 30 minutes and did a very careful washout that took about 15 minutes. To my surprise, the screen came out perfectly and we were able to print with it.

Over the years, Dane and I have done a fair amount of consulting and working together. He still helps me set-up my workshop even though he doesn’t have to. And I still ask him to help me with some artwork since my computer skills suck.

And so, a lifelong friendship was born. If you’ve met Dane, you know what a kind, awesomely talented man he is. And he’s hilarious. We’ve had some good times on the road hanging out with so many amazing printers over the decades. Dane also has been writing contributing articles to industry publications for years. He has conducted hundreds of seminars and workshops at different industry events for decades both nationally and internationally. He’s a household name as one of the greats in the graphics’ sector of the printing industry.

And that’s how the story of a friend-of-a-friend meeting turned into two art guys becoming good buddies. Networking is everything.