The United Plates is a series of posters I created based on the 50 states and how a different food is represented in each of their outlines. The official tag line is “An interesting take on how each states shape forms a different plate!” What started out as a small idea soon grew to a full fledged project that found me hand printing a limited number of posters for each idea.

I approached most of the posters with tongue planted firmly in cheek. I wanted lighthearted and fun — not a display of form and technical prowess. Though they can be enjoyed individually, no poster was meant to stand on its own. It’s the collective power of all the ideas together. I tried to create “art” that wasn’t so “arty” that it couldn’t be enjoyed by the everyman. I wanted to fashion something that could be liked by people of all ages and interest groups. I forced myself to fill each poster with only what was necessary to convey the intended food.

The Drawing Phase began July 1st, 2008. I sketched idea after idea for some states, but for others, ideas came quickly. Then I drew each poster free hand using india ink + brush and Pitt Pen’s.

The Printing Phase commenced around August 1st, 2008 and was finally completed mid-December. I found myself spending 5 to 6 days a week, 14+ hours a day printing posters. Those last few days that lasted from 10AM to 4AM were definitely trying, so much so that I almost became crazed. I literally saw nothing but United States outlines for months. I guess that’s a great way to brush up on my geography!

For those interested in some behind the scenes information, my screen printing shop was very intentionally set up as a DIY operation in the garage. I tried to cut costs on every corner, including an old greenhouse rack I jerry rigged into a “drying rack”. I received much help from a local carpenter friend who built the exposure unit and vac table for me. I stole the house vacuum from my wife and bought at least 5 Radio Shack Christmas Light Ornament foot switches because they are apparently not made to be turned on an off 5 times a minute for days on end.

I became very good friends with my local Kinkos who made all the negatives for me. It was quite the headache in the beginning since they never could figure out how much to charge me ($195 for 15 copies? Seriously?) but once they figured it out 200 copies later, Kinkos was indispensable to me as were the copious amounts of vegetable oil I bought to make the transparencies. Yes, it really is that much cheaper to create “transparencies” out of bond paper + vegetable oil than to pony up for real transparencies. Frugal is my theme.

I’m pretty sure during the initial stages of setting up my shop that it appeared as though I was setting up some sort of drug growing operation. I light-proofed the upstairs attic windows with black material, rolled the aforementioned greenhouse rack in and carried in a bunch of fluorescent black light bulbs (not the party hearty glowing white kind, mind you). I felt very suspicious looking. The neighbors only came calling once, but that was solely out of curiosity at what I was doing (and to see if I designed tattoos, haha).

I self-taught myself how to screen print along the way. In the end though, all the posters turned out perfectly. I couldn’t have done it without my beautiful wife, her belief in this project and her dedication.

The prints are now up for sale in the store for those of you that like to frame and hang art to liven up the walls.

Attached are some photos of me in the shop and a scan of the very first thumbnails I drew (March 2008).

Tags: United Plates