Alison Rose is truly a mom and pop screen print shop located in Columbus, Ohio. Made up of husband and wife team, Alison and Nicholas Nocera, their shop specializes in high quality hand-screen printed apparel, wallets, posters and other goods. We were so thrilled when we came across their Etsy page and saw the DIY Scout Books that they screenprint!
Nick and Alison were kind enough to answer a few of our questions:
What do you love about screenprinting?
It’s a little bit of the unknown, when you are finally printing your design, and being able to see how all the prep work and setup you’ve done comes together. There is also a DIY quality to screen printing, the fact that there are 101 ways to get to the same result, you don’t have to have a giant shop filled with automatic presses to create something. Even in the wake of Digital printing, there is a long tradition to the art of printmaking, like comparing vinyl records to MP3’s. It’s satisfying as an artist to be able to design artwork, burn a screen, and print the image, all in the span of a few hours.
What inspired you to start offering live screenprinting at events?
We started first doing the live printing at local Craft Shows, and got a really great response. People really loved being able to see the process of screen printing. We put a lot of work into building a traveling press, that fit the ascetic of our shop, so we could still be recognized while out doing events. Last year also brought the need for a second traveling press, a smaller, tabletop version, so now we are able to do a huge variety of events big and small.
Describe a typical day in the studio.
That’s a hard one, our typical day ranges day to day because we have many facets to our business. Somedays we are creating new designs, while getting inspired by our VHS collection. Other days we are printing all day, filling custom orders, wholesale orders, or pumping up our own stock. Usually everyday we are at the computer working on correspondence, helping customers in our store, and printing something, be it shirts, fabric for our handmade goods, or paper goods.
What are you excited about for 2015?
We are excited to move our business forward by gaining exposure through new wholesale accounts, as well as putting a stronger focus on our handmade goods and paper goods. We hope to hold classes and workshops in our space as well.
What’s been in heavy rotation on the stereo lately?
Music plays a giant role in our studio. Jenny Lewis/ The Voyager, The Kyle Sowashes/ Yeah Buddy, Beck/ Morning Phase, Connections/ Into Sixes, Weakerthans/ Left and Leaving, (and if the moment strikes Beyonce/ Beyonce)
Thanks to Alison and Nick for taking the time to answer our questions, and for sharing their photos with us!