Ohhh my gosh look at what we’ve got right here. It’s some illustrations. Lemme describe these to you: layers. Illustrator Joshua Agerstrand‘s got a knack for creating images that are easily separable into layers. Layers of color. Layers of lovely, screenprintable color. Oh my goodness you aren’t totally versed in the language of screenprinting? Oh goodness let’s take a look right here. Nutshelled!

So! As Joshua Agerstrand certainly already know so very well, screenprinting is the craft that makes everything from posters to tshirts, stickers to inky, inky fine art. All screenprinting consists of is a screen with certain areas blocked out so that ink can be pushed through the areas that are clear. Just like a stencil.

To design something that works well with screenprinting, all one has to do is design in layers. Keeping in mind that each color must be applied at a different time, one prepares for this eventuality early. The picture above shows this clearly: 1. Red, 2. Maroon, 3. White, 4. lightest Blue, 5. medium Blue, 6. dark Blue. As a rule of thumb, a picture should be planned lightest to darkest. However, in the case of White, we’ve got a restart button. Every color you see after white is set on the area the White has prepared. Without white, everything would fall into the darkness of the Maroon.

Why? Because ink is fickle.

Neat, yes?

Joshua Agerstrand is a bad ace! Take a peek at this gallery of his works and keep in mind the process they’ve got jammed all up in them.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies layout category.