This shirt from the Screenflex collection was commissioned for the 1995 SGIA show by Stretch Devices of Philadelphia, manufacturers of the world famous Newman roller frame.
Screenflex still regards the artist, Bob Parr, as one of the finest textile screen printing artists that we have ever encountered. This was actually the second show shirt that Bob designed for Stretch Devices. The first was for the 1994 show in New Orleans after Screenflex introduced Bob to Stretch Devices. Appropriately, he made an alligator the feature of the New Orleans design and Don Newman liked it so much that he wanted the alligator in the design for the show shirt for the next year in Los Angeles as well.
The initial L.A. design was a tyically brilliant Bob Parr piece, but it did not make it onto the Stretch Devices show shirt because of copyright concerns. The alligator, dressed as a swish L.A. playboy, had an arm around a laughing Marilyn Monroe against a backdrop of L.A. landmarks. A framed print of the design is in the Screenflex collection of industry memorabelia and hangs in the Calgary office. Thankfully, so far we haven’t had a visit from the Marilyn Monroe copyright attorneys.
Another interesting historical feature about this shirt is that the1995 show was the first under the association’s new name. Prior to 1995 it had been known as the Screen Printing Association International (SPAI). In 1995 it became known as the Screenprinting & Graphic Imaging Association International (SGIA). Then in about 2004 it bacame known as the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association. Still the SGIA, but after 10 years the abbreviation finally matched the name and “screen printing” was dropped from the name of the association that was once its own. So, we can say that this 1995 shirt marks the beginning of the metamorphasis of the SPAI to today’s SGIA.