Those big bold arrows were always meant to be worn
Your mission
The Street Sign Series
Print at least five copies of one street sign design onto pre-washed fabric, give the series a name, and hand the sharpest print to the friend who helped you find the sign.
Bonus challenge: Print one on a tote bag or an old shirt pocket instead of a flat panel and see if the design still reads.
Grab a friend, go photograph the boldest street signs on your block, then come home and print them onto fabric. You'll burn your favorite sign into a screen, pull the ink yourself, and watch a crisp white arrow or route number appear on a shirt that didn't exist this morning.
Stop signs, route markers, big fat arrows: somebody designed those letters to be read at 40 miles an hour, which is exactly why they look so good on a t-shirt. Today you get to steal that look, legally and with ink. You'll photograph a sign, flatten it to pure black and white, burn it into a screen with light, and pull prints onto pre-washed fabric. If you've never touched a squeegee, that's fine; the first pull always teaches you more than any tutorial. Your mission: name your sign series and print enough to hand one to the friend who spotted it with you.
There's a particular grin that shows up when you lift the screen for the first time and your own photograph is sitting there in ink. You made that. Then you hand one to the friend who pointed at the sign and said "that one, print that one," and they wear it out of the house.
Top gear to make this quest great.
Pull it off
Holds your light-sensitive stencil and gives the ink an even path onto fabric.
The coating that turns your transparency into a stencil once light hits it.
Drags the ink through the open mesh with the right firmness for fabric.
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Half the fun is the sign hunt, so pick your block before you set up anything. You'll want a screen frame with 110 mesh, a photo emulsion kit (the diazo sensitizer mixes into the emulsion), a firm squeegee, water-based fabric ink, inkjet transparency film, a clamp-on 500W halogen work light, an iron and parchment paper. Pre-wash your fabric so the ink grips. Handy extras: disposable gloves for anyone near the emulsion, a sheet of black foam board to sit under the screen during exposure, and a dark closet where the coated screen can dry undisturbed.
A good quest stays a good story. These are general notes; your gear's manual, the venue's rules and local law come first.
Walk your block with a friend and look up. You want bold, simple type: a route marker, a one-way arrow, a stop sign. Shoot straight on from the sidewalk, never from the road. Back home, use your phone's threshold or high-contrast adjustment to flatten the photo to pure black and white, then print it onto the coated side of a transparency sheet with a dye-ink inkjet printer.
This part is the adult's job, gloves on, window open. Stir the sensitizer into the emulsion as the kit directs and label the container. Spread a thin, even layer across both sides of the 110-mesh screen using the edge of the squeegee, then stash the screen flat in a dark closet. It needs 4–6 hours and it's ready when the surface looks matte instead of shiny.
Here's the magic trick. Tape your transparency to the underside of the dry screen, ink side against the mesh, and set the whole thing on black fabric or black foam board. Clamp the halogen light 12–18 inches above and expose for 10–15 minutes. Using a strong LED instead? Start at 15 minutes and go longer if the wash-out looks mushy.
Best moment of the day. Take the screen to the sink and spray it gently with cold water. The unexposed emulsion under your black shapes softens and rinses away, and your sign opens up in the mesh while everything around it stays sealed. Hold it to the light to check the arrows and numbers are fully clear, then let it dry completely.
Tape your pre-washed fabric flat to the table, set the screen on top and pour a line of fabric ink across the top edge. Hold the squeegee at about 45 degrees and pull it firmly and steadily toward you in one pass, then lift the screen straight up. Take turns and print at least five; your pulls get noticeably better by the third.
Lay the prints out flat and leave them alone for 24 hours. Then, with an adult on the iron, lay parchment paper over each print and press on the cotton setting for 3–5 minutes to lock the ink in so it survives the wash. Line the set up, give the series a name, and hand the sharpest one to the friend who spotted the sign.
You turned a sign you walk past every day into a stack of printed fabric with your name on the method. Photograph the whole series lined up and dare a friend to guess the corner it came from.
You bring the curiosity. We've found the tools.
Pull it off
Holds your light-sensitive stencil and gives the ink an even path onto fabric.
The coating that turns your transparency into a stencil once light hits it.
Light-sensitive emulsion and diazo sensitizer for creating stencils
Get on Amazon · $29.99 — Photo Emulsion Kit with Sensitizerwhat to look for & our pick →
Drags the ink through the open mesh with the right firmness for fabric.
Rubber-edged tool for pulling ink across the screen (8-10 inch width)
Get on Amazon · $9.99 — Speedball Squeegee with Rubber Bladewhat to look for & our pick →
Water-based ink that bonds permanently to fabric once you heat-set it.
Fabric screen printing ink in primary colors (black, white, red, blue)
Get on Amazon · $12.99 — Water-Based Textile Ink Setwhat to look for & our pick →
Blocks light where your design is, so the sign opens up in the mesh.
Clear sheets for printing or drawing high-contrast designs
Get on Amazon · $7.99 — Transparency Film or Acetate Sheetswhat to look for & our pick →RELATED GEAR GUIDE
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