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Since time immemorial, artists and
designers working with two-dimensional images have traditionally used paper or canvas as
the foundation of their works. However, there is another medium that few know of--printing
on metal. Once reserved strictly for commercial art, such as signs and images printed on tin cans and other sheet metal products, metal printing technology has advanced to the point where images and color now can be transferred onto sheet metal just as well as paper, using techniques similar to paper printing. "Anything you can print on paper can be printed on metal," says Scott Brotzman, president of Western Metal Decorating in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. "You can take a picture, give it to us, and we separate the colors, make press plates and print the image onto metal sheets. We use the exact same four-color and offset printing process as printing on paper." Western Metal Decorating is a supplier of metal sheets that are treated, painted and printed at the factory before being formed into the finished product by the customer. This complex process has proven invaluable for companies dealing in painted or coated metal products, such as food cans and jar lids, because it saves time and money over the method of painting each part after forming. Now, Western Metal is appealing to artists and companies who would like their images printed on metal sheet. For example, a big movie studio who'd like to do maybe 500 promo "posters" in metal, suggests Brotzman. "All they have to do is send me the camera-ready art and I'll supply the metal and do the job." Vintage printed metal items--such as TV trays printed with pictures of cowboy heroes and various pop culture images of yesteryear, as well as old metal signs advertising products from soft drinks to motorcycles--now are highly desirable for collectors of nostalgic memorabilia. As the original items can cost hundreds of dollars, replicas have proven popular in recent years. Brotzman explains that his company can produce these items very easily. "The customer just has to have the dies to stamp the trays out. Plus, it's a lot cheaper than silkscreening or airbrushing, which is very labor intensive. We have an ovenbake printing process that yields a high-quality, durable finished product for a tenth of the cost of those methods," he says. The company also can print promotional and event-related items, such as metal posters for marathons and conventions, as a special alternative to regular cardboard posters. Other applications include novelty items, such as personalized street signs and photo plaques, toys, banks, storage trunks, fasteners, mufflers, pails, gift boxes and many other metal products. "I think Western Metal Decorating could make some great signs for places like auto or equipment dealer showrooms, authorized distributor plaques, or for internal company promotions and employee recognition," says Ellie Rappaport of Promotional Source in Long Beach, CA, a company that provides custom promotional items for businesses. Western Metal Decorating's services also are used by the fine arts community. One famous artist who has worked with the company is Tony Berlant of Los Angeles. The 54-year- old artist, formerly of the famous Pop Art school of the '60s, uses "found" discarded tin to construct his collage-like pieces. Metal TV trays, cookie tins, wastebaskets and metal sheets from Western Metal Decorating are cut up and hammered to a plywood structure, transformed by Berlant into a complex palette from which color and pattern are selected as he creates his visions. Janet Koplos describes Berlant's work in the September 1997 issue of Art in America. "In all Berlant's works, gracefully undulant cut lines in the cool and resistant metal set sensuousness against asceticism. In these pieced paintings, the brads dimple the metal surfaces as hand-stitching does quilts, and the stuttering repetition of the tiny nails, along with the complex patchwork of color, gives the slick surfaces a crackle of energy." Berlant recently completed a large piece, made entirely of material supplied by Western Metal Decorating, for Fox TV's new communications center in Los Angeles--an image of media magnate Rupert Murdoch's fingerprints that is 36 ft. high and 9 ft. wide. "It looks like a big galaxy, and was made with printed sheets furnished by Western Metal." The artist also has employed the company to reproduce metal posters of several of his large works, for distribution. "Since I make my pieces out of tin, it was great to do these posters of them on the same material," Berlant explains. He also praises the long-lasting characteristics of the metal prints. "They're very durable and weather-resistant. You know they are not going to be affected by the rain. "They're like prints of fine paintings, and you can hang them up without having to frame them--you can just drill a couple holes in them and nail them up," Berlant continues. "They could be inside or outside. It's not that much more expensive than printing on paper." Berlant also employs Western Metal Decorating when he needs a particular type or amount of printed tin for his pieces. "I recently got a commission from the state of California for a big piece on the history of Los Angeles in the old Broadway department store downtown," says Berlant. "For something like that where I need large amounts of certain kinds of color and control, Western will set up the presses and make some things for me." "I think there's a lot of unexploited possibilities in using this technique," Berlant continues. "Like reproducing any kind of paper poster that's available, kind of like art prints that people collect." Berlant is interested in printing classic images--"like James Dean or Marilyn Monroe"--on large metal signs, for sale to collectors. Berlant says Western Metal is always ready to accommodate his projects, and he also is impressed with the versatility of the metal printing process. "What Western does have is many potential applications, and I've been told that not everyone in this business is as open as they are to creative applications. I think they're extremely open," he says. MF |
