Hamster Labs custom screen printing: Made in Arizona

Quinn Murphy runs and owns a Tempe screen printing shop called Hamster Labs where he does custom design and screen printing — including a lot of concert posters.

Murphy said the process begins with designing the artwork, which can take a lot of time — he estimates it between five and 45 hours. Then he prints out a transparency and burns a screen. The final step is printing, which can take six to eight hours, depending on how many colors he’s using and how many prints he’s making.

And Murphy said each print is its own creation. He lays down one color at a time on the number of sheets he’s making, and then moves on to the next color until he’s done. He said it’s a manual process — he can’t just make one and then copy it to finish off the order.

“That’s part of the draw, is each one is individual, so it’s one of a kind, kind of,” Murphy said. “You try to make them as close to the same as you can and try to be as perfect as you can, but it’s a handmade thing, so you have to celebrate the imperfections in that sense.”

Murphy didn’t start out doing screen printing — it was something he found along the way. But he says he was always interested in art and music.

Mark Brodie/KJZZ

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: Today, we visit a Tempe screen printing shop called Hamster Labs. Quinn Murphy runs and owns it. He does custom design and screen printing, including a lot of concert posters. When I stopped by, I asked Murphy to explain what screen printing actually is.

QUINN MURPHY: So, you take an image, you put it on the paper, put it on to a shirt, put it on anything. Um, it's basically creating artwork through stencils.

MARK BRODIE: So, does somebody or do you like draw something on paper? Do you use a computer to to generate the art and then put it on to whatever you want to do? Or like how how do you get art from like your mind to whatever it is you're putting it onto?

QUINN MURPHY: Yeah. So, it's uh it can work several ways. I mean, traditional ways are are drawing it on paper and then transferring that to a screen. Um, a lot of things have gone digital these days, obviously. So, I work mostly on the computer. Uh, I'll draw my image there. Um, at that point, I'll print out what's called a transparency, which is basically the stencil that I was mentioning, where that creates uh a stencil. And then uh that will block out the light when you burn the screen. So, once you wash out the emulsion on the screen, where the stencil was, the image now exists. And then it just basically comes down to then putting ink through the screen and putting it on the paper.

MARK BRODIE: Murphy says it can take a lot of time to design the artwork. He estimates it between 5 and 45 hours, and then it goes through the rest of the processes he mentioned until it finally gets to the printing, which can take 6 to 8 hours depending on how many colors he's using and how many prints he's making.

And Murphy says each print is its own creation. He lays down one color at a time on the number of sheets he's making and then moves on to the next color until he's done. He says it's a manual process. He can't just make one and then copy it to finish off the order.

QUINN MURPHY: That's part of the the the draw is, you know, each one is individual. So, it's a it's a one of a kind, kind of. We try to make, you know, you try to make them as close to the same as you can and try to be as perfect as you can. But it's it's a handmade thing, so you have to celebrate the imperfections in in that sense.

MARK BRODIE: Murphy says he didn't start out doing screen printing. It was something he found along the way, but he says he was always interested in art.

QUINN MURPHY: Yeah, I mean since I was a kid, I would always um, you know, I loved comic books. I loved cartoons. I would always draw from those and copy those. It kind of developed as I was growing up, and and as I was going through high school and college, that I knew I wanted to do something with art. Um, and it wasn't until later on that I found screen printing as a medium. And I realized then that I'm like, this is what I was meant to do. This This This is it, you know? This is my This is my art form.

MARK BRODIE: How did you find it?

QUINN MURPHY: Uh, two two ways. One, I've always been a fan of gig posters and and show posters. I've always been a fan of that artwork and and just that that world. And two, uh I was at a point in my career that I didn't like what I did anymore. I did do graphic design, but I didn't feel the love in it anymore, and I wanted to enjoy that still. So, I I figured out how to screen print, started out from the beginning with with no experience, and and like I said, it turned out to be the one thing that I love, and that's that's the way it goes now.

MARK BRODIE: So, take me through the process of learning how to do it because this strikes me as somebody who does not know how to do it, that it's not something that you can just sort of snap your fingers and pick up. Like I would imagine there's a lot to it. It's fairly complicated. Like how do you learn how to do this?

QUINN MURPHY: So, learning how to do it was um, you know, YouTube helps, so that was there. Um, looking at books, trying to figure out, trying to break down the process of it, too. It It's um, not a highly technical process, but it is one that that doesn't allow for any forgiveness, which is kind of fun. Um, and then the way you create your art, too, uh also completely changed when I started to screen print. So, I I would approach it differently than than what I did before. Um, you know, for example, I I would build something in Photoshop and just layer, layer, layer, layer, layer, and then once you're done, you hit print on the printer, and and you have your final product. But with screen printing, you have to be a little bit more methodical with it and and have to know what you're going to do going into it, know how many colors you're going to be working with, know how those colors are going to interact with one another, how they're going to overlay, or where they're going to sit. And so, it it really changed the way I approached what I did as as artwork and and as design. And then learning the process was really just a lot of trial and error and a lot of a lot of mistakes were made and, you know, figuring out, saying, "Why is this doing this? Well, like why is the ink spilling out on this side now and not over on this side? Um, why is my transparency not working correctly? Why is the screen not burned correctly? Why?" And and all those things. I mean, there's it's trials that that you go through the process and just figure out as you go.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah, the the phrase that kept coming to mind as you were describing that is very much trial and error. Like you have to figure out, "Is this going to work? Uh why didn't this work? Why did this work?" and use that as you go forward.

QUINN MURPHY: Yeah, 100%. I mean, it's it's um you you got to be willing to fail. And and, you know, that's the that's the best thing you can do is fail at it because that's what's going to make you understand or help help you understand um how to do it better.

MARK BRODIE: So you mentioned gig posters. I know that you're really into music. How did you like try to combine your love of music, your love of art, and your your at that point new-found love of of screen printing?

QUINN MURPHY: Well, they all kind of uh live together as a whole anyway. So, it was just a matter of figuring out how to get into that scene and how to get into that industry. Um, practicing with with prints of my own and and my own artwork, um working with any bands, any friends that I knew that were in a band, and say, "Hey, let me, you know, let me make a poster for you. Let me Let me design your shirts for you." And just kind of growing in that sense, and saying, "You know, taking on anything and everything that I could to kind of get that practice, that that real-life practice."

MARK BRODIE: Is it helpful for you if you know the music or maybe even if you like the music to help you sort of especially if you're designing the artwork to help you figure out like what it should look like?

QUINN MURPHY: I I think so. I mean, for for me, that's how it works for me. I I feel like I I kind of make everything specific to and and custom to that that band or that sound or or that customer or client, whatever it is. It helps me, and, you know, it also allows you to to kind of uh find new music, too, which is great. So, it's it's it's a win-win.

MARK BRODIE: Who needs Spotify when you can just screen print the posters, right?

QUINN MURPHY: Yeah, right? There you go. I'll find them that way.

MARK BRODIE: What has surprised you the most about doing this job from what you thought it might be when you first got into it?

QUINN MURPHY: That I'm still doing it. Uh, no, man. It It's um I mean it it's the industry has been around Screen printing has been around forever, and it's there's there's a lot of competition out there, especially in the shirt world. I I wanted to to kind of approach it differently, and and I I think even with my lack of business knowledge and and being a business owner, um I feel like I did it right. More importantly, I feel like I didn't do it wrong, you know? So, it it's uh it's it is, it's surprising to me that I still get to do this every day, and I wake up and and I'm like, "Hey, this is this is what I do."

MARK BRODIE: Well, so that's an interesting point because as you say, you had to learn the process of screen printing, but it sounds like you also had to learn how to own a business, right? Like that's not something that, you know, everybody just knows how to do. Like how did you go about trying to figure out how to keep this place afloat while you were still doing your art?

QUINN MURPHY: I don't know if I have yet. It's I might be figuring it out. But it it is. It's it's something that they don't tell you about. I mean, you get into starting a business as as a passion of what you want to do. They don't tell you that you also have to do the finances, do the do the taxes, do the emails, do the the inventory, run the business, you know, start everything. You wear all the hats. Is it my favorite part? No. But is it a necessary part? Yes. And uh you just kind of do it. You just have to do it. That's it. Dive in.

MARK BRODIE: Quinn Murphy owns and runs Hamster Labs in Tempe.