Brand X Editions: Innovation in Screenprinting
Edited by Louis Marchesano
Contributions by Em Dobrovskaya, Emily Friedman, Laurel Garber, Thomas Primeau, Christina Taylor, Robert Blanton, and David DeSanctis
Designed by: Content Object, Kimberly Varella with Gabrielle Pulgar
Hardcover with jacket, 288 pages
Publisher: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2025
ISBN: 9870876333051
Dimensions: 10.5 × 9 in.
Printing: Trifolio srl, Verona, Italy
Celebrating over 400 prints from the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s permanent collection, Brand X Editions: Innovation in Screenprinting highlights 45 years of collaboration between founder Robert Blanton, his evolving team, and the artists who have shaped the studio’s iconic reputation.
Brand X’s intricate print editions pass through hundreds of layers of color, creating an ineffable depth in both work and approach. The design of this book emphasizes the practice behind their medium. The Z-fold dust jacket reveals the top third of the cover, like a squeegee pressing ink through a screen. One side features a series of image separations and testimonials which is screen printed with three colors on mirror foil lamination, the verso an offset reproduction of Rashid Johnson’s Untitled Large Mosaic, doubling as a poster. The clothbound cover, a highly graphic screen print of B and X, embodies the bare bones of their practice.
Thematic sections thread throughout the publication, separated by monochromatic collages of process photos printed on thin glossy sheets. The text grid forms an ‘X’ shape to echo the studio’s iconic mark. Each section reveals layers of history and evolution behind Brand X, bookended with endpapers which feature the team from 1979 to today.
The book concludes with a glossary of terms. Much like a make-ready sheet, this section exposes the ephemeral residue of printmaking, giving the reader insight into the unseen processes that brings the mastery of screenprinting to life.
