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In The Beginning

ZOO-INK was started in St. Louis in 1972.


After graduating from Washington University, 3 friends and I put $400 together to have films and screens made for 2 designs, a Fox and a Bird.


We printed fabric in the basement of our flat by using a fixed screen and pulling the fabric under it for each frame. Frame registration was done visually.

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Bird, Print on Cotton

Fox Design (Film Positive)

San Francisco - Project One - 1973

After realizing there was limited opportunity in St. Louis, I relocated to San Francisco and moved into Project One, an 84,000 sq foot warehouse urban community. My explicit goal was to build a textile screen printing shop.

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Project One, early photo of the ZOO-INK studio. 1973

Being new to California, I was fascinated by both The City and the natural surroundings. For my first true yardage prints I designed 2 urban images (The Transamerica Pyramid building and the Golden Gate Bridge) and 2 for nature (Wood Grain and Tree Banner).

I also spent time developing techniques to produce fabrics using a large airbrush. These one of a kind works led to the idea of breaking down the hard edge of traditional screen printing into a process I called "screening softly".

ZOO-INK, the Designer Line

In 1979 I moved into a larger studio and also published my first collection of fabrics for the Interior Design Trade. I must have hit a nerve as we had national distribution within 6 months.

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Two 30 yard long tables at American Industrial Center, SF

North/South and Light Rain, 1979

Neon Dreams, 1980

Contract Printing

To help pay the rent and fund the growth of the business we printed textiles for other clients, their designs and products to their specifications. This part of the operation continued for the entire life of ZOO-INK.

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