Stephen “Spider” Snider, the owner of “International Institute Of Specialized Art & Screen Print, Inc.” or as it was affectionately known, “Spider and Co.” of Mesa, AZ, which he founded in 1978. He was a freelance artist credited with many innovative art styles for the screen printing industry. Author of many articles on creating art for screen printing. Creator of the Color Teller 1 & 2 and the Moire Teller. In 1981, he authored his first book, “Can Do Art“. This man was responsible for inspiring many screenprinters, especially those in the textile segment of the industry.

Those in the textile segment of the industry will remember Spider strolling the floor of the industry trade shows, especially the Imprinted Sportswear Shows in Long Beach, California. His long hair and full beard helped him to stand out in any crowd. When Spider first started in the industry, art was created by being hand-drawn on paper. After the drawing was completed, a sheet of Rubylith™ or Amberlith™ were placed over the drawing and the artist used a scapel (later an X-Acto knife) to cut around the edges of a particular color. A separate sheet of film had to be prepared for each color. If screen tints were needed, they were placed by hand using tints of various counts and styles that were pre-printed on clear, adhesive-backed, sheets. These had to be precisely lined up to prevent moire in the finished product. If type were need, it could be cut by hand onto the film or from pre-printed, adhesive-backed sheets as well. All in all, it was a tedious job that took hours, sometimes days to complete a single design.

Later, he would reproduce his drawings onto paper and then have them reproduced onto photographic film using a stat camera at first and later with the use of Kodak’s Photo Mechanical Transfer (PMT) method.

His Color Teller 1 and Color Teller 2 were films that could be printed onto shirts to benchmark what colors would be reproduced using different tint percentage, angles, inks, squeegees, and more onto different materials and colors of shirts. They were an eye opening for those of us who created art for textile products.

Spider passed away on June 24, 2009 from complications of kidney cancer. He is survived by his wife Mary Snider of Mesa, Arizona.