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ASPT Member Biography

Andy MacDougall
Inducted into the Academy in 2007

Andy MacDougall was taught how to cartoon and hand letter by his father who also gave him his first guitar & amp, typewriter and sense of humor. All these things have come into play during his life, brought him into the screenprinting world and eventually, the ASPT.

After highschool in Woodstock Ont., MacDougall worked as a mailman during the day and rock musician at night, eventually leaving the post office and touring across Canada. In most bands, he was the poster and promo guy as well as the guitarist. In Edmonton, Alberta with a daughter on the way he took a job driving truck for Davis Automotive, a retail automotive chain. His lettering skills came to the attention of the owner, and he was put to work making sale signage, which led to the position of advertising manager, where he was soon producing newspaper ads, radio & TV commercials, as well as POP signage for the chain of stores. It was during this time he began screenprinting with a small inhouse set-up to produce show cards and other marketing material.

Finding the hands-on creative process of screenprinting much more interesting than designing bi-weekly newspaper ads for car parts, he took a series of jobs as an apprentice and then printer and shop manager at sign and screen companies in Edmonton & Vancouver. In 1984 he started his company, MacDougall Screen Printing Ltd., and worked for Expo 86 producing pavilion display signage, along with other customers in the emerging software industry, manufacturers requiring printing of 3D parts, and ad agencies producing signage for gas stations, restaurants, and banks. During this time he fought and won a battle over unfair taxation of screenprinter’s stencil materials in the Province of British Columbia, eventually winning a ruling from the Minister of Finance and saving B.C. screenshops thousands of dollars per year.

By the early 1990s, growing tired of large shop management and commercial work, he sold the operation and moved with his wife and two daughters to Courtenay, a small town on Vancouver Island. There he built a custom low-tox studio and printed limited edition art, experimenting with waterbased inks, solar exposing, and continued with the development, sales and marketing of the Parapress line of large format screen presses. He also started teaching night and weekend courses in screen printing during this time, developing a text of instruction for the students.

Since the late 1990s, MacDougall has contributed numerous articles and columns to Screenprinting Magazine, Screen Graphics, Printwear & Promotion(UK) Signmedia (Can) and Printing Review (India) focusing on practical applications and tips, and in 2003 published ‘Screenprinting Today – the Basics’. His Web site, Squeegeeville.com provides free information and links to get people started in screenprinting. TMI Screenprinting Equipment sells large format energy efficient presses, conventional & solar exposing systems, UV dryers, and accessories for growing shops.

Andy takes every opportunity to educate the general public about the usages of screenprinting, lobby governments and schools to promote it as a technology, and encourage existing and new screenprinters to embrace the pursuit of knowledge and training in order to keep the industry healthy and growing. He is a regular demonstrator at the American Poster Institute’s annual Flatstock exhibitions in Austin and Seattle, as well as schools, community centers, artist studios and production shops in Canada and the USA.

On the personal side, he lives with his wife in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth. An avid motorcyclist, he enjoys touring in the mountains along the coast. A local arts supporter, MacDougall has volunteered as marketing director at Vancouver Island Musicfest, oversaw the building of a new art gallery in his town, fundraised for new digital lighting, PA, and stage elevator at the local theatre, and worked with disabled adults in retraining programs focused around special event production and promotion.