For 50 years, this SF institution has been defining the look of the city

"It's kind of like, if you use us, you know we're here. For the past 50 years, this independent shop has held on against all odds. There were rent hikes, the Loma Prieta earthquake and the dot-com boom. Then came the economic recession, the pandemic and, more recently in 2022, a devastating fire that forced the business from its longtime home on Bluxome Street and destroyed decades of history in a matter of minutes."

"Screens - the stencils bearing each T-shirt design - cover the walls like a wheatpasted collage of local gigs gone by and past clients: Rainbow Grocery, the Balboa Theater and the Laundromat, to name a few. A darkroom-like space in the corner holds the machine where screens are coated with liquid emulsion, dried and exposed to UV light with a film positive to create each design."

Babylon Burning is San Francisco's oldest screen printing shop, operating since 1976 from an unmarked warehouse in SoMa next to a Vietnamese restaurant. The shop specializes in custom T-shirt printing for local venues, nonprofits, and businesses, maintaining an extensive archive of past clients including Bottom of the Hill, Rainbow Grocery, and the Balboa Theater. The operation uses traditional screen printing techniques with UV exposure and automatic printing machinery. Over five decades, the business has survived multiple crises including rent increases, the Loma Prieta earthquake, the dot-com boom, economic recession, the pandemic, and a devastating 2022 fire that destroyed decades of inventory, machinery, and historical archives at its longtime Bluxome Street location.

Read at SFGATE