For biographical information see Acc. no. 1990.323 'Additional information'. For background information see Acc. no. 1989.186.001 'Additional information'. In 1979 Michael Callaghan (a former member of the Earthworks Poster Company) worked at the Film and Drama Centre, Griffith University, Queensland, where he set up the screenprinting workshop and established Redback Graphix. Returning to his home town Wollongong in 1980 he continued Redback Graphix in conjunction with Gregor Cullen. From its establishment Redback had a defined artist/client relationship. It was not a collective or open access printing studio, but a graphic arts workshop where the work was organised on a professional basis, wages paid and fees charged accordingly. The posters produced at Redback over the next five years identified strongly with the mainly migrant population that worked at the BHP steelworks. Posters relating to strikes, local politics, unemployment and commmunity issues - often presented bilingually - gave Redback a reputation equal to its name. Callaghan's and Cullen's distinctive style emerged during these years - the posters became larger with a central image flanked top and bottom by text and the colours have a fluorescent intensity accentuated by the use of black. Redback's move to Sydney in 1986 signalled a major change - grants were becoming increasingly difficult to secure - but the idea to set up a financially viable graphic art workshop that catered for socially minded groups and individuals was, audacious. Time has proved its viability but not without moments of crisis. Redback now produces products for a far larger and often national audience. Their clients need a different media approach, whole packaging of products (Film Australia's Australia) is undertaken as well as design for offset lithography and screenprinting. The screenprints are also changing, photo stencils - sometimes from specially painted backdrops - are combined with mechanical tints and handcut stencils. Although Redback posters are now rarely found pasted up in the streets, they remain highly visible. A Redback poster prominent behind the desk of an Amnesty International or trade union representative reaches vast audiences by way of television. This does not mean that smaller audiences have not been targetted. The success of posters produced in consultation with Aboriginal communities is an example of a specific approach. Redback Graphix has outlived many screenprinting workshops around Australia. It successfully made the transition from the 1970s to the 1980s by adapting to dramatically changed political, social and economic circumstances. Edited extract from: Butler, Roger. 'Redback: a web of precedents, people and parallels'. 'Redback Graphix - now we are ten', Redback Graphix, Sydney, 1989, pp.7-8. (For information on the Earthworks Poster Collective see Acc. no. 1992.165 'Additional information'.)