Kerry Thompson of Custom Printers in Renfrew explains print production to students from Merrivale High School in Ottawa
Merivale High School’s senior graphic design classes had a great experiential learning activity in late May traveling up the Ottawa Valley to take part in an offset lithography workshop at Custom Printers of Renfrew.
As most secondary schools in Ontario list literacy initiatives as a high priority, a bookmark with a literacy theme was the project assigned to each student.
The class was given the option of using traditional materials as well as vector drawing software to create their images. The school logo and the words “Merivale Library” had to appear on each bookmark.
Custom Printers' Ken Charron shows off press sheet.
Layouts were done in QuarkXPress, exported as PDF files and sent to Kerry Thompson and Ken Charron at Custom Printers, where the bookmarks were prepared for printing on the plant’s Heidelberg.
At the plant, Thompson and Charron walked the students through the company’s print production workflow.
Students were then able to follow the process and watch their bookmarks being printed, varnished and trimmed.
For comparison, Thompson arranged for a few of the bookmarks to be output on Custom Printers’ digital press, while he also explained the advantages and disadvantages of each process and provided the students with some insight into the future of commercial printing.
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We are indebted to the good folks at Custom Printers in Renfrew for making opportunities like this one available to our students each year and for taking an active role in helping our school manage Ontario’s new Specialist High Skills Major initiative.
This article was prepared by Irv Osterer, Department Head – Fine Arts, Library, Communications Technology Specialist High Skills Major/ Communication and Design Focus Program Coordinator, Merivale High School in Ottawa
