Cal Poly International Printing Week Event Draws National Participation

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.—Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Department held its annual International Printing Week program for four days in January, hosting events such as a lecture series, dedications of new laboratory equipment, a Printing Week banquet, scholarship presentations, a Career Day, and the department's Advisory Board meeting.

International Printing Week commemorates Benjamin Franklin's birthday, his many contributions to society and his advocacy of Freedom of the Press through print.

Industry speakers from around the nation gave talks on design technology, packaging, gravure, digital printing, industry trends, new technologies, Quick Response (QR) codes, and more. Laboratory dedications were for contributions by Dow Jones, Heidelberg, Manugraph DGM, EskoArtwork, Fuji, Hewlett Packard, Kodak, Baldwin Technologies, Xanté, and Goss International.

The Dow Jones & Company Web Printing Laboratory was unveiled, stemming from a $110,000 grant from the Dow Jones Foundation and four added units from Manugraph DGM to a Goss web press (making it an eight-unit press). Baldwin Technologies donated the spray dampening system. Quad Tech provided the automatic register control. And MEGTEC provided the infeed and splicer for the original press. Kodak, Fujifilm and Trelleborg proved the consumables.

Heidelberg was honored for contributing a JDF-compliant POLAR cutter; Xanté for installing an Ilumina Digital Production Press; Hewlett Packard for announcing the pending donation of an Indigo digital web press; and EskoArtwork for the contribution of a Kongsberg XL20 cutting table and the pending installation of an iCut i-XE 10 die cutting system and related software.

The Printing Week banquet was sponsored by EFI, EskoArtwork, Kodak, Ricoh and RR Donnelley. Six wineries from California's CentralCoast contributed wine for the event, held at San Luis Obispo's Embassy Suites hotel.

Industry guru and RIT Professor Emeritus Frank Romano was the banquet speaker and addressed about 100 students, faculty, staff and industry guests. Romano discussed changes impacting print resulting from competing electronic media, as well as how students must prepare for viable graphic communication careers.

Memorial endowment scholarships honoring the late Terry Bell, George Prue and Paul Kissel, all industry giants, were awarded to three students.

The week ended with a Career Day, in which companies displayed and discussed their offerings and held interviews for full-time employment and internships. The Rochester Institute of Technology was on hand to promote graduate school opportunities, and New York University did the same via Skype because of a snowstorm and cancelled flights in New York City.

Simultaneously, the Graphic Communication Department held its biannual Advisory Board meeting. The board is composed of about 30 industry leaders spanning different areas representing the department's curriculum.

"Cal Poly's International Printing Week program has been a focal point of the department for nearly 30 years," said Harvey Levenson, head of Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Department. "It is our gift to the industry and to our students. It lets them know that graphic communication has a rich history and promising future with changing technologies that are shaping communication today and in the future."

Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Department (www.grc.calpoly.edu) was founded in 1946 and is one of the largest and best-known programs of its kind in the nation. It includes concentrations in graphic communication management, web and digital media, design reproduction technology, graphics for packaging, and individualized study. The program is strongly supported by industry with grants and endowments and with equipment, supplies and software for the department's more than 33,000 square feet of modern laboratories.