An electronic newsletter for students, families, alumni and industry friends of the Cal Poly Graphic Communication Department
Winter Quarter, 2007

 

Cal Poly GrC receives a new Heidelberg CD74 offset press

Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Department recently received a gift of a new Heidelberg four-color Speedmaster CD 74 press from Heidelberg USA. The press commemorates the Department’s 60th anniversary. A dedication took place during International Printing Week at the University.

The press is a perfecting press that has a double sized impression cylinder. It also has an infrared anilox coater that can be switched to a two-roll coater. Safety features include a laser beam detection system that stops the press should something fall into the delivery section and also provides for operator safety. The Speedmaster CD 74 uses a Prinect workflow management system and can preset ink keys based on data from CIP3, CIP4, and JDF applications.

The press, valued at $1.6 million, will be used in Cal Poly’s Sheetfed Printing class and by the Graphic Communication Department’s experiential student-run, faculty advised, printing and publishing enterprise called University Graphic Systems (UGS). The press will also be used in industry seminars and workshops conducted by the Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly (www.grci.calpoly.edu).

Kodak Trendsetter 800 III Quantum platesetter
brings Cal Poly’s Digital Imaging Laboratory to the state-of-the-art

The Graphic Communication Department received a gift from Kodak of a Trendsetter 800 III Quantum platesetter. The system, valued at nearly $190,000, expands the department’s Digital Imaging Laboratory that includes another Trendsetter platesetter as well as black and white and color digital and variable data printing systems.

The new Trendsetter, with its processless capabilities, is an eight-page thermal platesetter. It will produce plates for the Graphic Communication Department’s Heidelberg four-color Speedmaster CD 74 press and its four-high Goss Community web press. The Trendsetter 800 III Quantum platesetter will also be used in seminars and workshops conducted for industry by the Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly.

Cal Poly receives Degrava digital press

The Graphic Communication Department received a donation of a Degrava DP 8500 digital press. The press is a narrow width web roll-to-roll full-color label press meant for the short-run color label market. It is a toner-based continuous printing system that prints on paper, synthetics, and adhesive backed substrates. The press is suited for runs of 2000 or under. The system is completely digital and requires no plates, it uses dry toner, and prints at a rate of two inches per second on an 8” wide web.

Graphic Communication Department endowment surpasses $1 million

The Graphic Communication Department reached a milestone when its endowment value exceeded $1 million earlier this year. This includes a number of individual endowments serving many purposes including program development, laboratory improvements, scholarships, professional development, program concentration support, and more. The GrC department has one of the largest endowments of any individual department in the university and has set a goal to reach $2.5 million by the end of 2007, culminating the department’s 60th anniversary celebration.

Virtual Proofing seminar to be offered

The Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly has teamed up with New York University’s Graphic Communications Management and Technology program to conduct a seminar on Virtual Proofing in New York City. The seminar will take place on April 17 at the Woolworth Building in Downtown Manhattan. The all-day program will feature presentations from Cal Poly and NYU as well as from Time Inc.; Apple Computer; Foote, Cone & Belding advertising; Dalim Software; ICS; GTI; and Kodak.

California Integrated Waste Management Board contract for GrCI

The Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly has received a $300,000 contract from the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) to provide production services and help manage the assets being used to prepare curricula for grades K – 12 for the State of California. Working in conjunction with National Geographic magazine, the curricula will focus on issues related sustainability, health, and conservation.

Lean Seminar

“Lean Management” is the focus of seminars, workshops, consulting, and publishing being performed by members of the Graphic Communication faculty. Professors Kevin Cooper, Malcolm Keif, and Ken Macro have be placing the Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly (GrCI) in a leadership role on the topic of “Lean.” They have been introducing the concept of Lean Management in classes as well as providing GrCI industry services addressing lean management strategies. A book on “Lean,” published by PIA/GATFPress is being written by the three professors and should be available in Fall 2007.

PrintFest Seminars

The Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly is managing the seminar series that will be held at the upcoming April 19 – 21 PrintFest exposition in Long Beach, California. The seminars include:

Everything you need to know about Variable Data Printing
Dr. Penny Bennett, Associate Professor of Graphic Communication, Cal Poly

Virtual Proofing — the wave of the future for saving time and increasing profits
Roger Siminoff, Graphic Communication Research Professor From Industry at Cal Poly

Managing knowledge and acknowledging management: the print solutions provider of the future
Ken Macro, Assistant Professor of Graphic Communication, Cal Poly

Grow sales revenue through new industry knowledge
Nancy Wallan, NW Consulting, representing the Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly

Bring InDesign CS2 into your workflow
Lorraine Donegan, Assistant Professor of Graphic Communication, Cal Poly

Image manipulation alternatives for graphic designers and photographers
Ken Rothmuller, Graphic Communication Lecturer at Cal Poly

RGB work flows are the future
Brian P. Lawler, Assistant Professor of Graphic Communication, Cal Poly

Career Day

The Graphic Communication Department Career Day program, held three times each year, has grown in popularity. It has become the main source of recruiting by companies wanting to hire Cal Poly Graphic Communication graduates. The next Career Day takes place on April 13. See the following link for details on the program.

http://www.calpoly.edu/~mkeif/career_day/career_day_FAQ.htm

Or e-mail Ken Macro for more information (kmacro@calpoly.edu) .

GrC Joins US Display Consortium

The Graphic Communication Department, along with Cal Poly's Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department (IME), and the Cal Poly Laboratory for Global Automatic Identification Technologies (PolyGAIT) become part of the US Display Consortium initiative. In doing so, GrC joins Princeton, Cornell, Motorola, GE, Kodak, and other organizations in engaging in research, testing, product evaluations, seminars, workshops, and conferences addressing issues related to the flexible, printed, and organic electronics markets.

Underway through the initiative are:

- A likely technology tutorial planned for the House of Representatives’ Science Committee, scheduled in early May.

- A "USDC Flexible Displays and Electronics Conference" that will focus on academic programs.

- Networking opportunities among academia, government and industry

Students Attend TAGA Conference

Nine Graphic Communication Department students and department head Harvey Levenson will attend the 2007 annual conference of the Technical Association of the Graphic Arts (TAGA) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The students, members of the Cal Poly TAGA student chapter, will present this year’s research journal with papers on:

Graphic Communication students to attend May Flexo Conference

Several GrC students will attend the 2007 Flexographic Technical Association Forum in Montreal, Canada in May. The conference theme is “Crossing Borders: Flexo’s Global Gateway. At the conference, the Phoenix Challenge College Competition will be introduced – a new college-level competition focused on Flexographic research and printing. Cal Poly students expect to actively compete with other university and college students offering coursework in flexography.

GrC Sponsors Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series

The Graphic Communication Department received a College of Liberal Arts grant to host a GrC 60th Anniversary Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series.

The first lecture was conducted by Dr. Michael Cunningham, a Clinical professor of entrepreneurship, San Diego State University and a Research Professor From Industry at Cal Poly. Cunningham's areas of specialization are sales and marketing, organizational theory, leadership, mergers and acquisitions, private and public financing, and entrepreneurial studies. His talk was entitled, "Entrepreneurship Across the Disciplines and Across Time”

Cunningham’s career began in the early 1980s when he was with Gibson Graphics and then Scott Printing, both in New Jersey. Cunningham formed CGII in 1989 and took the company public in 1998 after it grew to 1,700 employees and revenues of approximately $185 million. He sold CGII to Automatic Data Processing Corp. in 2000.

The next lecture will be conducted by Ms. Robin P. Williams on May 17

Robin P. Williams is the author of dozens of best-selling and award-winning books about the Macintosh, including the groundbreaking The Little Mac Book and Robin Williams’ Mac OS X Book. She is an icon in the Macintosh community. Through her writing, teaching, and seminars, Robin has educated and influenced an entire generation of computer users in the areas of design, typography, desktop publishing, the Mac, and the Web.

Ms. Williams is well-known for her books on design, typography and technology. She is a frequent speaker at conferences around the US, most recently at the Adobe InDesign Conference. Her latest book is Podcasting and Blogging with GarageBand and iWeb.

She is also the author of a terrific new book of a different genre: The Sweet Swan of Avon – Did a Woman Write Shakespeare? published this year by Wilton Circle Press.

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e-impressions is published quarterly by the Graphic Communication Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Harvey R. Levenson, Department Head. Telephone: (805) 756-1108. E-mail: hlevenso@calpoly.edu.

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This edition of e-impressions was designed by Tiffany Shibata as part of her coursework for GrC 322, Advanced Digital Typography. The design was selected from 30 submissions.