Summer was action-packed for the Graphic Communication Institute, due to a variety of exciting programs. At the top of that list would have to be the custom training program for Bridge Publications held in August. Other successes include the first collaborative workshop with NorQuest in Canada, and the kick-off of the What They Think-GrCI webinar series; all garnered rave reviews!
To cap it off, we're enjoying the success of our first publishing effort, She Cried for Mother Russia – A Princess in San Luis Obispo.
Kevin Cooper leads a training session on Cal Poly's Goss web press.
The Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly was commissioned to conduct offset lithographic training for one of the biggest private publishing houses in the country, Bridge Publications, the printer for The Church of Scientology.
The initial recommendation to approach GrCI about conducting the training was made by two of the largest printing press manufacturers in the world - Heidelberg and Goss International, because of Cal Poly's expertise in offset printing and training. The church came to Cal Poly for an intensive two-week training program in August as a "jump start" to understanding the theories and applications surrounding commercial lithography.
Employing a cadre of nine Cal Poly faculty members and two technicians, 17 designated staff members were trained in the theory of lithography, color theory, electronic design, prepress, proofing, consumables (paper, ink, fountain solutions, etc.), press (sheetfed and web), quality control (instruments, tolerances and measurements), troubleshooting, plant environment and atmospheric controls, and production management.
The training included a combination of classroom work and hands-on laboratory exercises in some of Cal Poly's more than 33,000 square feet of graphic communication labs spanning prepress, press, post press, quality control and consumable testing.
"With the excellent training provided by Cal Poly's Graphic Communication Institute and Dr. Levenson's team," said Mollie Hoertling, executive vice president of Project Management for the church, "our staff members are very well prepared for the rest of the preparatory and implementation actions involved in the establishment of the offset plant. The new facility will produce church promotion and marketing materials in as many as 52 languages."
NorQuest College Centre for Excellence in Print Media and the Graphic Communication Institute are joining forces in an extraordinary educational endeavor. September 8 saw the successful launch of the new partnership with the workshop presentation of GrCI's popular "Lean Printing: Pathway to Success", at NorQuest College’s campus in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Coming from as far as Ontario, attendees enjoyed two days of intense orientation to the Lean philosophy, specifically as it pertains to the graphic communication industry.
Cal Poly Professor Ken Macro leads a quality control activity at NorQuest College's Center for Printing Excellence.
"NorQuest College is excited to co-sponsor this new effort in partnership with the Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly," says Josh Ramsbottom, Coordinator for NorQuest College's Centre for Excellence in Print Media. "We are all well aware of Cal Poly's leadership in graphic arts education in the U.S., and feel that providing opportunities for attendees to learn from some of the most knowledgeable instructors in the industry will greatly benefit participants here in Western Canada as well as in the U.S. Pacific Northwest."
The next co-sponsored event on February 18-19, 2010 will cover the topic of Variable Data Printing and Cross Media Marketing. Dr. Penny Bennett, Cal Poly’s leading authority on all aspects of digital printing and variable data printing, will be presenting. Please check the GrCI website for the latest information on this exciting event.
This past summer, WhatTheyThink, a leading media, market intelligence and research company for the printing and publishing industries, partnered with the Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly, to bring an innovative education webinar series to printing and publishing executives.
In July, August and September, Professors Kevin Cooper and Ken Macro presented a three-part series on Lean Manufacturing concepts and Penny Bennett provided a presentation on Inkjet and Toner –Their Impact on Commercial Printing's Future.
“As companies in our industry work to redefine themselves in the face of structural change and economic stress, the time is right to introduce a more in-depth program that will deliver “hands-on” practical information and actionable advice that can be immediately used to better align businesses with current market needs.,” said Randy Davidson, President of WhatTheyThink , “We are pleased to be partnering with Cal Poly and the GrCI and leveraging its subject matter expertise in these important programs to benefit our readers.”
Downloadable slideshows and audio of these webinars are available on the WhatTheyThink website in their webinar archives. Please visit the WhatTheyThink Webinar Archive for details on accessing these archives, and please stay tuned for information about upcoming webinars on the GrCI website.
In GrCI's first venture into publishing, She Cried for Mother Russia tells the story of Tatiana Volkonsky, a Russian princess and long-time San Luis Obispo resident, who passed away in 1988 without revealing secrets of her past. The author, Friedl E. Semans Bell, a close friend and neighbor of Tatiana, chronicles the princess's harrowing escape from the brutal Bolsheviks after the 1917 revolution and her subsequent life in Central California.
Friedl Bell signs books at the Central Coast Book and Author Festival on Sunday, October 4.
The book is a joint effort of the author and GrCI. Bell initially contacted Cal Poly because she recalled her father's pride in Cal Poly's hands-on learning philosophy and "learn by doing" approach in educating students. The design, production, marketing, and sales of this book are the result of the combined effort of the Graphic Communication Department, including University Graphic Systems, a student-run printing organization, who printed the book. Sale proceeds will benefit the San Luis Obispo Historical Society and the Graphic Communication and English Departments' educational programs at Cal Poly.
Launched at the San Luis Obispo Historical Society on October 3, and featured at the Central Coast Book and Author Festival the following day, She Cried for Mother Russia has found an enthusiastic audience. For more details on the book, the author and how to purchase, please visit the GrCI website’s Special projects section.
October is a beautiful time to visit San Luis Obispo, and the exciting Lean Printing workshop provides the perfect reason!
Lean Printing - Pathway to Success
October 22-23
Presented by Cal Poly professors Kevin Cooper, Malcolm Keif and Ken Macro
Get ready for a program that will challenge your current ideas on efficient print production! Learn world-class lean manufacturing principles as well as proven strategies and steps for adopting lean management at your plant.
Course details and registration info can be found on the GrCI website.
Although whales can actually be spotted at any time off California's vibrant Central Coast, October is a particularly good time to catch a glimpse of the earth's largest creatures as they head south to warmer waters off Baja, Mexico. A variety of vendors offer whale watching and deep-sea fishing cruises from the coastal fishing communities of Morro Bay and Pismo Beach, less than 15 minutes drive from the Cal Poly campus.
A gray whale migrating along the California Coast surfaces in front of Morro Rock.
Even if you miss spotting a whale, there's no doubt you'll be able to see otters, porpoises, sea lions, pelicans and more! The ecosystem in the Pacific Ocean near San Luis Obispo is teeming with wildlife, and offers a rewarding glimpse of the natural world that can be enjoyed during your post-workshop hours. Better yet, spend a Saturday in SLO to watch the whales before flying home on Sunday.
Learn more about the whales of California's Central Coast at the website for the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education (opens new window) or check out the detailed map of coastal attractions created by California Watchable Wildlife (opens new window).
More Central Coast Whale Watching Links:
Change the default typeface: Before opening a document, change your default typeface (it’s probably Times) by going to the Control Panel and choosing your favorite typeface and point size. Note: If you change the default leading (the leading amount is enclosed in parenthesis if it is default) you will not be able to use the keyboard shortcut to increase size and leading. The keyboard shortcuts for increasing the font size are Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + > or press Shift + Cmd/Ctrl + < to decrease font size. Add the Option/Alt key to increase or decrease font size by five times.
Don’t mistake Registration for Black in the Swatches panel: The color listed as [Registration] may look like black but it should be used with caution. It is a color (swatch) that is set to print 100% on all plates of a document. It is intended to create registration marks that are used to register the printing plates on the press. Using Registration for design elements can cause problems on press, especially when it’s used for small serif type! Since you cannot delete the swatch, it’s a good idea to move it to the bottom of your Swatches panel. First, close all documents, open the Swatches panel, and drag the Registration swatch to the bottom of the list, away from Black. Any change like this that you make while no documents are open will be reflected in all documents you create from then on. Note: The new revamped Preflight panel in InDesign CS4 will check for the use of Registration in a custom preflight profile.
Select a master element on a document page: Using the selection tool, press Shift + Cmd/Ctrl and then select the master page element. Make any local override changes to the element. Do you want the master page element back? In the Pages panel, drag and drop the Master page icon onto the page or choose Remove All Local Overrides in the Pages panel menu and the master page elements will be reapplied.
Contextual Menus: Power-users use contextual menus! The Adobe engineers who designed the program have spent long hours deciding which features you might want to use in each of the contextual menus. When working with type, right click (or Ctrl-click if you use a one button mouse) to see what you can do. Select a text frame and right click to see the options. After you placed an image, right click to see what you can do. Once you get used to contextual menus, you’ll be ready to customize them (Edit > Menus...), choose Context & Panel Menus and click the triangle of any of the 100+ context and panel menus. Turn the eyeball on/off to show/hide an item...better yet, colorize your most used commands. You’ll really increase your productivity if you’re using a two-button mouse.
Anchored objects are easy to create. Simply click on any object using the Selection Tool. Cut or Copy the object to the Clipboard, then click your text cursor next to the text you wish to associate the object with, and Paste. You can then use the controls in the Anchored Objects dialog box to position the object (Object > Anchored Object > Options). There are different types of Anchored Objects: Inline, Above Line or Custom, all of which can be customized. If you’re going to use the Anchored Object style for more than one item, select it and make an Object Style, uncheck the attributes that don’t apply. —InDesign Magazine Issue #26
Clear out unwanted data: You can clear unnecessary data from a document by using the Save As command. When you use the Save command, InDesign appends new information to the document but doesn’t remove outdated data, such as information about a deleted graphic. When you use the Save As command, however, InDesign completely rewrites the document, including only information about objects and pages currently in the document. A document that contains only necessary data occupies less hard drive space and redraws and prints more quickly. —InDesign CS4 Help Guide
How to avoid using [Basic Graphic Frame] and [Basic Text Frame]: As noted in tip #2, it is recommended that you avoid using or modifying the [Basic Paragraph] style, but what about [Basic Text Frame] style or [Basic Graphic Frame] style? Avoid “Basic” when you can, and create your own styles, especially when you have an urge to redefine something called Basic. But what if you want to change the default formatting of these kinds of frames? No problem: first make a new object style, look in the Object Styles panel and drag the little “T” icon that is usually next to the “[Basic Text Frame]” down to your new style. Now your new style is the default! Don’t forget to make a new graphics frame and drag the little icon down to make it the default graphics frame style. —InDesignSecrets.com
The infamous [Basic Style]: If you look at the Paragraph Styles panel, you’ll always see a [Basic Paragraph] style. This is something like Word’s (infamous) “Normal” style, and provides a kind of default style for all text. Here’s the tip: Don’t use this style, or base any other style on it, because we’ve found it can cause problems as we move text from document to document. In a nutshell: if you have defined [Basic Paragraph] style one way, then you copy a paragraph tagged with that style to a new document, the text formatting changes because InDesign applies the new document’s [Basic Paragraph] style definition. That’s usually not what you were hoping for. —InDesignSecrets.com