A Day in the Print Shop

One of my favorite aspects about being in a creative office environment is the occasional opportunity to mentor student interns. When I take on an intern, I often reflect back on my own internship at a local newspaper.

Each day in the layout and production department presented a learning opportunity where every staff member was a potential teacher.  Everyone from the receptionist at the front desk to the advertising sales staff was willing to share experiences and offer advice. This type of open environment fostered a level of comfort that allowed me to ask questions.

Wanting to make the most of my short internship – a mere 5 months­ before graduating – I asked the manager of the printing department if I could shadow his staff for one day.

I loved going down to the print shop. It was the perfect mixture of sight, sound and smells. It reminded me of my happy high school days when my homeroom was located in the Graphic Arts classroom. There’s nothing like the smell of Bestine solvent in the morning!

From the “chunck-chunck” of the binders saddle-stitching staples into newsletters, to the “swish-swoosh” of the 2-color Ryobi press, the print shop was a cacophony of mechanical rhythm. Wafting above the distinct smell of fresh ink, and glues used for perfect binding and padding, was the aroma of the department manager’s blacker-than-black coffee brewing in his office.

Taped to the doors of a metal cabinet that housed envelope stock was a collection of small swatches of paper of varying weight and colors. Assuming it was a display of available paper stock, I inquired about the colorful mosaic. The pressmen called it their “Bug Collection.”

Thinking “Bug Collection” was some sort of press room terminology like “blanket” or “kiss,” I waded past paper-laden palettes for a closer look, and put my nose nearer to the swatches. ACK! I realized there were actual bugs squished on each and every piece of paper! The pressmen laughed as they explained how insects occasionally get embedded in the pulp when the paper is being manufactured and packaged. And you certainly could not let that go through to the client. You never know what type of industry trivia you will learn on the job!

Time was well spent with each press operator talking about the capabilities and limitations of the machine he/she worked with every day. I learned about different types of papers and saw first-hand how certain inks behave when applied. I began to better understand terms like “dot gain” and “registration”…words I’d only read about in books but never really applied during my on-campus coursework.

What was the most valuable lesson from that day in the print shop? Realizing that the work I produced did not end with me. Use of the proper tools, accurate technical set up, and the organizational quality of my digital files always affects the next person who has to handle the page or file after I am done with it. It is that collaborative effort that inspires me to be an efficient, conscientious layout artist and has made me a better designer overall, regardless of medium.

A Digital Blog Inspired by Print.