Communication design which encompasses Graphic design happens to be one of the significant professional courses currently considering how vital designers are in our world today. Becoming a professional therefore in a field like this will mean a person subjects him or herself under a professional training to come out well churned and refined for the profession. As part of the requirements for a degree in design, the students need to intern in an industry or company in their respective fields of expertise in order that they acquire professional skills and practices. This is so crucial because in the classroom, since some facilities cannot be accessed, the learner would have to be connected to a company where he gets that experience to add to his or her knowledge and professional experience.
One intern reading Communication Design with a specialization in Visual Communication was fortunate to have been sent to a printing industry and in this post, we will delve into the new things the learner has been exposed to in such an industry. Remember, this is all about learning new skills and ethics for the profession.
Departments in a printing press
In a printing press with huge machines, expect different departments that work together to get the work done.
Prepress
Prepress happens to be the first section which deals with clients at the frontline. Here a client brings a job, work or contract and then after the problem is understood, the design brief is created out of the client brief and the work begins. This therefore means that this section is the design department where ideas are brainstormed and concepts generated to solve the client's problem.
Press
In the press, the designs received from the prepress section are then printed into actual works. This is where the printing and ink work all happens. So, colour separation in printing into CMYK is all done and finally a full colour work is printed. For industries with high volumes of prints, offset lithographic printing is used because it is one type of printing that happens to work efficiently. Even though there is digital printing, the offset cannot become obsolete because it produces more at a lesser cost as compared to the digital printing. From here the printed works are sent to the post press for finishing.
Post press
The post press is where the finishing work is done. This department also makes use of various equipments that aid in the finishing process. Some include the die cutter, laminating equipments and many others. Finishing means that it is in this section that for instance for an exercise book, the sheets are inserted into the covers, stitched or stapled, cut and then packaged for transport to client. This section works to achieve precision and quality in the final output.
Experiences in the post press
Before the intern went to this section, he had only little knowledge of what exactly it is that this section does. In here, a die cutting machine which is the Heldelberg model was there and looks heavy and this machine could die cut more than thousand sheet in an hour. It works fast with excellent output and one could imagine how tedious the work can be without a machine as such.
Some activities done in this department include: lamination, cutting, folding, trimming and then packaging.
One major technique noticed in this department that ensures precision is the die cutting. Die cutting is a technique that produces replica of the same work especially greeting cards, foldable packages. For a box, for instance, die cutting will help to create the same outline of work million times to precision. It ensures quality work is done at a high speed.
Net of a package. When cut and folded becomes a box
Folded box now looks good and able to hold the products
Team work is a key driver in the section because the work is voluminous and so as some are doing the lamination, others are folding the packages, others are working with the die cutters and still others doing different things to aid the work.
According to the intern, even the few days spent in the printing press teach a lot on productivity and excellence in Communication design. When clients recognize the quality in output, they will keep bringing the jobs because of the assurance of a quality work which means value for their money.
Well good work ethics also add up to the professional code and some as experienced include:
- Respect for co-workers.
- Good communication
- Hard work and open-mindedness to learn and be corrected
Only the technical skills as a Communication Designer are not enough to qualify a person as a professional but a wholistic development of personality is important.
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