History was made recently, when the printing industry moved a step closer to forging a long-overdue working relationship with the tertiary education sector.
For some time there's been a growing gap between what our industry needs, especially in the form of graphic designers with even some basic understanding of print. Sadly, many are graduating with only the vaguest notion of how to prepare print-ready files.
This deficit has arisen for two reasons - one, a perception that 'print is dying' and that there is no need for a graphic designer to have an awareness of print. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Print, which includes packaging and signage, is undergoing an expansion which will continue unabated, so long as people buy products from supermarkets (or bottle shops, or pharmacies or cake shops). And sadly, it's the graphic designers who are vulnerable, as Canva (and the like), can easily replace expensive humans for a fraction of the cost. Canva can give you 90 per cent of the quality, for less than half the price - and it's already happening in the US.
Bizarrely, pre-press on the other hand relies much more heavily on customised tweaking, and so remains out of reach of Canva's deadly claws. The demand for graphic designers with pre-press skills will only increase.
The second reason for the gap, is that TAFEs used to include pre-press as part of the role of a graphic designer, but the under-funding of TAFEs around the country, has caused the transfer of many courses (such as graphic design) over to universities who don't have the experience to address the 'hands-on', or practical aspects of what used to be a 'trade'. Specifically I'm referring to the need to offer students more exposure to actual workplace environments. In some ways, we can't blame the universities, as from Medieval times their role was to teach theory and not so much practice.
It seems this is one of the unintended consequences of steering school-leavers towards a university-based training model, rather than a trade- or vocationally-based one. The reality, however, is that many bright, enterprising young kids prefer a factory or manufacturing workplace, yet the closure of so many TAFE courses has meant this opportunity is denied them.
However, enter Western Sydney University (WSU) and the idea of a hybrid approach, where actual, hands-on exposure to the print sector can be included in the graphic design syllabus. Enter two academics from WSU, Leo Robba, associate professor and Dan Johnson, senior lecturer in graphic design, who both spent several hours being introduced to the wonders of print by our industry's very own passionate advocate of print - Ian Dixon, Labelmakers NSW's general manager.
To quote Ian, "Print can offer a young person a career, not just a job", and to prove the point, he gestured to numerous staff who have been there for many, many years (often starting in a lowly role and rising up to be team manager).
Labelmakers NSW, is ideally placed as a teaching site, being located near the university in Sydney's western suburbs - but importantly they're a showcase of the industry with all the latest gear - and, they offer a multilayered product range, including both labels (digital and flexographic), as well as sheet-fed offset for their carton printing and die-cutting.
Furthermore, they have a robust pre-press division which (as Ian diplomatically explained) sorts out the messy files they receive from graphic designers. Again, Ian diplomatically mentioned they recently hosted one of Australia's largest retailers who sent their entire team of graphic designers to Labelmakers to find out how they can improve the 'wow factor' in their packaging designs.
This was the purpose of the visit. The term 'wow factor' cropped up several times during the visit, and we all know it when we see it - it's an intangible, even elusive quality, that all marketers seek.
The secret is the interplay of both creativity by the designer - as well as the appropriate use of materials, inks and special effects (or embellishments) by the printer. To achieve maximum impact, the designer must know what capabilities each printing process has - and the only way that can be achieved is by the designer having an understanding of pre-press - which means spending some time actually working within a printing company.
That was the take-away message from the visit - you can't have one without the other. Both lecturers were impressed by the level of technology at play these days in the print sector. They also saw the value of student interactions with the print industry, whatever form that may take - starting with plant tours, internships, work-experience opportunities, all of which could possibly result in scholarships.
It also opened their eyes to the multiple career opportunities in print - a graphic designer (with a bit of pre-press) can easily transition to be a well-paid digital press operator.
This visit is, hopefully, the first step in bringing both parties together, with the sole objective of making graphic-design graduates more employable. And that's an admirable goal by any measure.