Central TAFE’s state of the art print building recently played host to ‘Pinnacles of Print’ a special event highlighting some of the ground breaking digital innovations in the printing industry.
Printing Industries Association of Australia (PIAA), in conjunction with Central TAFE and Océ Australia, one of the world’s leading suppliers of professional printing and document management systems, hosted the event held on 10 March.
The event was part of a continuing relationship Central TAFE has with the printing industry, having last year hosted the PIAA AGM and the 2008 Australasian Association of Printing Teachers' Conference.
Sydney based print industry heavyweight Andy McCourt was a key note speaker, who contrary to some gloomy forecasting, outlined how printing in Australia is a growth industry employing over 100,000 Australians and set to become a ten billion dollar industry by 2012.
Andy is the former editor of the national journal Print 21 and has over 25 years experience in the graphic art industry and regular contributes to publications and conferences across the globe.
Although clearly changing the printing world rapidly, Andy said that the age of the internet is actually helping print find new markets.
He outlined how the successful businesses were embracing technology breakthroughs and continuing to evolve in an increasingly digital environment. This includes the rapid increase in use of websites for direct marketing and the enormous growth in all forms of digital output.
PIAA State President John Stangeland followed Andy and spoke of the importance of graphic art students picking up new skills through the careers and becoming print media ‘all-rounders’.
“Printing has been with humanity for around 600 years and is interwoven in the fabric of society. It is changing for sure, but will always be with us for information, news, entertainment, commerce, packaging, decoration and leisure”, he said.
The presentations also illustrated how the digital print arena was making great strides in terms of sustainability and reducing carbon footprints. There is no longer a need to pulp large numbers of unsold material. Printers have introduced digital short run printing and in some instances only print after a sale has actually been made.
Following the presentations, Andy McCourt gave Central TAFE students free access to a learning tool on colour and ink. He also gave students a condensed version of the presentation given to the industry representatives.
Following a tour of Central TAFE’s facilities, the two speakers and Océ representatives expressed admiration for the standard of work Central TAFE’s Certificate III Printing and Graphic Arts students were producing.
Mr McCourt added that the Central TAFE Graphic Arts training facilities were amongst the best he had seen.