6 Panel Project: Heavy and Light.

Each person in my Processes and Materials class was assigned a word pair. Mine was “heavy and light”. With these word pairs, I had to think both conceptually and compositionally in order to take a picture for each given word. Once I had taken both pictures, I had to set up two documents, each being 10″ x 15″. Each document would include 6 panels, which would be the one image taken, set 6 different times. Each picture panel would then be digitally altered, eventually reaching a mixture of your original image and a halftone.

My choice of images contrast against each other. The pictures are of a set of books stacked upon one another and a Bible. The books were to reference the unwinding heaviness that can be put on an individual at times. The Bible, of course, was to represent the lightness that one can feel by reading the scriptures. Even if one does not believe in that particular religion, that doesn’t mean you still cannot feel a sense of calamity. I say this because I have witnessed friends that have experienced this feeling.

National Print Group, Inc. and Retail Merchandising Group.

My Processes and Materials class was able to tour yet again, another printing vendor; this time being called NPG and RMG. We have been extremely lucky with the amount of field trips that we have been able to go on this semester. We learn about different types of printing and how they work, but never officially get to see it during the process. I am more of a visual learner so if your anything like me, you’ll find that the trip I went on was very informative.

My class was able to view one of the largest sheet-fed offset presses in the world, KBA’s Rapida205. This impressive piece of equipment prints 9,000 sheets per hour and with 7 colors plus a UV coater and hybrid ink. While this press is the largest in the world, it is also the only one that has been produced. This press can be viewed below (KBA is on the left side of the image, while an older one is on the right).

The company also has two other lithographic presses that are much older, but work just as efficiently. These two presses print five colors and are still used for projects. This is the press that is paired with the KBA image.

Digital printing is another alternative that NPG offers. They have a variety of printers being used, some being 63″ x 126″ Inca flatbeds (Columbia, Turbo, and Spyder) and 196″ NUR printers ( Expedio and Blueboard). These are only a few of what is used; there is also 8 others.

If being printed digitally, one could print on carpet, fabric, or any object up to an inch thick. That’s AMAZING!

The whole trip was unbelievable and rewarding. I got so much out of the experience and listening to what our tour guides had to say about the processes, while viewing them, made things a little more clearer.

You can view NPG’s website at http://www.tnpg.com/Default.aspx.