Art schools are vibrant communities that offer graduate degrees in a wide variety of art production techniques. Programs such as Print Media and Photography teach students everything they need to know about different types of physical print and media production techniques. One of the more modern techniques taught at these schools is digital printmaking.
The digital printmaking process uses modern inkjet printers or presses to apply images onto surfaces like canvas, cloths, or papers. Although this is usually a one-time-through process, multiple passes can produce unique and creative results.
These departments need the finest quality of inks and substrates to produce wide-format prints or photographs that never degrade. During the design process, there’s plenty of proofing, testing, and experimentation.
Most educational institutions are already spending heavily on printers and paper, but art schools even more so. The digital printmaking faculty need to provide the latest production technologies, within their already constrained budgets. Moving to a managed print services provider can reduce costs and improve controls.
Art School Paper and Printing Supplies
When assignments are due, equipment failures shouldn’t be a valid excuse for being late. This can happen when wide-format, specialty printers, and presses are part of the production process. Although faculty may have a zero-tolerance policy, the student experience shouldn’t include trying to fix old, malfunctioning printers.
Art Supply and Production Rooms
Ensuring students have access to well-stocked supply rooms and properly maintained equipment give them the confidence needed to produce the best quality artworks. While having a modern, production-grade wide-format printing press available expose them to real-world design and production lifecycles.
Equipment Control and Usage Accounting
Modern wide-format printers have integrated access control, usage, and job logging. They also integrate with accounting software. If students have a set amount of prints allocated, the faculty can bill them when they go over their number. Using costing tools that track the media and ink prices, enables students to establish exact production costs for each artwork.
With a managed print service provider, art schools can acquire modern, wide-format production printers or presses at a single monthly feed. With the high-end technology, they’ll also receive support, maintenance, and replenishment.
Artworks Need Consistent and Precise Prints
Consistent and precise results from the printer are essential for creating artwork using digital formats and machines. To ensure they produce consistently, they need to be regularly maintained and calibrated.
By having a managed print service provider, the daily calibration and routine maintenance tasks are automatically scheduled. The service provider monitors the unit remotely, managing the services and replenishment cycles, leaving students free to deal with the quality of their artworks.
The service provider will also ensure that replenishments are uniform, using only the correct toner or liquid inks depending on the unit involved. Once again, this will deliver consistent prints no matter the duty cycle or job count.
Modern canvas printed art (or commercial artworks) popularity is increasing. Making devices available to students to produce pieces ready for commercial sale will make the institution an attractive destination to future alumni.
Blue Technologies Managed Print Solutions for Education
For educational institutions, providing a quality experience within a set budget is a priority. Managing costs, while helping students to achieve their academic goals, requires a delicate balance.
Policing the printing rooms, supplies, and associated costs also become an administrative overhead. Sourcing a service provider that delivers a comprehensive solution can alleviate many of these burdens.
Using integrated access control, pull-to-print authorization, and cost-recovery tools enable Art Faculties to deliver the best experience to learners. Due to the iterative nature of digital art design and production, proofing tools and imaging software can reduce the number of production tests needed. This means additional reductions in overhead by moving to an integrated solution from a managed print service provider.
Using Blue Technologies as a Solution Partner
Blue Technologies serve educational and academics institutions by providing a cost-effective solution for their IT and Managed Print Service needs. They also work with local, state, and federal government agencies to give these institutions access to rebates for educational IT and technology services.
With expert consultants and technicians, they are a leader in office and educational productivity tools and strive to reduce the overheads associated with these activities. Blue technologies team members include former teachers and administrators, giving them the insight required to develop a solution that suits any academic institution.
If you need to upgrade your faculty’s production print technology and need a comprehensive solution that integrates with existing infrastructure, contact Blue Technologies today. They will provide expert advice and strive to understand your unique requirements before proposing any solution.
