Images Digital Edition DEC 2018

IS number of printers including a Mimaki- Tx300P-1800 direct- to-textile printer, a Ricoh SG 7100DN dye sublimation printer and Epson wide format inkjet printers for sampling, as well as the Mimaki UJF3042 UV LED flatbed printer. The print room had been operating as a traditional university print bureau used by a small number of students who would drop off files and wait for the results to be printed. When Stephen was promoted to his current role five years ago, his aim was to encourage students from all disciplines to use the machines and research what was possible with them, rather than just using them as the manuals suggested. “It gave us the opportunity to do things we‘d never have thought was possible,“ he says. F or most people in the garment and textile decoration industry, their main, daily aim is to do jobs to customers‘ specifications and on time. Which is as it should be – it is what decorators are paid to do. Some also make the time to experiment with new inks and test the limits of what their machines can achieve. However, college and university students have the freedom to dedicate substantial chunks of time to discovering and testing new techniques that most commercial decorators could only dream about. The good news is that their experimental work has the potential to benefit the industry as a whole. One educational establishment that offers precisely this opportunity is the School of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Huddersfield. It is, reports Alex Mighall, market development manager at RA Smart, “a forward-thinking university“ with one of the larger print facilities in the UK. Technical manager coordinator Stephen Calcutt oversaw the transformation of the print bureau into today‘s modern space. It houses a Universities such as Huddersfield are where the next generation of innovators have the equipment and time to experiment for the benefit of the entire industry Generation next He also wanted to give the bureau more of a studio feel, an inviting space in which students could come in and try the machines, rather than observe. “When you walked into our old bureau you were stopped by a counter, with all our machinery behind the counter. We opened it up, got rid of the counter and made it more like a showroom.“ The print bureau at the University of Huddersfield has allowed students and lecturers, such as Brent Hardy- Smith, pictured, to foster a more collaborative relationship Students are able to experiment on the machines from their first year www.images-magazine.com 44 images DECEMBER 2018