Intern Nick's 1st post

Hello,
My name is Nick Gawreluk, with the support of the Printing Industry of Minnesota, I am here to share with you my experiences as a member of the PIM/Pohlad summer internship program. I will share with you how I became exposed to printing, how I got involved with the summer program, and what day to day experiences I encounter. Whether you’re a student looking to be involved, a company looking to start hosting an internship program, or just someone who is interested in printing, I invite you to read on.
I originally became exposed to printing at Roseville Area High School. It is little known, but they have a graphic arts program unique to any other high school in the nation. The instructor, Brian Hoag, has been the mastermind of the department and it’s programs for over 19 years and with his industry and business experience has built up the program so successfully that students have the opportunity to receive college credits or even get employed right after graduation. All based off their experiences within Roseville’s print department. The program starts off with an introductory class where students are taught what exactly graphic arts is, how it’s all around us and more importantly, how we can be involved in it. From there forward, the student is free to choose an array of classes from t-shirt printing, photographics II, offset printing, digital/vinyl e.t.c.. Oh, I forgot to mention, the print department has the current technology and equipment to back this up. You often hear about how companies are exploring the capabilities of going digital, well Roseville already has. Their recent purchase of a digital garment printer has allowed them to expand their capabilities of shirt printing to match or exceed that of any modern screen printing shop around. This compliments their commercial automatic screen printing press; numerous AB Dick offset presses, full creative suite computer lab, Versa Cam large format printer, dye sublimation technology, as well a variety of vinyl cutters. As you can clearly see the opportunities available to me at Roseville were outstanding. My four years there were spent in that department before, during and after school because I could never get enough of it.
When I heard about the Printing Industry of Minnesota’s summer internship program, I was ecstatic! Most kids complain how they hate their summer job and I figured, why not pursue something I really enjoy and obtain first-hand experience all while getting paid? I made a phone call to the PIM and Kris Davis was more than happy to assist me with the information I needed to get started. With over thirty company’s participating in this year’s program, I researched each one and through their websites I got a small feel for what each on had to offer. After endless researching, I was really impressed with GLS. Knowing that I wanted to focus my time at an offset company that was progressive and up-to-date, I made sure to research their equipment list and I saw that they had both a Komori web press and new Heidelberg sheet fed at their St. Paul location; I knew that this was where I wanted to intern. After contacting GLS, setting up a tour, meeting the Human Resource representative, I was ready to go.
I start my internship each morning with a meeting. The head of pre-press, bindery, production, shipping, and estimating discuss that days specific agenda and what deadlines need to be met. If necessary, the production board would be shifted around as needed and each person representing a different department would relay the status and specifics that needed to be completed. Attending this morning meeting was really interesting, as it allowed me to understand production flow from management to the floor in making sure the jobs were coming in and headed out in a fast, effective and timely manner.
After the meeting, I head down to the Speedmaster CD 102 6 color press. Let’s just say it was quite a difference from the little one color AB Dick press at school. Each day I comprehend better how things work by asking questions and helping the operators load plates, clean the ink trays and throw paper. Participating with the simple things, really allows me to see first-hand the overall process of a job. Within the first couple of weeks, I was gaining a good understanding of the workflow on the press. Of all that went on at the Speedmaster, color management is what I found to be the most interesting. I enjoyed the challenge of all the different variables that came into play for each job (paper stock, inks, layouts, coatings, UV) and how each called for something entirely different to get the job completed. Seeing the press operator build up the color and then maintain it over the entire job was really interesting to me. Through that I learned many important concepts such as color sequence, ink density, layout and the capabilities of UV.
After spending some time on both sheet fed and web presses, I was sent to spend time at the pre-press department. There, I gained a great deal of knowledge on the overall workflow of a job. I was taken through the process of how they brought in the files from the client, made changes, adjusted it for the desired press and then processed the plates. I saw how important it is to have an efficient pre-press department that is quick and fluent. The people there were more than happy to answer my questions and give me further explanations of related topics that I could find useful. Examples of what I learned at GLS include the different types of screens used, the principles of stochastic, how their software manages/rips files, as well as the differences between a Fuji and an Epson preview.
Currently, I am over half way done with the summer internship. The plan is in the upcoming weeks to see the estimating, sales side of the company, as well as visit the bindery. So far, being able to spend time at each of the departments has made me feel really well rounded and solid in understanding what gets done to complete a job from start to finish. The people have been friendly and outgoing to answer questions or just introduce themselves and make me feel welcome to the company. After this summer, I will be attending Rochester Institute of Technology in New York to further my education in printing. One day I would like to manage a printing company of my own, and thanks to the experience of this PIM/Pohlad Program, I will be entering college with a great head start.
My suggestions to anybody interested in the summer internship would to be to give it a try. If any aspect of printing interests you, then I believe this is the perfect opportunity to learn and have a good time. There are an array of companies that participate and would fit any of your interests. Whether you have an extensive background or are just learning about printing for the first time, I encourage you to contact the Printing Industry of Minnesota.

-Nick Gawreluk