CUPMAC Award Winners 2019

We were honored to produce this beautiful perfect bound book of famous Canadian artist Myfanwy Pavelic. The book goes through Myfanwy’s life and accomplishments. It was produced on a Xerox Versant 2100 and bound with our Duplo DPB-500. The paper choice was 124# Carolina C1S cover with 70# Accent Opaque.

“THANK YOU” NOTEPADS

Customer satisfaction is probably the most important criteria for MPS in measuring our success. Every year, we ask our McMaster colleagues to complete a comprehensive survey, evaluating our department on all aspects of service such as turnaround time, quality of work, delivery, and overall customer satisfaction. The feedback provided is not only invaluable in terms of reporting on positive results but, more importantly, allows us to examine opportunities for improved service.

In order to entice as many people as possible to participate, and as means of thanking them for taking the time to complete the survey, MPS produces a free “thank you” notepad for all participants. The notepads themselves are designed in-house, personalized (using variable data) and delivered directly to each individual for that added customer service touch.

The strategy appears to have worked really well, judging by our latest survey data which has seen a year over year increase in the number of respondents of more than 500%. Our customers themselves rated their overall satisfaction with MPS (excellent or above average rating) at 93%.

People love their free notepads.

Equipment: Konica Minolta Accurio C2070 Press

Stock: Insides on 70lb HiTech; Back cover on 10pt cover

Finishing: 6 Up on 12×18, cut and glued.

In taking on the hosting of the 2019 CUPMAC conference, Chris Joakim had a big challenge. There are only 3.5 staff members in Print Services – which includes him, and the day to day production of the Print Room, of course, had to be continuous and uninterrupted.

The University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) has a very good Graphic Arts diploma and degree program, as well as student-employment options. Chris applied to have a Graphic Arts student for the winter term, who could work the allowable 10hrs per week while continuing their studies. Kelly Ning was the successful applicant. Kelly is a 3rd year student and a fairly new resident to the Fraser Valley region, so not only was this employment going to give her a real-time, hands-on experience; she would get to learn more about our local sites and amenities. The exciting thing about Kelly’s designs for the CUPMAC conference is what she was able to recreate from very little. The hotel had very few marketing items with pictures for use…and didn’t seem as up-to-date as one would need. The Harrison Hot Springs Resort is situated adjacent to the famous hot-springs and nestled under the hillsides and on the lake. Kelly viewed a picture of the resort setting, and went from there on her unique design of the CUPMAC conference materials. The richness of her colour choices and the perfection of the setting had one hoping their institution would be able to send their print staff to this lovely locale.
Kelly worked very closely with Chris on the conference materials as he guided her through the details of sponsorship, guest information and so on. We were all excited when Kelly completed each item; and, her very real enthusiasm for what she was doing was contagious.
The quality of Kelly’s work, and the guidance and patience shown to her by Chris has resulted in product that we are all proud of – and, I believe has given a shy, young student the confidence to go places!

The Advancement team approached FASS and Print Plus this past year looking for a solution to their large donor display at the front entrance of Nipissing University. Originally done by an outside vendor, the display is crafted out of wood and plexiglass with varying panels and decorative elements. Originally the panels had been painted either blue, green or gold to correspond with certain fundraising campaigns, however they were out of date. If the panels were to be updated in the same manner that they had been done before, it would cost the University a significant amount of money, however being at the front entrance of the school, it was imperative that it be updated to reflect the current campaigns. FASS and Print Plus were able to work together to find a cost effective solution for updating each panel, by printing the campaign details for the blue and green panels on Sihl Gloss Photo Paper Gloss Paper on our Roland True VIS V6640 wide format printer. The paper was then inserted behind the plexiglass covers with the older campaigns being moved to the outer panels and the focus being drawn to the current campaign in the centre. The current campaign will be printed in the near future on Mojave Clear-Ad Vinyl to let the gold background show through.

MPS Portfolio

Media Production Services (MPS) is an in-plant and ancillary service dedicated to its primary customer, McMaster University. We contribute both financially and by adding value for our University partners. Our business model allows for significant operational flexibility to respond quickly to changes in the market, customer needs, products, services and technology. In response to these ever present dynamics, and to properly market the range of products and services we now offer, MPS decided to design, collectand distribute a portfolio that, in parallel, effectively communicates our strategic vision.

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Unleash the potential of design.
Rediscover the power of print.
– MPS Vision Statement

We think our work speaks for itself. A few years ago, Media Production Services began pursuing a higher standard in our graphic design, web development, printing, signage and other projects. We knew we could do better. We knew we could deliver a wider range of work, more ambitious designs and higher quality results.

This portfolio collects some of our best, award-winning designs, print pieces, and important collaborations from the last three years. We consider it a privilege to help our clients achieve their visions and ambitions in design and printing and these images reveal the kind of work MPS does now with clients and partners both on campus and off.

To everyone who has chosen MPS as your print and design partner, we sincerely thank you for your support and we look forward to working with you again.

Our satellite wide format shop Blink had a request from UVIC Student Recruitment for $30,000 worth of trade show materials. This order included a whopping 84 Banner stands, 40 metal ace frame sandwich boards, 110 D/S coroplast signs, 4 horizontal barrier signs and 6 inflatable pillars. 

We had just over 1 month to complete this order and needed to coordinate with external vendors for hardware and custom materials. Working with our graphics department we managed to get all the art approved in time to send to the external vendors. Once this was done we had to order the sandwich boards and banner stands. It took a lot of co-ordination as the Bookstore was not used to receiving pallets of hardware. 

From there we had 2 continuous weeks of printing ahead of us to produce all the materials. As prints were coming off the printer they were being assembled and packaged for delivery. We also made sure to print a small card to go with each banner stand so the client knew which stand was which during setup. We managed to complete the entire order ahead of time and their event was a huge success. Colleagues from Student Recruitment came in to personally thank us for all the stellar work we’ve done. The best part of this story was that Student Recruitment was originally going to order through Vista Print, luckily they decided to keep the order on campus and saved thousands because of it.

Collaboration and cooperation were certainly at the centre of the largest project our Print Services department undertook this previous year. Our School of Culinary Arts wanted a food truck and they wanted it to stand out. Our faculty in Arts and Science created artwork, our Graphics team worked on mapping and arranging this to work on a van, and Print Services worked on figuring out how to wrap a van. Our Specialty printing up to this point had been limited to windows and banners, but the team rose to the occasion with this all College project.
As we all know is common in academia, things don’t always flow in a timely manner. That is, of course, until the project has to suddenly be ready to present to the Board of Governors. Print Services is asked to please have it all done in 4 days. Wide format printing began, designs draped over every inch of the shop to cure, and the van was off to be washed. Our team mobilized with enthusiasm and precision. Every available member of Print Services was immediately on hand to begin the application process. After one day, member of our Graphics team also came to assist in the application of birds and tentacles. Working the weekend, fueled by copious amounts of caffeine and sugar, the team stood almost in awe of what they had accomplished. The van was done, ready for presentation (well, it had transmission issues, but that was for the automotive trades department to solve… it LOOKED wonderful).
The dedication, fast thinking, flexibility, and commitment of the entire Print Services team brought the vision of several people from around the College to life. Also, to no ones great surprise, the Board was duly impressed.

The installation and training of the Graphic Whizard PT 335SCC

In 2018 The Algonquin College Print Shop identified an urgent need to improve production processes surrounding the scoring, perforating and trimming of print orders. Many orders that required finishing were becoming more costly to complete without automated solutions, antiquated equipment and fewer print production staff.

A decision was taken to invest in equipment to improve processes and productivity by purchasing the Graphic Whizard PT 335SCC.

The installation and training of the new device fell into a peak period for print production where staff of the Print Shop had to participate in the install and training of the new device all while maintaining service level expectations for regular print production orders. This was accomplished by working with the vendor to schedule times to issue the training when our production schedule permitted, and the Print Shop operators taking ownership of the task of training on the equipment and deploying it into production. Despite the busy period, no print orders were adversely affected and in fact, the device was put to use on live orders immediately.

The sample provided with this submission represents the success of the decision and deployment of the Graphic Whizard. What would have otherwise taken 8 hours to perforate 500 sheets on an antiquated Pitney Bowes folder with scoring wheel attachments took less than one hour on the GW.

Production Notes:

Printed on 100lb Hammermill Cover
Print production on a Konica Minolta AccurioPress C3070

Variable data programming, layout and imposition completed by The Algonquin College Print Shop
The card was printed 4-up in reverse order then perforated 4-up on the Graphic Whizard PT 335SCC Multi, then cut to final size.

OPSEU Union Made.

PaperCut Print Management – Environmental Impact FY2018

Algonquin College Print Services introduced a print management solution, PaperCut, to the college in 2015 with the deployment of Konica Minolta and Lexmark printers and MFD’s to staff and faculty. In the fall of 2016 student printing was deployed with PaperCut also managing print for the student user base.

Prior to the introduction of PaperCut and print management to the student population, much paper was wasted in the activity of printing; at labs, in the library and printers around campus stacks of paper would go unclaimed and then be discarded – becoming all wasted paper and energy.

The introduction of PaperCut provided visibility into the cost of printing to students; they could see what the cost of the document they were about to print would be and choose to proceed, cancel or print fewer pages. Often documents would be sent to print but then go unclaimed and time-out in the print queue thereby cancelling the print. PaperCut records data surrounding print and is able to report on pages not printed and the corresponding environmental savings.

In 2018 through the use of PaperCut print management for staff, faculty and students:

-Over 13 million pages were printed on fleet devices and printers
-Over 648,000 sheets of paper were saved
-45 trees were saved
-Over 4,600 KG of CO2 saved

We would like to nominate Stan Nemec as this year’s Hall of Fame recipient. Stan has work at Lakehead University and has been a member of our association for many years in fact we are sure he is the longest standing member. Back in the good old days Stan was involved with the Executive and attended the annual conferences on a regular basis, often times at his own expense. Unfortunately he has not been able to attend as frequently in the past years however we can always count on him to provide advice, answer questions and convey a warm welcome to new members on our list serve.
We are happy to have Stan join us this year and look forward to catching up with him.