October 2005

Competing against professionals from Canada, Latin America, and the United States, a team of graphic communications students at California Polytechnic State University took the silver medal for Digital Books and Manuals at this year's Printing Innovation with Xerox Imaging (PIXI) Awards ceremony in Chicago.

The students' winning entry, "4-forty Magazine: A Compilation of Student Work," was created as a collaborative project in GRC 440, a magazine and newspaper design technology course that is a capstone of the Cal Poly Graphic Communication Department's Design Reproduction Technology concentration. Assistant Professor Lorraine Donegan, who coordinates the concentration and accepted the award on her students' behalf, explained that they worked on the project for seven weeks, after which "our department technician, Bob Pinkin, and I began the process of printing each project" on a Xerox DocuColor digital press that had been given to the university.

"Without the support of our partners in education, such as Xerox, this magazine would not be possible," Donegan said. "It was a great honor for an educational institution to be recognized among commercial printers and designers for quality, design, and innovation."

The PIXI Awards recognize excellence and innovation in digital printing. The competition included Xerox customers across the Western Hemisphere. Winners were selected by a team of graphic communications professionals and were judged on degree of innovation, use of digital technology, and overall aesthetics and effectiveness.

The Cal Poly Graphic Communication Department's Design Reproduction Technology concentration introduces students to the entire design process, including prepress, press, and bindery. Through hands-on projects like their PIXI Award-winning magazine, students learn to adhere to detailed specifications, as well as the intricacies involved in submitting clean digital files to a print provider.