Every day we encounter some form of design. When you drive to school, or to work you seen giant signs directing you to the correct exit, the clothes we wear often sport some form of design- whether it be a cool, abstract design or a tiny logo.
The mugs we drink out of may also support a clever saying about caffeine and the magical powers it possesses, whatever the case may be designed is everywhere and it’s a bigger part of your life than you may think.
More often than not, we don’t stop to think about where things come from, or how they are made. Mark Fischer, the graphics instructor at Portage High School has watched the art of graphic printing grow over the past couple of decades.
“The course title many years ago was Printing Technology, and we solely just did ink on paper. Business cards, letterheads, envelopes, brochures, posters, things along that- anything that had ink on paper. Throughout the years we’ve expanded the title to Graphic Imaging Technology, which encompasses a lot more than just that offset lithography which is ink on paper,” Fischer said.
The industry has moved on from just printing ink onto paper. The class has expanded to screen printing, banner-making, vinyl cutting, decals, stickers, envelopes- basically if you name it Fischer and his students have done it. The world of graphic printing isn’t just limited to creating cool designs, and printing them- it offers a plethora of options for every student interested in graphics.
“We now do screen printing which is t-shirts, we do signs, banners, posters, decals [and] we have cut vinyl where we can do signs and things along that nature. We’ve increased our capabilities of design. We have a lot more students coming in design, and the good goal about the umbrella of graphics is we do embroidering here on jackets and shirts, there’s probably every facet that can fall underneath the umbrella of graphics we can do here. That just makes the student that takes this class that much more marketable when they graduate,” Fischer said.
Graphic printing has become such a vital aspect of the modern day world that Fisher has expanded his student’s opportunities beyond the classroom.
“There were students, but the outside entities wouldn’t hire the students, because they didn’t think they were prepared enough for a field like this, so coming right out of the commercial printing field I knew a lot of people and before I accepted this job I did a little research, I said ‘How come you’re not hiring these students coming right out of high school?’ And a lot of them said they weren’t prepared, we don’t need anybody that knows everything, just a little bit about printing and graphics and things, and we’ll retrain them," Fischer said.
Fischer also described the process in which he reached out to the community to ensure a strong future for the kids.
"The more I thought about it, and things along that nature, I wanted to help the kids, because [in] the graphics industry they weren’t finding jobs. So I talked to all the people around in the area that knew I said, ‘Hey, if I can guarantee you a basic knowledge of what they need to know, be there on time and work honestly. Would you hire them?’ They said yes, and the floodgates opened up," Fischer said. "And since then people that we have in the class, I always try to find them a job after high school, because more times out in the technical background like this the kids do want to go to college, but they would rather go right to work. And if I can lead them down that path it’s a good thing,” Fischer said.
Unlike your typical graphic imaging course, Portage High School has an implant graphics lab. Not only are students able to gain the basic knowledge of graphics, they are also able to see how a commercial lab runs. Fischer and his students work very closely with the school districts surrounding PHS.
“We service the entire school district of Portage Town Schools, so that is all the eight elementary schools, two middle schools, the high school, food services, transportation, auxiliary services, the custodial people, people that fix the school, things along that nature. We’re pretty big, and the good part about it, students do all the work from start to finish,” Fischer said.
By offering services to neighboring schools, and the communities within Portage, students are able to see their work in the real world, and help the community.
“Portage police cars, we created, printed and I take the students over to the Portage police department and put all the decals on the Portage police cars, so any Portage police car you see in Portage, my students have done that. We work very closely with the city,” Fischer said.