A newly released research monograph from the Printing Industry Center at RIT studies the sensitivity of the quality of reproductions of monochrome photographs to different viewing illuminations. Titled “Evaluating the Impact of the Variability of D50 Light Booths on the Appearance of Reproductions of Monochrome Photographs” (PICRM-2012-05), the monograph is authored by Susan Farnand, staff scientist, Carlson Center for Imaging Science; Brian Gamm, graduate student, Munsell Color Science Laboratory; Franziska Frey, Ph.D., McGhee Distinguished Professor, School of Print Media; Simon Muehlemann, graduate student, School of Print Media; and Ishtar Laguna-Monroy, graduate student, School of Print Media.

This experimental study further explored a result from a recently completed project sponsored by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which revealed that reproductions of a monochrome photograph suffered from visual differences in reproduction quality depending on the light source they were viewed under. This initial experiment was repeated with a variety of monochrome photographs similar to, and including, the platinum print used in the Mellon study. The photographs, selected from IPI’s collection, were imaged by three cultural heritage institutions, printed on a variety of equipment at RIT, and visually assessed under two D50 lighting set ups. A survey of D50 light booths used throughout the print production workflow was also conducted as part of this study. [break]

Key findings include:

• Most of the viewing booths tested exceeded or were within close range of the CRI tolerance, most were also within the illuminance and illumination uniformity tolerances, and all had MI_VIS values of less than 1.1. Although the data suggests that all of the booths had the ability to acceptably render prints, all but three of the thirteen booths were outside of the chromaticity tolerances. Nevertheless, further studies must be conducted to determine the degree of rendering variation across a variety of printed samples and how the rendering variation compares to ISO 3664-2009 conformance.

• There were few changes in the way reproductions of vintage photographs were ranked under two different lighting conditions, with one exception: a ‘chocolate’ platinotype print. It could be that there is something about the materials used in the platinotype process that make these prints more susceptible to changes in viewing illumination or geometry, especially for more chromatic prints.

• There were differences in the way that electrophotographic prints and those made using the wide-format ink jet and digital silver halide printers were ranked under the two lighting conditions. One of the key differences between the electrophotographic prints and the ink jet and digital silver halide prints is surface finish. The differences in relative image quality for the chocolate platinotype image may have been the result of differences in viewing geometry rather than viewing illumination. Further study should include an analysis of BRDF measurements for this image and its reproductions.

The full report is available for download as a PDF from http://print.rit.edu/research/show/171.

About the Printing Industry Center at RIT
The Printing Industry Center is a joint program of the RIT School of Print Media in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences and RIT's E. Philip Saunders College of Business, and was established in 2001 by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as one of the Sloan Industry Centers. The Center is dedicated to the study of major business environment influences in the printing industry brought on by new technologies and societal changes, creating a forum for printing companies and associations worldwide to access a neutral platform for the dissemination of knowledge, to share ideas, and to build the partnerships needed to sustain growth and profitability in a rapidly changing market. For more information, please visit http://print.rit.edu.

###

Media Contact:
Ashley Walker 
Marketing Communications Coordinator
Printing Industry Center at RIT
585-475-4231
aswppr@rit.edu

Among the day’s highlights will be presentations from experts in the gravure printing industry and a luncheon with door prizes. Activities go from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Frank E. Gannett Building, Neblette Conference Room, on the RIT campus. All events are free and open to the public; registration is required. [break]

The following is a rundown of the day’s topics and featured speakers:

• 8:15 - 9:00 a.m.— "Welcome," Chris Bondy, RIT; "Gravure@RIT Update," Professor Robert Chung, RIT
• 9:00 - 9:45 a.m.—“ISO 15339 - Printing from digital data across multiple technologies,” David McDowell, Visiting Scholar, RIT; Standards Consultant
• 9:45 - 10:30 a.m.—“UPWORD - Universal Printing Workflow,” Elie Khoury, CEO, KEE Consultants and Alwan Color Expertise
• 10:45 - 11:30 a.m.—“PSA — Printing Standards Audit,” Professor Robert Eller, RIT
• 11:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.—"Gravure Education Foundation: What It Can Do For You," TBD
• 12:15 - 1:30 p.m.—Lunch and remarks

To learn more about the day’s events and to register, visit http://cias.rit.edu/~gravure/gravure/gravure_day.html. The registration deadline is March 8.

A newly released research monograph from the Printing Industry Center at RIT provides an overview of ‘green’ print behaviors in an office setting. Titled “Drivers of Greener Print Choices: An Exploratory Study of Print Consumer Environmentalism” (PICRM-2012-04) the monograph is authored by Kaitlyn Werner, an undergraduate student in the RIT Honors program, Sandra Rothenberg, Ph.D., an associate professor in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business at RIT, and Joseph Miller, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business at RIT.

The survey-based study investigated what green print behaviors were currently in use by consumers, what motivates them to use green print options (including the environmental factors that impact the desire to modify one’s behaviors), and what barriers exist to using green print options. The researchers also sought to understand what informational and technological tools would be useful in helping to motivate consumers to use more green print options. After an initial focus group session with ten employees from the focus firm, the survey was sent to the entire firm, with 92 respondents completing the survey. [break]

Key findings include:

• 49% of survey respondents use duplex printing as default. Therefore, companies should consider providing employees tools for dual screen functionality and coordinate office printers to default duplex printing.

• 61% of survey respondents were highly interested in receiving data about the dollars saved from the use of green print behaviors, which signifies that this in particular is a quantifiably strong motivation for individuals. Therefore, when print providers develop informational tools to encourage adoption of greener print behaviors, it is wise to start with financial information about savings from the use of greener behaviors.

• There are different motivational factors that influence behavior change. Those employees who are motivated by achieving goals, as opposed to meeting peer expectations or a desire to help the environment, will be most likely to engage in green behaviors that are aligned with these goals. This suggests that feedback on environmental impacts of print decisions, in relation to company and personal goals, is an important factor in encouraging green print behaviors.

The full report is available for download as a PDF from http://print.rit.edu/research/show/170.

About the Printing Industry Center at RIT
The Printing Industry Center is a joint program of the RIT School of Print Media in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences and RIT's E. Philip Saunders College of Business, and was established in 2001 by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as one of the Sloan Industry Centers. The Center is dedicated to the study of major business environment influences in the printing industry brought on by new technologies and societal changes, creating a forum for printing companies and associations worldwide to access a neutral platform for the dissemination of knowledge, to share ideas, and to build the partnerships needed to sustain growth and profitability in a rapidly changing market. For more information, please visit http://print.rit.edu.

###

Media Contact:
Ashley Walker 
Marketing Communications Coordinator
Printing Industry Center at RIT
585-475-4231
aswppr@rit.edu

by Marcia Morphy

This Centaur is not related to Greek mythology, but it is a historic typeface that is considered to be one of the great-grandparents of today’s fonts. Designed by Bruce Rogers in 1910, the type is based on Renaissance models and often considered the most elegant and noblest of all the Roman fonts.

RIT’s Cary Graphic Arts Collection houses the original moulds and is lending Rogers’ matrices for the Centaur, or “Museum Capitals,” to The Dale Guild Type Foundry in New Jersey so new foundry type can be cast from them. Engraved by Robert Weibking in 1914 for use by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, this is the first-ever publicly available casting from these noteworthy matrices. [break]

Steven Galbraith, curator of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at The Wallace Center, says: “The Cary Collection is excited to be working with the Dale Guild to bring Centaur type back into circulation. The project is a perfect example of how our collection serves not only to preserve typographic history, but to make it accessible and relevant to today’s artists.”

Assistant curator Amelia Hugill-Fontanel adds: “The analogy that I use to help explain the process is that famous historic photographs didn’t exist unless the negatives were first imaged. The matrix is the ‘negative’ of a character for a typeface cast in metal. The amazing thing is that these matrices still exist and RIT is the keeper of them.”

For more information, call 585-475-3961 or go to http://library.rit.edu/cary.

Source: http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=48884

This month's case study, Print Service Provider "Moooves" Audience to Action with Cross Channel Marketing, will be available until February 29, 2011. [break] 

As a print service provider, Boelte-Hall has been a participant in the Ag Media Summit (AMS) since its inception in 1999. The agricultural market is a key vertical market for Boelte-Hall and they wanted a direct marketing campaign that would show AMS attendees the power of cross channel marketing and increase traffic to Boelte-Hall's booth at the Summit.

A direct marketing campaign was developed that incorporated direct mail, Personalized URLs, QR codes, and social media. The campaign drove booth traffic and was an excellent lead generation tool as 44.9% of survey respondents requested more information on cross channel marketing.

Read it today!

A newly released research monograph from the Printing Industry Center at RIT uses a real-life printing dataset and simulation techniques to determine the passing probabilities of a job as a function of sampling, tolerances, and the pass/fail criterion of a job. Titled “Statistics and Decision Making as Applied to Printing Conformity Assessment” (PICRM-2012-03) the monograph is authored by Robert Chung, gravure research professor, RIT School of Print Media; Changyong Feng, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Rochester; and Ping-hsu Chen, a graduate student in the Carlson Center for Imaging Science.

The main objective of this research was to take an in-depth look at standards-related causes of nonconformance. By devising a conformity assessment prediction model based on reasoning and statistical theory, this research analyzed the factors that impact printing conformity. Since conformity assessment is a decision-making process based on random samples, the statistical theory developed in this research offers a solid foundation for predicting passing probabilities of a printing job. In addition, this research explored the use of a printing dataset and a simulation technique to study the effect of tolerances and sampling rules on the percentage of jobs passed. [break]

Key findings include:

• As demonstrated in the conformity assessment prediction model, an increase in the number of sampling rules can significantly impact the passing probability of a job. Therefore, when standards are being developed, it is important to keep in mind that (1) variation conformity assessment requires sampling (which is random in nature), and (2) the number of normative requirements, tolerances, and sampling rules can impact the passing probabilities of a job.
   
• For printers who are seeking printing certification, it is important to note that the passing probability of a job ultimately depends on the process calibration and the effectiveness of local process control.

The full report is available for download as a PDF from http://print.rit.edu/research/show/172.

About the Printing Industry Center at RIT
The Printing Industry Center is a joint program of the RIT School of Print Media in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences and RIT's E. Philip Saunders College of Business, and was established in 2001 by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as one of the Sloan Industry Centers. The Center is dedicated to the study of major business environment influences in the printing industry brought on by new technologies and societal changes, creating a forum for printing companies and associations worldwide to access a neutral platform for the dissemination of knowledge, to share ideas, and to build the partnerships needed to sustain growth and profitability in a rapidly changing market. For more information, please visit http://print.rit.edu.

###

Media Contact:
Ashley Walker 
Marketing Communications Coordinator
Printing Industry Center at RIT
585-475-4231
aswppr@rit.edu

Chances are you’ve never seen all these iconic reproductions together in one gallery space. There’s Andy Warhol’s Marilyn, Edvard Munch’s Scream, Grant Wood’s American Gothic, Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night and Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

And hanging majestically from the ceiling—as if it were housed in the Sistine Chapel—is The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo’s paneled masterpiece that serves as an imposing focal point.

The University Gallery at Rochester Institute of Technology presents its newest exhibition, “20 Works of Art in the Age of Digital Replication,” by Doug Manchee, now through March 2. An artist reception and gallery talk will be held 5–7 p.m. Feb. 23. [break]

Manchee digitally recreated 20 of the most reproduced, iconic paintings in history. “I chose idealized images like Georgia O’Keefe’s Black Iris III—the kind people look for and purchase in poster stores,” explains Manchee, associate professor of photography and chair of the advertising program in RIT’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences.

“I took 20 scans of the same painting—all from different books or publications and in various sizes—and layered the images on top of one another. I ended up with a new interpretation where everything is blurred but still highly recognizable.”

Manchee left one in-focus detail that viewers with a sharp eye for the overall composition might notice.

“I chose a defining element in the painting that would always remain sharp and the same when I superimposed—and the farther you get away from that point, the more blurred the image becomes. In Michelangelo’s fresco for instance, it’s the finger of God touching Adam’s hand.”

After blending all 20 scans of each reproduction, Manchee reformatted the final image to match the exact dimensions of the original painting.

“But some of the final images were larger in dimension than the maximum width of 44 inches used in our lab’s ink jet printer,” he says. “So the end result is two, or sometimes three, panels hinged together. Technology sometimes has limitations, but you can still get the idea of the relationship between the original and the reproduction.”

University Gallery is located in James E. Booth Hall—adjacent to RIT’s Vignelli Center for Design Studies, home to the entire archive of graphic and product designs by renowned international designers Massimo and Lella Vignelli. Gallery hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. For information, contact University Gallery Manager Jessica Erickson at 585-475-2404 or jleugs@rit.edu.

Source:

by Kevin Fuller

The standardization of printing, process control and color management are all at the center of the latest edition of the popular printing industry publication Test Targets 10, published by Rochester Institute of Technology.

The publication contains six papers, authored by School of Print Media faculty, students and industry professionals. Two papers focus on printing standardization and conformity assessment, two papers look at the effects of paper containing optical brightening agents, one paper discusses ink verification and another looks at a press calibration comparison. [break]

“Many people collect Test Targets because they contain printed samples to showcase what’s possible with prepress and printing technologies,” says Robert Chung, Gravure Research Professor in the RIT School of Print Media. “In this issue, Test Targets showcases the visual effect of pictorial and synthetic color images printed on paper with and without optical brightening agents.”

The 84-page publication was printed at RIT on the Goss 2000 web offset press, with custom insert pages printed on the Heidelberg Speedmaster 72 sheet-fed offset press and a cover printed on the HP/Indigo 7000 digital printing press. Test Targets 10 is a practical application of the integration of digital data that are color managed and printed across multiple marking technologies—both digital and traditional printing devices.

“Test Targets 10 represents a global and integrated effort from top researchers and industry experts,” adds Chris Bondy, administrative chair, RIT School of Print Media. “Collaboration on this publication was provided by a number of distinguished experts. David McDowell, Abhay Sharma, Elie Khoury and Eddy Hagen all served as peer reviewers to ensure the quality of this publication. The Test Targets publication has been a longstanding outcome of RIT’s continual commitment towards thought leadership in the area of print media and process control.”

Test Targets publications are distributed for classroom use and are also available for visitors of the RIT School of Print Media. To purchase your own copy of the current or back issues of Test Targets, go to the RIT Cary Press Web store at carypress.rit.edu/subject/print-media. Issues of Test Targets are available for $24.95 plus shipping. Profits from the sale of the publication are donated to the RIT School of Print Media scholarship fund.

Source: http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=48831

A newly released research monograph from the Printing Industry Center at RIT analyzes the factors contributing to the selection of paper for books of reproduced fine art printed on digital presses. Titled “An Analysis of the Factors Influencing Paper Selection for Books of Reproduced Fine Art Printed on Digital Presses” (PICRM-2012-02) the monograph is authored by Brian Gamm, a graduate student in the Munsell Color Science Laboratory; Franziska Frey, Ph.D., former McGhee Distinguished Professor, School of Print Media; and Susan Farnand, staff scientist, Carlson Center for Imaging Science.

The research involved three stages: first, interviews with 13 professionals involved in the production of fine art books; second, a psychophysical experiment in which observers ranked images on the basis of image quality; and third, physical measurements of the sample papers. The experimentation used a set of four images—representing four types of art media—which were printed on twelve papers using two digital presses. Results from the psychophysical experiment were analyzed, and a model was developed to predict the probability that a paper was ranked in the top three. [break]

Key findings include:

• The probability of a book being judged as having high image quality was optimized for papers with high coolness, low roughness and low gloss. Neither print-show-through, line raggedness, nor mottle were significant factors.
   
• An additional lexical analysis provided complementary data to the psychophysical results. Observers’ descriptions of their ranking strategies did not match the rank data, suggesting a possible disconnect between observers’ conscious and subconscious ranking behaviors.

The full report is available for download as a PDF from http://print.rit.edu/research/show/169.

About the Printing Industry Center at RIT
The Printing Industry Center is a joint program of the RIT School of Print Media in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences and RIT's E. Philip Saunders College of Business, and was established in 2001 by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as one of the Sloan Industry Centers. The Center is dedicated to the study of major business environment influences in the printing industry brought on by new technologies and societal changes, creating a forum for printing companies and associations worldwide to access a neutral platform for the dissemination of knowledge, to share ideas, and to build the partnerships needed to sustain growth and profitability in a rapidly changing market. For more information, please visit http://print.rit.edu.

###

Media Contact:
Ashley Walker 
Marketing Communications Coordinator
Printing Industry Center at RIT
585-475-4231
aswppr@rit.edu

A newly released research monograph from the Printing Industry Center at RIT studies the amount of personalized print produced by printing companies in Europe. Titled “Personalization in Europe” (PICRM-2012-01) the monograph is authored by Jeanette Bredsten, a graduate student in the School of Print Media, and Patricia A. Sorce, Ph.D., Fawcett Distinguished Professor, School of Print Media.

The survey-based study investigated the amount of personalized print produced by printing companies in Europe, the challenges these printers are facing when producing personalized jobs, and how the market for personalized printing in Europe differs from that in the US. The survey was sent to members of the International Confederation of Printing and Allied Industries (Intergraf), with a total of 37 companies participating. [break]

Key findings include:

• On average, 6.6% of participants’ revenue came from personalized print in 2010. The level of personalization most companies (35%) listed as their major source of revenue was mail merge.
   
• The top challenge European printers face is communicating the value to customers of the ROI (Return on Investment) benefits of personalization (45%).
   
• Though the low response rate from the study restricted the ability to generalize results, an examination of the sample differences revealed that the average amount of revenue obtained from personalized print was over 50% lower in Europe (6.6%) than in the US (20.9%). (U.S. data was based solely on digital printers.) The level of personalization that most printing companies indicated generated a major part of revenue was mail merge, both in Europe (35%) and in the US (61.4%).

The full report is available for download as a PDF from http://print.rit.edu/research/show/168.

About the Printing Industry Center at RIT
The Printing Industry Center is a joint program of the RIT School of Print Media in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences and RIT's E. Philip Saunders College of Business, and was established in 2001 by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as one of the Sloan Industry Centers. The Center is dedicated to the study of major business environment influences in the printing industry brought on by new technologies and societal changes, creating a forum for printing companies and associations worldwide to access a neutral platform for the dissemination of knowledge, to share ideas, and to build the partnerships needed to sustain growth and profitability in a rapidly changing market. For more information, please visit http://print.rit.edu.

###

Media Contact:
Ashley Walker 
Marketing Communications Coordinator
Printing Industry Center at RIT
585-475-4231
aswppr@rit.edu

Photographing a historic Rochester landmark in grand and unique fashion is the goal of this year’s Big Shot at Rochester Institute of Technology.

As part of RIT’s 27th annual Big Shot, photographers and light painters alike will head to Seabreeze Amusement Park to make the nighttime photograph on May 3.

“We’re really excited to be able to photograph part of Rochester’s rich history,” says RIT faculty member Michael Peres, who co-organizes the event. “This year we are going to stage a huge production because of the venue and we’re always thrilled to have the greater Rochester community involved.” [break]

The community event requires hundreds of volunteers to partake in the nighttime photo-making process. Volunteers use only flashlights and camera flash units to light up the subject. Experts refer to the process as painting with light. RIT photographers take long exposures while volunteers from the community “paint” the subject with light.

This year’s subject will feature numerous rides located at the historic Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester. Seabreeze Amusement Park is a historic family owned and operated amusement park in Irondequoit, a suburb of Rochester. The park opened in 1879 and is the 12th oldest amusement park in the world.

Faculty members Michael Peres, Bill DuBois and William Osterman from RIT’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences and Dawn Tower DuBois from RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf are the main organizers. RIT’s Big Shot photography project began in 1987 and has drawn thousands of volunteers and spectators over the years. Since its inception, past Big Shot photos have captured national and international landmarks including the Intrepid Air Sea and Space Museum, the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden and George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. To view all past 26 Big Shot photographs, go to www.rit.edu/bigshot.

Anyone is welcome to participate in the Big Shot event. To learn more about the project, go to www.rit.edu/cias/bigshot/BS_2012.html.

Source: http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=48810

by Alexandria Strader

RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science will hold its annual Imaging Hall of Fame induction ceremony later this month to honor famous notables from the world of imaging science.

New inductees will be announced at 4 p.m. Dec. 14 in Carlson Auditorium. The keynote speaker will be Geoffrey Ozin, professor of chemistry at University of Toronto, who will present “Photonic Color: Lab-to-Market.” A reception will follow the keynote at 5 p.m. at Lovin’ Cup in Park Point. [break]

Each year, the Imaging Hall of Fame announces new inductees, honoring them with a ceremony. A keynote presentation is given, and a small reception for students, faculty, staff and alumni follows. Last year the center inducted John Logie Baird, George Carruthers, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz and Joseph Ferdinand Gabriel Lippman.

To register for the event, go to www.cis.rit.edu/event.

Source: http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=48761

RIT School of Print Media has published Test Targets 10, an 84-page publication focusing on printing standardization, process control, and color management. This publication was printed at RIT on the Goss 2000 web offset press, with custom insert pages printed on the Heidelberg Speedmaster 72 sheet-fed offset press, and a cover printed on the HP/Indigo 7000 digital printing press. Test Targets 10 is a practical application of the integration of digital data that are color managed and printed across multiple marking technologies (both digital and traditional printing devices).

The publication contains six papers, authored by RIT School of Print Media faculty, students, and industry professionals. Two papers focus on printing standardization and conformity assessment; two papers look at the effects of paper containing OBA (optical brightening agents); one paper discusses ink verification; and one paper looks at a press calibration comparison (TVI vs. G7).

Robert Chung, Gravure Research Professor in the RIT School of Print Media, comments, “Many people collect Test Targets because they contain printed samples to showcase what’s possible with prepress and printing technologies. In this issue, Test Targets showcases the visual effect of pictorial and synthetic color images printed on paper with and without OBA.” [break]

“Test Targets 10 represents a global and integrated effort from top researchers and industry experts. Collaboration on this publication was provided by a number of distinguished experts. David McDowell (USA), Abhay Sharma (Canada), Elie Khoury (France), and Eddy Hagen (Belgium) all served as peer reviewers to ensure the quality of this publication. The Test Targets publication has been a longstanding outcome of RIT’s continual commitment towards thought leadership in the area of print media and process control,” says Chris Bondy, Administrative Chair, RIT School of Print Media.

Test Targets publications are distributed for classroom use and are also available for visitors of the RIT School of Print Media. To purchase your own copy of the current or back issues of Test Targets, please visit the RIT Cary Press web store. Issues of Test Targets are available for $24.95 (USD) plus shipping. Profits from the sale of the publication are donated to the RIT School of Print Media scholarship fund.

###

Media Contact:
Lucas Barber
Marketing Communications Coordinator
College of Imaging Arts & Sciences
(585) 475-2968
lucas.barber@rit.edu

This month's case study, Renaissance Insurance Lead Generation Campaign Results In 35% Response Rate, will be available until December 31, 2011. [break] 

Renaissance Insurance is an independent insurance brokerage with offices in Colorado. The agency had used static postcards as part of previous lead generation campaigns, but there was no way to track results and understand the effectiveness of these campaigns.

To improve its results Renaissance Insurance used a creative dimensional mail program. The campaign achieved a direct mail response rate of 35% and drove over $100,000 in new business.

Read it today!

The outcome of a 2000 RIT Printing Industry Center research study suggested that women made up an integral part of the Graphic Communication industry and would continue to do so.  The researchers of this study suggested that as the industry continued to change and the search for key personnel became more competitive, more women would pursue careers in all areas of Graphic Communication.

The primary objective of this research is to conduct a similar study targeting a larger sample population and to determine how women are positioned in the industry today.  The principal investigator will seek to conduct research with statistical significance which will help validate the trends identified in the 2000 study and assess if they have improved, declined or remained the same. The outcome of this study will contribute to the limited research conducted on this very important subject. Further, it is hoped that the results will be a validation for the women employed in the field of Graphic Communication who face challenges from what continues to be a male-dominated industry. 

To access the survey click on the following link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/womeningc

At the completion of the survey there will be an option for you to receive a summary of the study.  Thank you in advance for your participation.  If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Twyla Cummings at tjcppr@rit.edu.

This month's case study, Cross Media Campaign Featuring PURLs Increases College's Donations, will be available until November 30, 2011. [break] 

Rosemont College, a private liberal arts college, introduced their new Rosemont Experience Fund to alumni with a multi-touch, cross-media marketing campaign. The fundraising campaign incorporated email, direct mail, social media, and Personalized URLs.

Communications were personalized based on the recipient's major and extra-curricular activities while on campus and their donor history.

The results: 29% of recipients visited their Personalized URL and over $1,700,000 was raised in donations.

Read it today!

by Marcia Morphy

Steven Galbraith has been named curator of the Melbert B. Cary Jr. Graphic Arts Collection, located in The Wallace Center at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Galbraith comes to RIT from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., where he served as the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Books. Besides his expertise in rare books, exhibitions and outreach, Galbraith also brings experience from academia, having served as visiting professor and curator of Early Modern Books and Manuscripts at Ohio State University and reference librarian at the University of Maine.

“The Cary Graphic Arts Collection is an extraordinary library documenting the history of graphic communication,” Galbraith says. “The collections related to the history of printing and type design are exceptional. There are a great many research projects waiting to be discovered here, as well as a great deal of creative inspiration.” [break]

Galbraith graduated with a Ph.D. in English literature from Ohio State University, an M.A. in English literature from the University of Maine, an M.L.S. in the School of Information and Library Science and a B.A. in English literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Galbraith lives in Brighton and his hobbies include writing music and playing guitar, mandolin and bagpipes.

The Melbert B. Cary Jr. Graphic Arts Collection at RIT is a renowned resource for those studying printing and graphic communications history, bookbinding, typography, papermaking, calligraphy and graphic design.

Source: http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=48658

by Kevin Fuller

Paul and Louise Miller Distinguished Professor Twyla Cummings has been appointed associate dean of Rochester Institute of Technology’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences. The appointment is effective immediately.

Cummings came to RIT in 1998 and hopes to utilize her management and marketing, graphic media and external experience to help the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences to continue to be recognized as leader in arts and technology.

“Our students will shape the future of the industry, and how we prepare them is critical to its long-term viability and success,” says Cummings. “I strive to interject creativity and innovation in every aspect of my work.” [break]

One of Cummings’ many goals for the college include establishing and maintaining key industry relationships to assist with recruiting, funding and securing donations in support of academic programs and capital projects.

Cummings, who will finish her term as the Paul and Louise Miller Distinguished Professor, adds she looks forward to providing design, photography, art, publishing, printing and science industry connections for students to facilitate opportunities for networking, mentoring and career development.

She possesses both a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and a Master of Science degree in business and industrial management from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She earned her doctoral degree in management from The Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Cummings’ research is focused in the areas of media distribution and printing industry trends. Additionally, she is a frequent speaker on critical trends in post-press and issues impacting the graphic communications industry as a whole. She is past board member of the National Association for Printing Leadership and the Board of Governors for the Research and Engineering Council of National Association for Printing Leadership. She is a member of the prestigious Walter E. Soderstrom and Nonpareil Societies of National Association for Printing Leadership and the Research and Engineering Council.

Cummings resides in Penfield with her husband, Thomas.

Source: http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=48646