Many young designers today are specializing in digital design work. Communication and design goes further than the digital world into the tactile physical world of print . Unfortunately many academic design programs are not bridging the gap between the digital and print world and printing 101 basics such as paper specification is often left out of the curriculum.
“I simply could not find design curriculum resources that included information about specifying paper,” says educator and designer Jennifer Wilkerson of Aurora Design. “But at the same time I watched my students’ eyes light up every time I brought in printed samples. They desperately want to know how they can produce something that is beautiful, tactile and expressive—and they know that paper choices are critically important. BUT they are just learning the basics of what offset printing is, what digital printing is, and how to set up files for printing. Paper and paper specification always seems just out of reach.”
“Students can see and feel the differences in color, texture, coating and weight but they lack the vocabulary to communicate those differences. So, just like students are taught color theory, photography and production methods, someone needs to teach them about paper in a clear accessible way step by step, walking them through the most basic characterizations of coated and uncoated, and then diving down into the finer details like environmental attributes and fiber content.”
Students also need to understand the unique responsibility that comes with specifying paper.
“The funny thing is that the print production books I reviewed all have sample printer specifications—and talk about writing up specifications to get quotes—but they never explained how to arrive at those specifications. So students need to be taught how to select the right paper for their job,” says Wilkerson.
Mohawk paper, a fourth generation, family-owned fine paper manufacturer, feels a responsibility to educate design students and young designers about fine paper and the paper specification process. To that end, Mohawk is unveiling a new educational resource package that includes informative and inspirational content guaranteed to expand a young designer’s comprehension of the creative paper choices available to them.
Mohawk’s Educational Resource Package is free for students, educators and designers, and contains guides to paper basics, envelope basics, master chip charts and a cool a very cool envelope poster.
Additional resources are being added, including inspirational and informational videos, new product samples, swatchbooks and more.
To request your own Educational Resource Package from Mohawk, visit mohawkconnects.com/educators