Epson US
It was midnight, and the exhausted art student had been working since morning on his project for the 7th annual GENERATE, a 24-Hour Art Challenge at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s (SCAD) Atlanta campus.
Like a jolt of caffeine, the sight of the bright colors and accurate depiction of his artwork, output by the Epson® SureColor® T3270 24-inch large-format color printer in less than a minute, woke him out of his daze. Standing nearby, Megan King, production room tech and graphic design graduate student, had witnessed the same moment of truth among scores of other contestants.
“Seeing students react to the speed and quality of their printed artwork is what I love the most about helping out on GENERATE,” she said. “Like contestants in a reality TV show, students toggle between extreme concentration and silliness, walking down the hall in a stupor and then a few minutes later raving about how great their work looks coming out of the printer.”
With 12,000 students, SCAD is a private, nonprofit university located in Savannah and Atlanta, Ga.; Hong Kong; and Lacoste, France. Each year, SCAD Atlanta students gather from multiple disciplines to create works of art during a faculty-led 24-hour art marathon. From 10 a.m., Fri., Oct. 3 through 10 a.m., Sat., Oct. 4, this year’s GENERATE competition attracted approximately 300 students who turned up for their challenges with art supplies, creativity and determination.
Work. Keep working. For 24 hours.
Because the SureColor T3270 arrived on the first day of the competition, King helped set it up in the production room just as students started designing and sketching at different locations assigned to each department. Categories included Advertising Design, Animation, Film and Television, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interactive Design and Game Development, Motion Media, Photography, and Sequential Art. The easy-to-install printer was up and running long before several students started trickling into the production room to print out their designs.
Throughout the 24-hour competition, the SureColor T3270 stood ready to handle any project that came its way, including illustrations, posters, poster comps, color comics, comic pages to be inked, and storyboards.
“With so many students using different styles and line qualities, we were happy that the printer showed exactly what they were trying to create,” said King. Watching the artwork fly out of the printer, she continually noted the extreme color and line accuracy of the prints with resolutions up to 2880 x 1440 dpi. “I saw a few pieces with a plethora of colors, and I was amazed by the printer’s ability to show the distinct difference between each of those colors,” she said.
Fast Times in Illustration
Students who signed up for the Illustration challenge made full use of the SureColor T3270’s precision and performance. Sponsored by a leading grocery chain, this year’s Illustration challenge was to develop a mural design for a store along the Atlanta Beltline, an urban revitalization project to convert old railroad tracks into a pathway around the city center.
“I don’t think we could have pulled off this kind of deadline with any other kind of printer,” said Richard Lovell, SCAD’s Illustration program coordinator. “I was astounded at how fast the SureColor printed.”
A tag team of faculty members was assigned to help the Illustration challenge students use the production room equipment, including the single-roll SureColor T3270 to print out their mural designs. “Because the printer was so easy to use, they didn’t have that much to do until several students were dangerously pushing up against the deadline,” he said.
Two of the projects nearly missed the target, so he found himself in a panic situation all too familiar to the real working world. Just as students began their presentations to “sell” their artwork to the panel of judges, Lovell was running back to the production room to print and mount the last two designs in just a few minutes. “If it had been a standard printer, I never would have gotten it done in time,” he said.
All Illustration category contestants used the SureColor T3270 to create a range of prints of their artwork on Epson Premium Presentation Paper Matte mounted on a black presentation board. Equipped with Epson PrecisionCore™ TFP® printhead and UltraChrome® XD pigment ink, the printer brought out the brilliant colors of each mural design.
The $1,000 first place winners of the outdoor mural competition, students Jing Li, Sena Kwon and Hannah Li, had collaborated to create a delightful children’s book type scene along the beltline, full of happy faces, city landmarks, fresh produce and bright greenery beneath the blue Atlanta skyline. Thousands of its denizens will soon walk, bike or run by the student’s mural on the grocery store wall along the beltline.
It’s a Wrap!
At the end of the competition, it was time for several hundred bleary-eyed yet hopeful students to gulp down their last cup of coffee and put aside the pen, paper, stylus, tablet, brush, computer mouse, computer and printer. After a grueling contest that taught students about collaboration and real world deadlines, teams of faculty and sponsors for each challenge were ready to select the winners. Prizes vary according to the challenge, including cash, software licenses, portfolio reviews by professionals, and an introduction to future jobs or internships.
The SureColor T3270 helped many students showcase their work during the Generate competition, as it helps many technical, corporate and marketing professionals create technical drawings, graphic posters or retail signage. Epson also offers SureColor T-Series 36- and 44-inch printer models with an optional multifunction (MFP) module for PC-free full color copy and scan capabilities.
“In the past, we’ve used printers that were too slow or didn’t perform as well, but this year the SureColor T3270 helped a lot of contestants shine,” said King. Some departments are already planning their next year’s Generate challenge, but in the meantime, the SureColor T3270 printer has earned its place in the production room, helping students showcase their work throughout the year.
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