Monday, June 26, 2006
RIT TAGA Press Release
RIT University News finally got around to releasing a press release on RIT TAGA's achievements at the 2006 TAGA Annual Technical Conference.
RIT Printing Students Take Top Honors in International Publication Contest
A secret society of printers lives within RIT’s School of Print Media, and in their book, TAGA, they unravel the mysteries of emerging graphic arts technology. With themes similar to The Da Vinci Code, this group of ambitious RIT students produced an award-winning page-turner receiving critical acclaim.
For the sixth consecutive year, RIT’s TAGA (Technical Association of the Graphic Arts) student chapter, marking its 20th anniversary, won the best overall publication award at the annual TAGA Conference, an international competition held in Vancouver. RIT students bested other universities from the United States and France, winning a total of five awards.
"We chose an ancient secret printing society theme because we wanted a book that gave a feeling of something that would be passed down to the next generation of print students," says Tom Thayer, president of RIT’s TAGA student chapter.
The size of the book is 9-by-12 inches, the largest book ever produced by RIT’s student chapter. The cover is embossed with the RIT logo and the title is an ambigram, meaning it reads the same way right side up as upside down.
The content of the book is a series of graduate and undergraduate research papers about current and emerging technologies of the graphic arts field. RIT won the award for overall quality of technical writing, marking the first time the chapter has won in this category.
"It was very rewarding to win the technical award," says Thayer. “The content of the publication is a testament to the caliber of the students’ writing."
TAGA includes a look back at its 20-year history. The words are encrypted, though, and require a special bookmark to decode the message. "Our technical advisor, Professor Michael Riordan, helped us put our ideas for the decoder into motion," says Thayer.
Photographs, burned at the edges to give them an ancient look, are peppered throughout the book. The students rented monk robes and photographed themselves in the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection working with old printing presses. Because of the book’s size, students spent a weekend cutting 8,000 sheets of linen paper into 16,000 pieces. TAGA, an international organization of technologists and scientists in the printing industry, paid tribute at this year’s conference to RIT TAGA mentor and advisor Robert Chung, Gravure Research Professor in the School of Print Media. Chung received the Michael H. Bruno Award for his accomplishments and dedication to the graphic arts education over the past 34 years.
The generosity of individuals and Rochester area corporations made it possible to print the casebound book, with more than $40,000 in donations and press time.
"RIT always pushes the limits of the graphic arts industry, and we certainly did with this book," says Thayer.
RIT University News Press Release.
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