During this past winter quarter, students in the New Media Team Project (NMTP) course had the opportunity to put their skills to the test with various projects including: a 100-page magazine, a redesign of the Print Application Laboratory (PAL) website, PDF testing with variable data, developing a website for homeless children in Rochester, and creating tools to be used in a teaching kit. Students within the class formed groups based on several criteria including skill, experience, and interest. They were also responsible for managing themselves throughout the quarter.

The 100-page magazine production team joined together with Denis Defibaugh’s Editorial Photography class of 17 students and Lori Frear’s Editorial Design class of 18 students to create a seamless publication. This has been an ongoing annual publication for the last three years that highlights some of the best photography work by students at RIT. During the span of ten weeks, several meetings took place between the students to ensure everyone was on track while complying with standards in order to complete the magazine on time. The magazine was printed at the Printing Applications Laboratory (PAL) on the HP Indigo 5500 and the covers were printed on the Heidelberg SM 74.

Two groups worked on developing websites for organizations. The PAL website team was responsible for the redesigning of the website to help better reflect PAL, as well as the services they have to offer. Several meetings took place between the group and individuals from PAL to help plan the best possible way to present information and represent PAL through a website. Another group of students in the class were given the opportunity to create a website displaying homeless children in their daily lives who line in the Rochester community. The goal of this site was to inform the community of this epidemic and hopefully find parents for the children.

Some students worked with the Portable Document Format, better known as a PDF. The PDF has helped everyone from the business world to the publishing industry standardize the way information is shared and used. Variable Data technology is a fast growing market that uses information of individuals to personally connect with them. PDF’s are capable of supporting variable data, but standard compliances have not been set until recently. Students within the class were given the opportunity to do extensive testing on this new compliance. As absurd as it sounds, their goal was to break this system. The reasoning of this was to find any faults, so they could be fixed.

Lastly, all students in the class were required to create tools that a teacher could use to help with teaching various topics of printing and publishing to an audience. Students were able to work alone or within a group to help achieve this task. Since the class was filled with a wide variety of talent, the outcome consisted of a spectrum of teaching tools that can help a range of people understand some of the core concepts within the industry.

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