When Harper College, a two-year community college located in Palatine, Illinois, added a Package Design concentration to its Graphic Arts, Associate in Applied Science program in 2012, it received a donation of Esko technology, insuring its students acquired the necessary skills to use the industry's leading software.

The Graphic Arts program consists of four specialized areas of study: Creative Design, Web Design, Package Design and a Print Production option. Emphasis is on digital product design, visual techniques, and production, in line with the needs of the graphic design industry. Students complete a professional portfolio and resume for employment.

Ramping up the program

To get the necessary packaging courses up and running with curriculum ideas, Graphic Arts Program Coordinator Patty Bruner tapped into the brain trust at nearby Illinois State University, which already has a successful program in play. She also hired a qualified instructor, Marcello Santoro, a senior package designer at AGI-Shorewood Group (ASG), who not only knew structure and design but also Esko technology. As a brand new concentration, Bruner looked hard at how to best focus the program. "A lot of the local four-year colleges are focusing on engineering packaging," she explains. "With our program, we give a taste to students and open their eyes and show what the field is like."

In December 2012, Bruner further bolstered the concentration by receiving a donation of Esko's DeskPack packaging prepress plug-ins and the Esko Studio bundle, Adobe Illustrator-based software that has revolutionized packaging design and production.

"Esko," says Bruner, "has been fabulous with us, helping us to get things going. I am passionate about helping our students while advancing industry knowledge - and Esko has the same philosophy. We are grateful for their help." As the program was getting up to speed, the Graphic Arts team realized that it would need licenses for all of its 80 Macintosh computers to run the necessary Illustrator program, instead of the 30 it had. Esko stepped in and furnished the college with all of the remaining licenses.

DeskPack benefits Prepress Production class

While the basic courses are the same for anyone in the graphic arts concentration, within the packaging track there are additional courses on packaging design and finishing. DeskPack will be used in the Prepress Production class, a requirement in the Graphic Arts Package Design concentration. The class focuses on preflight, imposition, color management and basic prepress such as editing files. "Now, with the addition of DeskPack, we are adding another layer, allowing the students to understand that they can take an Illustrator file, and RIP, trap, impose and perform the entire preflight, checking to fix problems in a file - a function you are aren't able to do efficiently in Illustrator," says Bruner.

Packaging Design covers the full breadth of what is happening within that segment, including instruction on marketing and branding strategies, barcoding and postal preparation, as well as package product design from file production through manufacturing. Students tackle packaging structural implications and substrates, along with 3D packaging design and production for folding cartons, flexible bags, labels, and shrink sleeves. The course emphasizes the creative visual design of 3D packaging and prototype creation, which is why Esko Studio is so critical to the concentration.