bleeds

[Lith]

Originally Posted by iambunny

No input on bleeds as I have nowhere near enough experience to know anything yet.

However, you all have made me terrified of printing! Here I am just reading the thread and thinking about how I really want to get some experience in a print shop before I graduate. I even was googling printers in my area. Then...stories of death and lost limbs !

Actually, when I was little, my mom worked at a pet shop next to the local printer in my hometown. It was run by an older gentleman, and he gave my mom a huge box of leftover scraps of different stock for me to play with since I loved crafts drawing and was often at work with her after school. He was missing 3 fingers. I always wondered why. Now I know.

If you're gonna be staying on the design end I wouldn't worry too much about a print shop putting you on a press. Even though they should.

[Cosmo]

Originally Posted by iambunny

No input on bleeds as I have nowhere near enough experience to know anything yet.

However, you all have made me terrified of printing! Here I am just reading the thread and thinking about how I really want to get some experience in a print shop before I graduate. I even was googling printers in my area. Then...stories of death and lost limbs !

Actually, when I was little, my mom worked at a pet shop next to the local printer in my hometown. It was run by an older gentleman, and he gave my mom a huge box of leftover scraps of different stock for me to play with since I loved crafts drawing and was often at work with her after school. He was missing 3 fingers. I always wondered why. Now I know.

The stories of injury in a print shop, while true, are very few and far between. The shop I worked at previously was open from 1926 to 2010. In that time there were two injuries on record. The shop I currently work at has been open since the early 80s, and at one time employed 26 people. There has been one injury on record, and it happened to me a couple weeks ago. And it wasn't serious enough to make me miss any work time.

That said, things can happen, but I'd be willing to bet that if you compared the injury rate of the printing industry with the injury rate of most manufacturing jobs, injuries in the printing industry are probably less common than in other fields.

[iambunny]

Originally Posted by Lith

If you're gonna be staying on the design end I wouldn't worry too much about a print shop putting you on a press. Even though they should.

That's why I got freaked out, because I meant working on a press. There are plenty of ways to get design experience, but you've gotta be in a print shop to work on a press.

If I do work for printer, I'll just have to be reeeeeeaaaaalllly careful lol. Glad you are okay btw Cosmo.

[iambunny]

Also should add that I'm not a stranger to dangerous jobs since I used to work in a stable. Unfortunately I was also only one injured on record there, needing some surgeries and a year of therapy on my arm. I hope I wouldn't be so unfortunate in a print shop lol.

[Lith]

Having fingers is overrated anyway. It saddens me that I wont be around for the day when humans have evolved to have paddle like hands.

[Cosmo]

Originally Posted by iambunny

That's why I got freaked out, because I meant working on a press. There are plenty of ways to get design experience, but you've gotta be in a print shop to work on a press.

If I do work for printer, I'll just have to be reeeeeeaaaaalllly careful lol. Glad you are okay btw Cosmo.

Well, you should be really careful no matter what job you have.

Most offset presses these days have guards on them that won't allow them to operate if the guards aren't closed preventing you from sticking fingers/hands in there. Web presses may be different (we don't have any web presses here) but just starting out they won't put you on a web press anyways.

Other machines are the same way. Paper cutters have two buttons that you need to press (about 3-4' apart) at the same time for the blade to come down. A lot of them also have electric eyes that will stop the blade should something cross the beam. So, you'd really have to try hard to cut a body part with a paper cutter.

Most bindery equipment will have guards as well. There is really nothing to fear working in a print shop as long as you (and your co-workers) have some common sense.

[Gromit801]

Ah, but if common sense was so common, why do so few people have it? Tip of the hat to George Carlin.

[maynardsayswhat]

The print shop of today is much safer than the olden times. With proper training, injuries are very rare.

With that said I cannot imagine my career as designer or print professional without having been on some sort of press. Knowing first hand how these machines fabricate the results has helped me, and my clients, save money and get better results than if the print process was a mystery.

Extra bonus: I get asked in interviews and initial client meetings about my extensive on-press experience usually. "Wait, you actually ran a newspaper?" or "Wait, you actually make t-shirts? Like, yourself??" are a great ice breakers =)

[iambunny]

Originally Posted by maynardsayswhat

The print shop of today is much safer than the olden times. With proper training, injuries are very rare.

With that said I cannot imagine my career as designer or print professional without having been on some sort of press. Knowing first hand how these machines fabricate the results has helped me, and my clients, save money and get better results than if the print process was a mystery.

Extra bonus: I get asked in interviews and initial client meetings about my extensive on-press experience usually. "Wait, you actually ran a newspaper?" or "Wait, you actually make t-shirts? Like, yourself??" are a great ice breakers =)

That's what I'm going for. I want to get all the experience possible before I graduate. The more you know.

[PrintDriver]

Then there are the sign shops that also print. The print machines are safe (mostly, but watch out for the unshielded uv printers...) but then there are the power tools for finishing. We had a CNC router table I swear was a Mangler. I swear it tried to kill me more than once. Laminate trimmers are just hand held mini-routers. Table saws, panel saws, and then all the noxious solvents and glues you have to know how to handle safely.
But you'd learn a lot about how NOT to design a logo.