Columbia College
Chicago Designs
Versatile Printing
Solutions
Océ ColorWave 600 wide format Printer
inspires creativity — and saves time — for Art + Design students.
Digital technology has transformed the art
and design world in every step of the creative
process from inspiration to presentation.
Which is precisely why Columbia College
Chicago — an international leader and
recognized pioneer in arts and media
education — is committed to helping
the 1,500 students in its Art + Design
department sharpen their expertise with
a diverse range of digital tools, including
the Océ ColorWave® 600 wide format
printer and Océ TDS450 wide format copy
and print system with the Océ TC4 scanner.
Pushing the boundaries
Over the past few years, Columbia’s Art + Design department
has centralized its printing resources in a single on-site digital
print center. The goal was to promote convenience, ease of
management and cross-pollination of ideas among students
who major in subjects including fine arts, graphic design,
illustration, interior architecture, product design, and
fashion studies.
“We put a big push
on consolidation and
resources efficiency,
not only to save
money, but to
make tools more
ubiquitous and
available,” explained
Cat Bromels,
Columbia’s Digital
Printer Center
Cat Bromels, Digital Print Center
Manager. “That allows
Manager at Columbia College Chicago
students, rather than just
using printers specific to what they’re doing, to use
equipment they wouldn’t commonly think about and
to challenge the parameters with which those machines
are intended to be used.”
The Océ ColorWave 600 printer produces instantly dry prints so they can
be handled and used immediately — no drying time.
The Océ ColorWave 600 printer is so fast that an entire class of students
can head to the print center during their class break to pick up their prints.
The desire to expand beyond accepted boundaries exemplifies
one of Columbia’s core philosophies. “Whatever kinds of
tools and resources we employ, we’re probably going to try
things with those products that would not be thought of as
traditional uses. That’s what education should be about —
taking the current paradigm and trying to explode the myth,
suggesting opportunities and experiments that would not have
been done before,” said Jay Wolke, Chair, Art + Design at
Columbia College.
gel that is jetted and crystallized onto paper or other media,
creating instant-dry prints that can be handled immediately.
Love at first sight
The speed and versatility of the Océ ColorWave 600 advanced
wide format printing solution align perfectly with this goal.
The department originally tried the system on a trial basis,
after seeing it demonstrated at a trade show. “We were
impressed with the quality and wanted to test out how a
university could use the system. The overwhelming enthusiasm
from both students and faculty necessitated keeping it,”
Bromels said.
From the very beginning, the Océ ColorWave 600 printer
proved a popular and valuable addition to the print center’s
arsenal of equipment. Not only does it print large documents
much faster than traditional inkjet printers, there is also no
drying time required. Rather than using water-based ink,
the Océ ColorWave 600 printer uses Océ CrystalPoint®
technology to convert solid Océ TonerPearls® toner into a
Those capabilities positively changed the lives of the college
students, who typically are faced with rigid deadlines or have
last-minute needs. Bromels recalled, “When we first brought
it in, we literally had students crying good tears because
their 42 by 72 inch prints that used to require 24 hours to
turnaround when printed on an inkjet printer were now
available in five minutes.”
Since projects are submitted via PDF, students have to go to
the print center to complete a form with printing instructions.
In the past, that usually meant making an additional trip to
the print center to pick up the completed project hours or
days later. Now, however, with print time counted in minutes
rather than hours, most students simply wait for their projects.
Speed and media options win fans
The fast printing speed also helps prevent bottlenecks in the
print center during crunch times. For example, all architecture
students have to turn in a 42 by 72 inch drawing for their
final project. Since everyone’s project is due at the exact same
time, students previously had to plan for up to a three-day
turnaround time to get their project printed. “With the
Océ ColorWave 600 printer, it is maybe five minutes,”
Bromels said. “Students feel that last minute can almost
really be last minute.” However, Bromels still encourages
students to plan to print a day before their assignment is due,
just to allow some leeway in case they want to make edits or
an unexpected delay occurs, such as larger-than-anticipated
demand or maintenance that happens to be scheduled.
Since the Océ ColorWave 600 printer does not require
specially coated inkjet paper, high quality documents
can be printed on a variety of media depending on the
particular need. Less expensive bond is a favorite for proofs,
while opaque transparency might be a choice for creative
experimentation. Water-proof, tear-proof Tyvek® can be used
for projects designed to be hung outdoors. Other students
have tried making woodblock prints by printing on the Tyvek
and then ironing it to transfer the ink onto wood. “We need
to do more testing because it doesn’t transfer perfectly, but
we’ve gotten interesting results. The students are always trying
new things,” Bromels noted.
Removable sticker stock, whether used for temporary signage
or special projects, has also been a popular media option –
with building services staff as well as students. “We can put
signage up and pull it off without damaging any of the walls,
which is really nice,” Bromels said. “For example, students
have been doing some interesting political commentary
projects where they’re putting up signs with removable sticker
stock around campus. Building services doesn’t have to repaint
the walls because as long as you pull it off slowly, it doesn’t
leave any residue.”
Océ TDS450 can take advantage of a digital color separation
process that the print center staff developed along with Anchor
Graphics, a fine art printmaking atelier/studio for professional
artists on another floor in the building. “There are a lot of
ways you could begin to transmute an original object from
analog into any number of digital applications. The idea of
transmutability and change is all part of the creative process,
and these tools really help us do that,” Wolke said.
Both the Océ TDS450 wide format scan, copy and print
system and the Océ ColorWave 600 printer robustly support
what Bromels agrees could be called the “generative process”
of creation. “You get a lot of students who see something
different when they get their first print. Seeing the design
away from the screen provides a different point of departure.
Students say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know it was going to end up like
that.’ They’ll probably do several more versions before they’re
happy with it. Or will use the unexpected
results as a jumping off point to ever more creative designs.”
The Océ ColorWave 600 printer’s super-quick turnarounds
prove especially valuable when students are in the middle of
the creative process and seeking faculty feedback. For example,
In fact, using the Océ ColorWave 600 printer to print on
different media proved so popular that Columbia recently
up- graded from two media drawers to three. “We were
swapping media in and out so frequently that it made sense
to expand,” Bromels said.
Freedom of expression
Columbia’s print center also includes an Océ TDS450 wide
format scan, copy and print system, which has opened the
door wide to creative experimentation and hybrid applications.
For example, a student might start with a drawing on vellum,
then scan it on the wide format Océ TC4 scanner, import
it as a PDF and begin to work with it digitally. Or students
interested in creating large format silk-screens using the
Removable sticker stock is a popular media option for temporary signage.
The Océ TDS450 wide format scan, copy, and print system allows students
to scan a drawing and work on it digitally.
many professors prefer to critique full-size works-in-progress
rather than viewing them on a computer screen. Bromels
points out, “If your intended output is 24 by 36 inches,
looking at it on a computer screen where it may be
11 inches tall doesn’t generate the same reaction. You
can’t really see how it’s going to fit in the space.” The
Océ ColorWave printer is so fast that an entire class of
students can head to the print center during their class
break, print out their work in a large format proof, have
the professor critique it and continue working.
Less is more
kinds of tools and resources
“Whatever
we employ, we’re probably going to
try things with those products that
would not be thought of as traditional
uses. That’s what education should
be about — taking the current
paradigm and trying to explode the
myth, suggesting opportunities and
experiments that would not have been
”
done before.
— Jay Wolke, Chair, Columbia College Chicago
Thanks to the Océ ColorWave 600 printer’s flexibility,
capability and fast-turnaround time, Columbia now easily
handles the same printing volume with two large format
inkjet printers rather than the four it previously needed,
reducing operating costs and energy consumption.
But inkjet printers still have a place at Columbia too — right along with the Océ ColorWave 600 printer — for the
same reason the print center features both narrow and wide
format printers. “Our goal is to give students a variety of
options on types of material and types of output,” Bromels
said. “A lot really depends on what the final application is.
So the more options we have, the more they can challenge
me on what the machines can do.”
Océ, Océ ColorWave, Océ CrystalPoint, and Océ TonerPearls are registered trademarks of Océ Technologies B.V.
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