[VIDEO] Somerset College: empowering students with digital print solutions

Located in the heart of the Gold Coast, Somerset College is one of Australia's leading independent primary and secondary school providers. With a commitment to being a pioneer and leader in educational innovation, the school is integrating digital print solutions from GJS into various areas of the curriculum and empowering students to push the boundaries of what's possible in design, engineering and via personal projects.

Assistant Head of Department—Design, Helen Coombes, and four students from the college sat down to chat with GJS about how they are using the digital print solutions in the school and the impact they are having on their daily classroom experience and unlocking their creative potential.

Keen to learn more or do the same at your school? You can see GJS' full suite of education print solutions here.

Transcript:

Helen:
Somerset College is an independent, co-educational school. We are located in the heart of the Gold Coast, just in Mudgeeraba. We have students from pre-prep, right the way through to year 12. We offer the International Baccalaureate program from the Primary Years Program, the Middle Years Program, and the Diploma. We also offer the students in year 11 and 12 the opportunity to do the Queensland Certificate of Education and gain an ATAR for university entry. From GJS we've purchased a Sawgrass SG800 sublimation printer with heat press, and we also purchased a Roland vinyl cutter.

Nicholas:
We're currently using the dye sublimation printer and vinyl cutter for various subjects, such as engineering and design. It's great, with a dye sublimation printer we can print on to t-shirts and different fabrics to create different images such as things on shirts. We've used shirts for various school events we've had and we've actually printed out school logo and designs on those shirts. And with those vinyl cutters, we can use them for subjects like design. Creating stickers and designs to put on things like surfboards, aircraft, even stickers to put on windows.

Helen:
Using these digital print solutions from GJS, it gives us the opportunity to bring the students designs to life really quickly and it's really good for them to then see their ideas come from, perhaps their illustration on the computer and then they put that on to their product.

Carys:
So one of the products that we make using the dye sublimation printer are these ribbons for our sporting teams. This one is for my touch football team, in APS sport, to represent that we're part of the APS team. We also use it making t-shirts for different committees.

Nathalie:
So, once we print our designs, we put the design on the shirt, where we want it to go, and then we put a heat transfer sheet on top of it and push down the heat press. So it's a pretty simple process, and really easy to use.

Will:
Yeah the machines are pretty easy to use. Most of them, you can just make an Illustrator file and send it straight there and it'll just cut it out for you, or you just print it off, put the t-shirt on the press and press it together and then you make the shirt.

Helen:
One of the biggest advantages that we feel having these, access to this technology, for our students, is the ability for them to see their designs come to life. They work with the design process from end to end. They can bring their initial concepts through to creation. And those are some really useful, practical skills that they can use throughout their school life and also when they leave school and go into the workforce.

Carys:
Now that we have all the facilities and the dye sublimation printer, we can show off our designs in t-shirts and ribbons instead of it all being digital on our laptops. It's a lot more fun and creative to be able to actually create the design.

Nicholas:
A project I've been making is I designed and built a solar-powered aeroplane, and I needed to make logos for the aircraft and I actually needed to make checklists and procedures on the aircraft so I could make sure I'm doing everything right. And I just used the vinyl cutter and designed some quick checklists and quick logos to not only make the aeroplane look cool, but make it even more functional which was great.

Will:
And then I, for my personal project, I made my own unique designs and then used the vinyl cutter to make the stickers so I could put em on to my personal project surfboard to make it look super cool.

Helen:
The impact the digital print solutions have had on our students has been really, really exciting. They have got such a broad access to different tools and materials now. It's really opened up the scope for what they can do in design. Also, across the faculty in visual arts, digital design, and media arts as well. We have students that take subjects...more than one subject in our faculty and their learning skills in one area and then, applying them in another area. You know, that could be making props for their visual artwork, or for their media filming. It could be making tracks for their robots to follow on different surfaces. And all these products that we can make has been facilitated by the tools that we've bought, the machines that we've bought from GJS.

• Highlights
• Digital print solutions empowering students to push the boundaries of design and engineering 
• Students can design and create hundreds of customised products in the classroom
• Desktop dye sublimation solution
• Roland GR-420 series vinyl cutter
• Geo Knight DC16 desktop platen heat press