Shaping creativity with wide format printing

Background

Sancta Maria College is a secondary school in Southeast Auckland committed to building a creative culture for its 1,000 students through an art department that celebrates student expression through drawing, painting, sculpture, graphic design, printmaking and photography. For Sancta Maria, driving academic excellence through creative learning, critical thinking and inclusiveness helps build student confidence in their innate abilities and belief in the expression of imagination.
Since 2016, FUJIFILM Business Innovation New Zealand (FBNZ) has supplied Sancta Maria with office printing, print management services and specialty wide-format printing. The school recently engaged FBNZ to upgrade its wide format printer to a newer model with higher print quality, more flexible media capabilities and better reliability. As a school that encourages a creative learning environment, showcasing students’ artwork and photography is important for Sancta Maria as it represents the character of the school and the cultural identity of its students.

Challenge

As photography courses became more popular, Sancta Maria needed a wide-format printer to help prepare students for the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) portfolio evaluation. To achieve credits, students produce a high-quality printed portfolio of their work. Sancta Maria believes photography in printed form still has a role influencing the next generation of artists.

I believe the printed photograph will always be important to people. When digital photography became fashionable many people stopped having their photographs printed and placing them into albums, but now there is a swing back to printed photographs and making photo books.
Jules Turner - Head of Department (Art), Sancta Maria College

Solution

FBNZ installed an Epson SureColor P6070 at Sancta Maria designed for photographic and premium poster production at a reasonable cost. The P6070 produces gallery-quality prints with consistent and predictable output that’s ideal for photographs. To support the diverse range of budding student photographers, the Epson SureColor supports a wide colour gamut to produce lifelike colours for true image depiction using inks that are water- and scratch-resistant.

"The NCEA Photography external examination is about developing, clarifying, and then regenerating ideas,” says Jules. “For Sancta Maria, providing students with good equipment to carry out their work is very important and knowledge on how to use it is empowering and can inspire creativity.”
Printing students’ work gives them a sense of ownership and if it is displayed in the school environment it can serve as a legacy to them both while they are still attending the school and after they have left.
Jules Turner - Head of Department (Art), Sancta Maria College

Result

Printed photographs still have relevance even in today’s digital world.
“Students’ creativity is worthwhile and important. It’s worth the spend and investment in their talent,” says Jules. “Tertiary institutions provide feedback that our students are well equipped and well-resourced entering university.”

Since upgrading, students have more opportunities to showcase their artwork and photography talents in spaces at the school like The Corridor (a student gallery) and in other exhibition areas, local community galleries, and exterior spaces across the school grounds.

“We pride ourselves on bArt lets students explore who they are and what they want to be without worrying about the distinction of right versus wrong. As photography diversifies, printed visual art continues to be a relevant media that has the physicality to truly last"

Visual Arts, drama, and music all allow students to be themselves and they provide a safe space that is non-judgmental. The Arts give them that outlet, where many students can discover who they are and experiment with things and ideas.
Jules Turner - Head of Department (Art), Sancta Maria college