More comments from SkillsUSA pre-press judges

Paul Davis was one of the pre-press judges for the SkillsUSA competition. He has posted a good recap of the contest on Graph Comm Net. He has also posted some videos on pre-press and labs that coincide with Claudia McCue's book on CS4 training (Claudia taught the CS4 class at the winter TIEGA teacher's meeting) This site is full of labs, training materials, PrintED safety materials, curriculum and more. I encourage you to take a few minutes to browse the discussions and look at the attachments for each post. You may also want to look at the video section. There are a few videos that may be of interest for classes. Here is a direct link to the Georgia Graphics & Design Teachers Discussion group on Graph Comm Net . If you have curriculum, tests or anything else that would be valuable to your peers, please share it on Graph Comm Net.

2009 SkillsUSA Ad Design Logos and Ads

During this year's SkillsUSA advertising design competition, students were given the task of creating a logo and advertisement for a new brand of Cover Girl lipstick called Cover Splash. Here is what they did.

Congratulations to Our 2009 SkillsUSA Winners!!!

Advertising Design

1st Place - Yea Jee Bae, Dalton High School
2nd Place - Anna Killmeier, Central Education Center, Newnan

3rd Place - Kristen Stevens, Sandy Creek High School, Tyrone

Graphic Communications

1st Place - Bryan Shipes, Appling County High School, Baxley

2nd Place - Cody Trapp, Central Education Center, Newnan

3rd Place - Paige Barton, Floyd County Schools College and Career Academy, Rome

A big thank you to Heidelberg USA for hosting the competition and providing training. We appreciate all the industry representatives that came out to judge the competition.

Our Judges were:

Gina Easter, PIAG

Heather Bondar, HP
Maria Baker, RR Donnelly

Rachele Ledford, Network Communications

Paul Davis, Consultant

Don Armel, Georgia Southern University

Phil Scott, Scott Litho

Chad Scott, Scott Litho

Mark Yeagle, The Pitman Companies
Mike Yalen, HP

Albert Whitley, Whit Creative

Christina Arntz, Manhattan Associates

Vincent Scatliffe, Contnuous Lne

Comments from the Written Assessment Judge

Professor Don Armel with Georgia Southern University compiled and judged the written assessment portion of the SkillsUSA Georgia Graphic Communications competition. Here are his comments.

Comments from the PrePress Judges

Here are comments from the SkillsUSA Georgia Pre-press judges.

Comments from the Finishing Judges

The following are comments from our finishing judges.

Comments from the Finishing Instructors

The following comments are from our finishing instructors. These gentlemen assisted our students during a full day of training prior to the competition.

Comments from the Heidelberg Offset Press Instructors

The following is comments from the offset press instructors from Heidelberg. These folks assisted contestants during a full day training session prior to the competition.

Comments from the Offset Press Judges

Here are comments from the offset judges Mark Yaegle, Pitman Companies and Phil Scott, Scott Litho.

Comments from the Interview Judge

Here are comments from Maria Baker with RR Donnelly regarding the oral assessment (aka job interview)

A Few Words from the Advertising Design Judges

Well, I ran out of memory at the end, but I think you get the idea.

Video of World Skills Training

Here's a great video put together by Patrick Klarecki about the lead up to sending the USA's first Graphic Communications World Skills competitor.

Georgia's Ailion Competes for WorldSkills Team

For the first time ever a student from the U.S. will compete in the WorldSkills offset printing competition to be held September 1-7, 2009, in Calgary, Canada. Amela Mujkic, a senior at Ferris State University, was recently selected from among three competitors, at the qualifying competition held at Heidelberg USA's Print Media Academy, Buffalo Grove, IL. Alyssa Ailion (pictured left), who won Georgia's SkillsUSA competition last year and placed second at the national event, was one of the three contenders.

Financial and in-kind support from the Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation (GAERF), Heidelberg USA, the Printing and Imaging Association of Georgia (PIAG), and the Printing Industries of Michigan (PIM) have made participation in this event possible.

“I extend a big thank you to all who have helped make this dream of sending a SkillsUSA competitor to Calgary a reality. A partnership such as this—with students, teachers and industry working together—is key to America's skilled workforce for the future,” comments SkillsUSA Executive Director Tim Lawrence.

GAERF President Ralph Nappi added, “I was encouraged by the quality of the competitors and feel confident that we will be sending our best to WorldSkills in September. Those involved in planning and preparing for this event should be commended on their extraordinary efforts to make U.S. participation in this offset printing competition possible.” Michael Fleming, Ferris State University, and Allyssa Ailion, Georgia State University, were the other contenders.

About WorldSkills
The International Vocational Training Organization, headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, sponsors the biennial WorldSkills Competition (WSC). This year the event will take place in Calgary, Canada, from September 1-7, 2009, hosting over 1,000 competitors from 51 countries. WorldSkills is the pinnacle of excellence in skilled trades and technologies training.

About SkillsUSA
SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit organization of students, teachers and industry, working together to ensure America has a skilled work force. SkillsUSA helps high school and college students enrolled in career and technical education programs to excel by teaching employability skills such as communication, problem solving and leadership in conjunction with their trade, technical and service occupations skills. The association's annual membership exceeds 300,000 students and instructors in more than 4,000 schools and colleges in every state, three territories and the District of Columbia. For more information, visit: www.skillsusa.org.

Transportation for SkillsUSA

For all those participating in SkillsUSA, PIAG has some space available for advisors to ride the bus to and from Heidelberg for the Thursday training and the Friday competition. If you are an ad

Image via Wikipedia

visor and would like to ride the bus with your contestant from the Airport Marriott to Heidelberg and back, please email srodman@soukmc.com. Note: We can only accomodate contestants and advisors at Heidelberg. We cannot allow students who are not affiliated with the graphic communication or advertising design competitions to attend the training session or the competition.