Tarot Card Set and Accompanying Book Highlight Printing Curriculum
Rochester, NY—When D.J. Montalto, Senior Technical Analyst, Production Printing Product and Solutions Strategy of Canon U.S.A., offered to make his Melville, NY facilities available to Rochester Institute of Technology students to learn more about their technologies and help with a project, Master of Science candidates Mathew Kiptum Kipruto, Juan David Salcedo, and Ya-Chi Tsai were eager to take advantage of the generous offer. Even though the project entailed a six-hour road trip each way from Rochester, NY, the students were eager to produce a meaningful, extra-curricular project that would serve as a portfolio piece for them to showcase their printing and imaging skills.
Their answer was to produce Printing Tarot: a deck of 78 cards modified from the popular Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck modified to be relevant of the printing industry. The laminated cards were produced along with an accompanying book, and packaged in a box. The content was all researched and designed by the students reflective of their curriculum in the Department of Packaging and Graphic Media Science in the College of Engineering Technology at RIT. Working under the direction of Associate Professor Bruce Leigh Myers, the students began by researching the traditional tarot deck, which is comprised of a major arcana and a minor arcana. The 22 cards representing the major arcana include archetypal themes, and the 56 minor arcana cards are divided into four suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles.
The next step involved assigning printing relevant roles and technologies to those in the traditional tarot deck. Here, the fun began. For example, the “fool” card in the major arcana, representing new beginnings, was assigned the “sales professional” in the printing tarot deck, because that is the beginning of many printed jobs. The answer to the “lovers” card was deemed “premedia and pressroom,” as the relationship between professionals in those departments is essential to effective print production. Other major arcana cards in the Printing Tarot include the “customer service professional,” “the brand owner,” and the “color management professional.”
Turning to the minor arcana, the suits selected to replace those in the traditional tarot deck include “Colorants,” “Quality Control,” “Substrates,” and “Metrology,” as these categories are very representative of the MS curriculum in the printing program at RIT. Cards included important material properties of inks and paper, standards organizations, and color measurement technologies.
Creative and clever images were produced, and the accompanying book was designed with details of each of the traditional tarot cards described along with the respective Printing Tarot card. The prepress files were sent to Canon U.S.A., and the students spent two days there learning about their digital printing, finishing, and embellishment technologies to produce the printed matter. Assembly of the boxes was the final step for the students.
The resulting set not only showcased the printing technologies used but also represented the skills of the students. Myers states: “This would not have been possible without the support of D.J. Montalto and Canon U.S.A. I’m very proud of our students and grateful for the support that we receive from industry partners like Canon U.S.A., who recognize the importance of supporting the next generation of leaders in our industry.”
