Tokyo Art Junior High is an art school held once a week at Shibuya Parco for junior high school students. Masanobu Sugatsuke, editor and president of Gutenberg Orchestra Co., Ltd., presides over the course, and promising creators active in a variety of fields, such as painters, sculptors, and photographers, serve as instructors.

This time, the students were divided into groups and took on the challenge of creating a pamphlet on a topic that they chose themselves. The final goal was to distribute it to the intended target group. To help achieve this final goal, on March 9, 2024, Komori provided printing and post-processing assistance. Students and their parents were invited to KGC (Komori Graphic Technology Center) for printing practice and lectures, and each group printed around 350 copies, giving them the experience of receiving their own designs in the form of actual printed matter.

Although the students were surprised by printing-specific concepts such as register marks and bleed, they created and submitted data that they were satisfied with, and they observed printing and folding using the Impremia IS29s digital printing machine and the MBO K80 B1-size Combi Folder. They were seen looking at their designs full of curiosity, which they could now touch and painstakingly inspect with sharpened senses, such as by smelling.

In addition, during the printing lecture, we introduced themes such as what printing is and what offset printing presses are, as well as explaining security printing, which uses advanced printing technology to prevent counterfeiting of banknotes. At the same time, during a demonstration of an offset printing press using the Lithrone GX40RP advance, a student asked, "Aren't you afraid when sampling?'' as the paper was delivered at the maximum printing speed. Their active and interested appearance made our explanations enthusiastic, and the field trip had a lively atmosphere from beginning to end.

On a later day, a presentation was held as a conclusion, and it was impressive to see the participants talking in a lively way about the results of their efforts in front of the completed work.

We received delighted comments such as "I learned about the mechanism, ingenuity, and depth of printing'' and "I showed the pamphlet to my brother when I got home and was proud of it,'' which gave Komori the opportunity to realize the range of possibilities in printed matter once again.

Komori will continue activities based on our group purpose: Delivering Kando "beyond expectations" by contributing to society with print technology.