The end of this month will mark the one year anniversary of my work as an artist in the IBLP Graphic Arts Department. This is hard to believe! As all four seasons have come and gone, so have many monstrous projects, marvelous coworkers and memorable events. One such event happened just last month when the entire Publications Department went to downtown Chicago for the yearly GraphExpo.

GraphExpo is a huge graphic communications exposition; the largest in the Americas! The latest and greatest software and equipment for getting a job printed from start to finish, no matter how sophisticated, is displayed here in utmost elaboration.  It’s an on ramp to the modern marketplace for today’s prepress, offset, and digital printing, finishing, mailing, and fulfillment, package printing, converting, and wide format technologies. Each company, with their newest paraphernalia, is showing off the greatness of their products. For those attending, it is a great way to understand how things work, learn about the progression of technology, and simply be overwhelmed with the magnitude of this profession.

Because I am an artist, I hung around Adobe’s booth where I listened in on live tutorials unfolding the newly released CS4 versions of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, not to mention the incredibly enhanced Lightroom 2. The GA quad (Laura, Britton, Mindy and I) also stopped to query Quark’s quirky stuff. I didn’t find it too interesting. 🙂

This trip, and many like it, I will remember for a very long time. It has been a rewarding year. Thank you Lord for letting me be a part of your greater work. “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening. O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom has Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches” (Psalm 104:22-23).