Student honours print industry with Christmas baubles

The paper ‘baubles’ featured images of great inventors and machines that revolutionised the industry, along with details of when they were created. The baubles decorated a tree on display at Century Printing in Norwich, where Katie’s father Roger works.

Inventors included Chester Carlson, inventor of xerography, Monotype’s Tolbert Lanston and Alois Senefender of lithography fame.

Three presses had dedicated baubles also: the Heidelberg Platen, a "revolutionary" machine according to Katie’s father Roger, the Harris Aurelia 125 and the Xerox Docucolor 242, both used by Century Printing.

Katie said: "I thought our ordinary Christmas decorations in the shop were, well, too ordinary. I wanted to create something that relates to what we do as a business, the history behind the developments in print through time, and to allow those who look at the tree to perhaps learn something about the history of printing.

"We have had some customers who used to work in the industry who have taken a particular interest in expanding their knowledge of printing using our Christmas tree!"

Katie’s dad Roger has worked in print since he was 12 years old and the creative print genes have passed on to Katie, who aspires to a career in graphic design.

The 15-year-old is currently a GCSE Graphic Communication student at Aylsham High School. She has already applied to study for an A Level in the same subject and hopes to go on to complete a degree in graphic design in the future.

She added: "My dad’s business has encouraged me a lot and I have been involved with print for as long as I can remember. We even live next door to our printing works so print is a big part of our lives."