The Gatehouse Design and Print Consultancy at Robert Gordon University (RGU) has scooped a national award and has been highly commended at an industry conference.
The Gatehouse, which provides design and print services to RGU as well as to external organisations, picked up the ‘Best In-House Printed Product’ award at this year’s Association of Print Managers in Education (APME) Conference held in Torquay.
Competing against 50 universities from across the UK, the Gatehouse won the award for two sets of brochures it produced to advertise fine art and fine drawing short courses at RGU’s Gray’s School of Art.
The Gatehouse was also highly commended in a number of categories including ‘Best In-House Finished Product’ for an innovative dissertation cover design, and ‘Print Service of the Year’ in recognition of its achievements as its in-house service offering expands.
It was also highly commended in the design categories, including ‘Best Wide Format’ for a promotional campaign designed to raise the profile of the Gatehouse’s services to students and staff, as well as 'Best In-House Design’ for collateral it produced for the 2015 Gray’s School of Art Degree Show.
Bill Walker, the Gatehouse’s Print Manager, says: “We are delighted to have scooped the award for Best In-House Printed Product at this year’s conference, as well as receive high commendations in a number of categories.
“We have achieved a lot over the years so it’s great that our performance reflects the growing and diverse range of services we provide to RGU, and is testament to the teamwork across the department.”
Martin Parker, the Gatehouse’s design studio manager, who chairs the APME Scottish branch, adds: “We are pleased to have been highly commended in the Best In-House Design category which recognised the talent of two placement students who worked on the degree show material for us.
“It was also great to see the talent of Scottish universities being recognised this year with seven of the 12 categories on offer awarded to institutions in Scotland.”
The Gatehouse was originally a central printing services department within RGU but was established with its own identity and rebranded when it relocated to the Garthdee campus 13 years ago.
It now provides all design and print related functions to RGU’s academic, administrative and support departments, staff-affiliated organisations and students, as well as other commercial enterprise.
Its services include design, signage, digital reproduction of single and colour work, large format colour output, banner stands, finishing and print brokerage and photography.
The APME promote best value and practice within the education print and design environment.