12th Grade — Print Shop Partnership: Working with an External Vendor

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

Name one thing our school printers definitely CAN'T do that an outside print shop could.

🎯 Today's Big Question

How do we prepare a design job to be printed by an outside print vendor instead of our own printers?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Identify when a job requires an outside vendor (size, quantity, or special materials the school can't produce).
Prepare a print-ready file meeting a vendor's specifications.
Write a professional request/quote email to a vendor.

🧰 What You'll Need

Computer with design/PDF tools
Sample vendor specification sheet (teacher-provided)

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Preparing the File

Do Now (5 min, above).
Mini-lesson (15 min): when to use an outside vendor vs. school printers, and what vendors need (specs, quantity, deadline, budget).
Independent prep (20 min): prepare a sample file to vendor specifications.
Share (5 min).

Day 2: Requesting a Quote

Do Now (5 min).
Mini-lesson (10 min): writing a professional vendor request/quote email.
Independent writing (25 min): draft a request email for a sample job.
Peer review (5 min).

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

Day 1

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

Day 2

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

📚 Key Words

Vendor: An outside business the studio pays to produce work beyond what school equipment can handle.
Quote: A vendor's estimated price and timeline for a specific job.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

File + email scored with a rubric: correct vendor specs met, professional and complete email.

Exit Ticket: What information does a vendor need from us that our own printers don't?

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week, add your best finished or in-progress yearbook (or, later, studio) work to your portfolio with a 1-2 sentence caption -- and once you're in the Design Studio phase, a photo of the piece in its real, installed location if possible. This is the same evidence trail you'll use for Archive & Portfolio and any PBAT/portfolio review.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “Print Shop Partnership: Working with an External Vendor.” This project asked: “How do we prepare a design job to be printed by an outside print vendor instead of our own printers?” I used Vendor by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🔗 Want to Learn More?

No extra links for this lesson.

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same vendor-relationship thinking a Business class covers in supply-chain and outside-partner management.

Career Connection: Working with an outside print vendor is real, direct experience for freelance and studio careers across the Careers hub.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Prepare a real file package and specification sheet as if sending it to an actual outside print vendor. Start here: gather your final files into one folder and write down the five basics — size, quantity, paper, color mode, deadline — before formatting anything fancy.
Research and compare two real local print shops' pricing and turnaround, presented as a short vendor comparison brief. Start here: get an actual quote (phone call or online form) from two real shops before writing the comparison, not just their advertised rate card.