My main printing experience is in the lab. I LOVE the poster printer, and since I work on campus, it's really the most convenient option for me to print here. The main drawback being paper options, and the fact that I'd have to bring in paper myself to use something unusual, and while I have a large selection of craft paper (as seen in class last week), I haven't as of yet started collecting laser printer paper, but I guess it's about that time in the program for me. The only other experience I have in Maryland with printers is with CopyCat, which we've always used for work since it was on campus. Lisa Tasker is really great about how just about every project in the dean's office is done at the last minute. I don't think they have as large a paper selection as some of the other companies we've talked about, though.
I'd love to work with Alpha Graphics, being a woman-owned company in my neighborhood, but...they're only open during the exact same hours that I have to work: M-F, 8:30-5. So, Fridays would be the only days I could pick up a project, and I just don't foresee being finished that early. And while my job is great for allowing me to read/work on class projects when I have down time, it's not the kind of job where I can leave for thirty minutes just to pick up a project--I'd have to use my lunch break. So, that's not entirely sustainable across multiple projects. Heather McPeters, a student in the MA program, works with Sir Speedy in Owings Mills for the work projects she does as Creative Director for a parochial school, and she's always praising them. She's generally doing bigger projects with large runs, but I think a few students have gone there with one-offs and been just as happy. Again, I don't have personal experience with them, though, and they have the same drawback as Alpha Graphics in that they're only open M-F, 9-5.
