Illustration by Aditi Singh

If you walk to Sharp and go to the Visual Communications department on the 11th floor, the elevators will spit you into the lobby. If you turn left, walk down the hallway, and stop at the rainbow paper samples, you’ll be greeted by the Service Bureau.

It’s a resource most students seem to know about and is best known for printing. However, often students aren’t aware of quite how much the Bureau offers.

Staffed by student employees and a handful of full-time non-student employees, the Service Bureau’s full list of services can be found at sites.saic.edu/servicebureau/. Today’s SAIC Secret is a deep dive into all this SAIC resource has to offer.

The Service Bureau has many printing options. Of course, there’s normal color or black-and-white laser printing, as well as stickers, latex printing, wide format printing , Risograph printing, and cards of all kinds.

Once you’ve printed, there are a number of finishing services, such as cutting cards to size, lamination, stapling, folding, hole punching, several binding options, vinyl cutting, and bulk cutting. They also make buttons, sell grommets, and have a variety of tools and equipment for checkout, such as a long-arm stapler.

The Service Bureau will print anything you want on practically any material. They print on fabric, which gets expensive fast, but is perfect for applique, patchwork, and other little details. They’ll also do latex, transparency, vellum, labels, iron-on transfers, and more.

They have a ton of different colors and types of papers too. Cover-weight paper options are available if you want to print booklets, which you can then ask to have bound via saddle stitch, spiral binding, wire-o, or perfect binding. These are available in bulk, meaning they can print a ton of your ‘zines and books.

There are 27 copy machines spread out among SAIC’s buildings available for students to use. The Service Bureau takes more time than going to any school printer and printing something yourself, but it gives you more options and control.

Frankie Lyne (BFAW 2025), a long-time user of the Service Bureau, said: “If you mess up the order the staff are really kind and understanding — shout out especially to Jen — they will let you know if a file got messed up if they catch it.” If you’re kind when you email, they might re-print your order for free.

Lyne also spoke to the costs of the Service Bureau: “They sometimes work with you on the price with certain orders, it never hurts to ask! I got a $1,000 riso[graphy] order down to like $400-ish.”

Additionally, grad students taking a writing department class get free prints from the Service Bureau, as long as it’s related to their class.

Most prints have a turnaround time of two days, unless you’ve ordered wide format inkjet, risograph, or perfect binding. Those have special turnaround times.

Bureau equipment is calibrated to industry standards for better consistency in color and ordering formats. They provide file preparation guidelines to assist our users when submitting their files to make sure it comes out exactly as you want it. They even have a color management page. Staff at the Service Bureau encourage students to go down to Sharp and look at their samples — they also usually have free stickers and small prints. Who doesn’t love free stuff?

The Bureau is open to students, faculty, and alumni.

Alumni Teddie Bernard (BFA 2023), F Newsmagazine’s graduated Comics Editor, said, “The ability to print with people I know and trust for projects has been a win in my post-grad life. They’re convenient since I live in Chicago, they offer high quality prints and printing services (such as risograph) you can’t necessarily get at other print shops.”

All orders must be paid for in ARTICash, and orders are made at the digital storefront. If you still have questions, aren’t sure how to format something, or have a weird idea, they offer one-on-one meetings.

“[SAIC’s] Service Bureau is not just about high-end equipment; it’s the knowledgeable and supportive staff that really makes it an exceptional resource for students,” said Jennifer Keats, the manager of the Service Bureau.

The Bureau gets busiest before critiques, midterms, finals, and before the art sale. Order turnaround times become longer over these periods, so if you’re worried about making sure you have ‘zines for your midterm critique, put in the order early.

Artists can get stuck in a “do everything yourself” mindset. Sometimes it’s nice to not have to do every single step on your own and save some time and effort.