Oregon gets another Mercury Award; & the “Dots” Rock Canal Street

 It was a busy last week, and heading into summer it seemed like lots of stuff going on around town. On Thursday, it was the 3rd Annual Dayton Ad Club’s “Mercury Awards” at Moraine Country Club. You know, kind of like the Academy Awards, where we all pat each other on the back (just without the glamor and cameras). Happy hour was a good happy hour, a lot the old faces from this industry, all stuffed in one room. Plus there were a lot of the new young “Creatives”, which made for an interesting mix of dinosaurs and newbe’s. A lot of mingling and shaking hands (don’t forget the heavy Hors DrOves).

After Patrice Hall (president of Dayton Creative Syndicate and designer at Real Art) talked, they started giving out the awards. When our own Mike Green won for Printer Rep of the year, I thought I’d have to go get the trophy (cause he was still in disbelief). Printer Rep of the Year was the largest category, with at least 1 rep entered from every major printer in town (some had up to 3), so this being our second trophy in 3 years must say something good about us. Great night at the Mercury’s.

I missed Urban Nights on Friday, although I know that DCS had their first photography contest going on. I’m sure it was fun, I don’t know how those yourg creatives do it night after night.

On Saturday I went on down to Canal Street to watch the Physodot’s only show of the spring (they usually only come once a year around Thanksgiving). Besides rocking the house, Niki Dakota opened for them. Yes, thats the same Niki thats the WYSO music director and has her show “Excursions” during the week. I was more that impressed by her guitar playing and voice…Great job Niki. And of course the Dots were on fire and (as stated earlier) just rocked the house. If anybody remembers the old days when the Slugs would play the Walnut Hills on First Street (prior to Brown St. location), it almost had that kind of feeling

That was a big 3 days, but its great to see this town getting some energy as we head into what could be a great summer.

PMS Thinking

PMS: it’s not what you are THINKING!

Ok, now that I have cleared that up, what is it? PMS stands for Pantone Matching System, sometimes referred to as Spot Color or just Pantone, used to specify colors of ink with a number that is universally used by software, printers, graphic designers, ink houses, and clients.

Yes, three names all the same meaning. Why you ask? Why not? If there is anything I have learned about this industry, if there is one way to say or do something there are three ways. This stands true for most everything print or graphic design related.

Enough rambling, why am I bringing this up?

I bring this up because I find myself explaining to clients why their job is not separating into the appropriate spot colors. This seems like a common concept to me but not to everyone so I thought I would address it.

A spot color in a nutshell is an ink color that isn’t cyan, magenta, yellow or black (CMYK). On a full-color (CMYK) job, a spot color would be the 5th color, such as a corporate color, a metallic accent, or anything else outside of the norm. Technically, a spot varnish, or an extra bump of color counts as spot colors, because they involve extra inks, and extra press units to print.

Reasons to use spot colors.

Consistency, a corporate identity, keeping the look

Save money,  in some cases, by going with say two spot colors is cheaper then paying for cmyk.

Special effects, like a varnish, or a metallic color.

Spot Colors in Adobe

Adobe offers a cool way to double-check your document to make sure it separates into your spot colors.

Indesign offers a separations preview.

Window>output>separations preview. From here you can turn off the eyeball for the spot colors and everything that you call out into those colors should disappear. If not you need to go back and figure out why.

Illustrator (CS4) New to CS4, basically the same concept except you can go straight from Window to separation preview.

Acrobat PRO depending on which version of Acrobat Professional you are using it may be in a different location, but in the more current version you can go Advanced>Print Production>Output Preview. Why it is called something different, who knows! Also, I don’t think you can do this in reader.

Things to Consider

Think about a few things before you jump into PMS Bliss.

What is the cost, your budget?

Expertise, can you or your designer handle it?

Software, can the software you have accomplish this? You are only as good as the software you use!

Proofing, it may be impossible to get an accurate proof. But, that’s ok because they make PMS books that will show you exactly the color it will be!

It’s all about being “Lean”

“Lean” may be a buzzword today, but look at the majority of successful manufacturing companies and you will find they have embraced “lean” concepts.

Today’s market demands projects be done right, be done on time and be price competitive. To meet these criteria consistently and without cutting corners, we know running a lean operation is key. Below are some of our underlying principals for operational decision making that allow us to run “ lean ”.

• Hold the minimum inventory needed to run operations without interruption. We have developed relationships with our suppliers (mostly paper vendors) to allow us to order any available items and have delivered by 8:00 the next morning. We take this very seriously; as our supply line is our life line.
• Standardize equipment and processes. Our estimating process, prepress workflow and proofing processes have been standardized so we can achieve the same results over and over again. We have standard plate sizes for all of our presses, standard blade sizes for our cutters and so on; you get the idea. The more standardized we are, the more predictable the results with less time and energy invested; that means one more opportunity to be competitive.
• Buy the best equipment for the job and don’t keep unproductive or in-efficient equipment around. We make optimum use of every piece of equipment as well as every square inch of our facility; nobody wants to pay for under utilized resources or equipment that do not produce as promised.
• Stay financially stable. We pay our vendors on time and take discounts when ever offered. Our vendors will go the extra mile for us and the money we save in discounts adds up. We have a strong receivables and payables system and constantly monitor our financial position. A financially stable company can concentrate on their core competency.
• Meet regularly and always look for waste in the system. By meeting on a scheduled basis, we all stay on the same page and everybody has the chance to bring up an area where they see waste or inefficiency happening. Its amazing what happens when you communicate.

This is a great subject to write about, and in my mind one of the reasons we continue to be successful. I will write more about it in the future, the more I write about it, the more we come up with new ideas on being lean.

 

When Client-Vendor Relationships Work

It seems like when the economy gets tough, all the  ”how to sell” talk turns to relationship building. But hasn’t that always been one of if not the most important part of any business…that link between the client and the vendor. I guess to start with, if you’re going to be dealing with clients or vendors on an everyday basis, it really helps to like people. Even after that, it takes a lot of work to develop these relationships, as everybody has a stake in it. I guess we are lucky, because all of us here generally like dealing with people and trying to please them.

I’m pretty tickled when I see a relationship reach the point of collaboration, where both of you are working as a team to accomplish the task at hand , and you forget who each other works for because you both are after the same goal. When you get to that point, I believe you have reached a new level of Client-vendor relationship. That does not just happen right away, there has to be a lot of trust and respect. The Client has to trust that the vendor won’t overcharge them when they let their guard down. And the vendor has to trust that the client won’t take advantage of his resources when his guard is down. So once you get past that, and you both understand where you need to be in the end, you can make a lot of great things happen.

Well, that still sounds easier than it is a lot of times (but if you practice, it gets easier). I’ve found that prior to starting a project, its good to have some open, honest conversation and lay down some expectations on both of your behaves. What happens if the job does not get done by a certain date, or if approval is late and throws off the schedule. I’ve also found that if there is part of a project that I found a little scary, its better to voice those concerns up front than dig your self a hole and start thinking about the issues when you are past the point of no return.

There’s a lot of responsibility involved with the client-vendor relationship, but it can also be very rewarding. I love what I do and believe it or not look forward to tough projects in part because of the collaboration. In a lot of cases it has led to great friendships and it’s always fun to look back and say “What was I thinking when I thought that was going to be easy”

Taking Advantage of Our 5-Color

 

We are having great results  on our Heidelberg PM 5-52 (simple for extremely automated 5/Color printing press), with different varnishes, coatings and spot colors.  Printing varnishes inline will add gloss to photos, or a header you want to pop.  Flooding a sheet will add rub resistance and help with bleeds in the cutting stage.  Another cool application is our “Kentucky Shine”,  It appears like a thick varnish but dries faster and harder.   Coated cover is best, because on a lighter sheet it wants to curl the sheet too much.  Both processes are run inline.

 

Speaking of cool applications, we have a die cutting system that attaches to the fifth unit.  This enables us to perforate, score, and die cut inline, still utilizing the 1^st four units for printing. You can talk to Mike or Judd to see if this application works for your project. 

 

With the 5-color we can run a spot color with 4-color process which makes matching a PMS color easy while keeping cost close to a process run. 

 

The specs are 14.5” x 20.47” sheet size and image area is 14 x 20.375.  We use 8 mil polyester plates from our Mitsubishi DPX 2 computer-to-plate system, great plate!

 

The automation helps us in many ways as well, the auto wash makes going to spot colors a quick change.  We will run 1, 2 & 3 color jobs on her, especially if it’s a long run.  She will do 13,000 impressions per hour all day long.

 

We are very proud of our 5/C Heidelberg PM 52, and love to show it off.  We welcome visitors, and Judd is a great tour guide.

The Class for Presidents

Over the last 4 years we have developed a penchant for continuous improvement, and once you decide to take that journey, you go down a lot of pretty enlightening roads, one of which was a presidents class that I just took.

I spent 2 days in the “Class for Presidents” at The Aileron Campus in Dayton, OH, and just ate up the experience. It was about envisioning what the future state of Oregon should look like, and that’s a tough one to put into words. The fact really hit me last night when my wife asked what I learned, and even though I took in so much I felt like I was going into overload, I had a hard time putting what I learned into words or specifics, I just had a vision of the future Oregon.

To begin, it really helped me to learn what Aileron was and what their mission is. That helps so you don’t think it’s another flavor of the month management system. The whole idea started out as the Iams Management training program, and over time it grew to became Aileron. Clay Mathile was concerned where would people work when GM, Delco, Mead, NRC were not the major employers in town and who would carry the payrolls. It would be the small businesses, and they would need entrepreneurial expertise to grow and be profitable enough to carry all the payrolls to keep Dayton thriving. Knowing that really helped put me in the right frame of mind. I guess that I have read so many management books and been to so many seminars that I just take it all with a grain of salt. But this was real and I was very impressed.

I learned how much is up to me. And that’s not to take anything away from all the people that work at Oregon, but it’s my job to be able to visualize that state of the future and what its going to take to get there. That’s not to tough until you figure out it all needs to be based in reality, and then you really need to think about it a little deeper.

I took a course like this 7 years ago, right after buying the shop and it’s amazing how much more of it really makes sense after 7 years in the trenches of doing the presidents job. And the facilitator of the course ran a large manufacturing company and his stories from experience wove right into the material. It was good stuff.

There was a whole lot more I learned, but instead of going into details, if you’re interested in hearing more give me a call and I’ll talk to you about my experience at Aileron. If you are the president of a company I would highly suggest that you take a look at it, especially since we are so lucky to have this resource right here in Dayton. I believe that a professional management system along with a desire for continuous improvement through out any company is one more key to sustainability.

 

Scoring and Folding Digital Printing

Now here’s a topic that makes most printers head’s turn the other way. If you’ve ever seen a folded brochure that was digitally printed , more than likely, you have seen how it cracks on the folds and does not look real good when folded (especially coated cover). I’ve walked by the folder one to many times and seen a great looking digital job with a cracked white line showing through a solid on the fold, Uhhh! So when Marty (the bindery master) came to me suggesting we spend $1,200.00 on something called the Ultimate Score Package, I was a little skeptical. We had looked at it in Chicago at Graph Expo last year, but I honestly did not pay much attention.

I went ahead and gave the OK to purchase this (at both Marty and Bob’s urging), which looks like not much more that a rubber score ring opposed to metal) + some other key parts and pieces. But now I am absolutely amazed at the difference it makes; after you score something, the score looks like any other score but it folds perfect. Marty showed me how being a hard rubber instead of metal, it only puts a crease in the paper instead of cracking the grain.

To be honest, creasers (the same concept) are getting big in some digital applications, and it’s great to be able to apply that same technology to our current machines. It seems like a small thing, but believe me the cracking associated with digital printing can be a real headache. It’s great that with every “little” thing like this, the ability to do small, full color work that looks great on a budget just keeps getting better & better.

Getting out of the blocks on Social Media for your Business

I’ll be honest, at first the idea of adding a social media conduit to our website did not have a lot of appeal and it really did not make sense to me. My exposure to social media was limited to a few Facebook pages, reading the description of Twitter and reading a couple of articles in Wired. Seemed to be a lot of people talking about what they were doing right now and showing pictures of their daily lives, which was fine but I’m fairly busy and the interest just was not there.

I was discussing this with Samantha Enslen, who was helping me write some copy and she made a comment that kind of stuck. She said that she used Blog entries as categories for discussions of ideas that may be interesting to her customers. So, I looked up her Dragonfly Editorial Blog to see what she was talking about and all of a sudden I was full of new ideas. If I could write a post about something related to or of interest to one of our customers and categorize it, I could send them a link to that page and pass that idea to them in a rather non threatening way. Actually it would be in my own words, and they could reply back, and it could become a 2 way conversation. Now all of a sudden its starting to hit me what they mean by Web 2.0…. our website is not just a billboard that talks at people, its a 2 way communication tool that we could get our clients involved with.

Then I’m meeting with Nick Gaskins and I’m kind of excited about all my new discoveries and telling him about them and what I want to do. He just kind of smiles, talks about some ideas and I think he’s right on board with me. So I go back to the office and look up his companies website (Bing Communications) and they are way ahead of me. He’s got their blog imbedded right within the homepage, and they have written all kinds of great posts about things that I found very interesting. Actually I spent so much time reading the posts and then looking at their site, that I ended up knowing quite a bit about Bing, and I guess that’s the whole idea.

OK, jump forward a month or 2, and I have Bing doing our new site, and all of these ideas are starting to pan out. As they say, execution is the hardest part of any plan. They can build us the structure, make it look good, and put it at our address, but its now up to us to add that touch of magic to it. I told everybody at last weeks meeting that not many people (except us), know how special we are. We have a story like nobody else, and we all know it and live it every day…If only the world could see and feel what goes on at Oregon every week, they would be amazed. And the knowledge base that we possess about printing and related subjects is incredible, people call us all the time just to ask questions.

Distilling all this into our new site and blog and making it special is going to be challenging, but I think its going to be a lot of fun. I have high hopes for what we can do.

Hello world!

When I told everybody at the meeting this morning I was going to need their help in writing an entry for our new blog we are going to be launching, they just kind of stared at me. Ok, its Monday morning and they had been staring all morning, so this was just a continuance of my boring them.

Well to me, this is just a beginning of a new way to get our message out. There’s a lot of stuff to write about in our business and I’ve got to give Nick and Bing Design credit for getting us going and looking at communicating with our customers a little differently. But seriously, this is a great inititive. I’ve been following some of Melissa’s posts and there is a lot of great information there. Things I’ve wanted to learn more about, but just don’t have time..like G Doc’s and WordPress. I guess it also helps that she is a good writer, and that really helps hold my interest, but there is also a great structure to their web communications.

So thats what we want to do, is to have a great stream of communications coming from Oregon. It sounds good, and I’m sure it will look good and make us the envy of every printer in Dayton. But I think the devil will be in the details, and that is to really develop some content people want to read, have it be informative as well as entertaining. That will be a challenge, and I think thats what I will start my next entry about.

OK, I’ll come back in a year and read this first post and see how it sounds after a year’s experience.