Printing & Copying

With the creation of digital printers and the extended life span of digital printed items. I have been producing more and more digital printed banners. I have found they are more cost effective to produce and yield a higher profit with less turn around time. Here is a digitally printed banner for RJ Snow located in Concord N.H.

A quick discussion on the visual differences between papers that share a common icc or linearization but have a different surface texture. Click on the Audio logo to listen…

The older gentleman was not seeking a relationship. He had called earlier for pricing on a book. 250 copies perfect bound with 160 pages. Finished size was 8.5 x 7, a little different, but not unheard of.  Like many of our customers these days, he had no real knowledge of paper . . . something nice but not too expensive. Brian provided an estimate for the job and felt good about it.

A couple of days later, the gentleman called back. “How much would it be just to do the binding?” he asked.

Now, in better days the answer to this question is “Sorry, we’ll pass.”  Binding someone else’s printing provides opportunities for all kinds of problems.  There is a need for setups and waste . . . meaning you have to explain that if the customer brings 250 book blocks and covers, the binding equipment is likely to eat a few. Covers have to be cut a certain way for perfect binding and space has to be allowed for the spine. There’s the problem of trim and margins and where the page numbers go . . . all things we look at when we print a book. All things that a customer who has never printed a book before doesn’t know.

But Brian liked the fellow and we certainly needed any kind of order, so he said “yes” and tried to explain all of the complexities that the old gentleman would need to know. Brian also asked why we wouldn’t be doing the printing.

“Office Despot beat your price on the printing,” was the reply. “But they couldn’t do the binding.” was the part he didn’t say.  Besides, when getting the lowest price is the object, the details don’t matter, do they?

We have been fortunate to have some really wonderful customers over the years.  For instance, the consultant, whose books we have shipped all over the US.  She works with government agencies and is really suffering from budget cuts now, but we’d do anything for her.  Or the school that seems to understand just how tight things are right now and sends checks almost instantaneously after jobs are complete. Or the construction company that is always in a hurry, but so very pleasant and easy to work with. Or so many more . . .

We’ve had a few customers that have strayed and come back; and lately, with the bad times, we’ve lost a few.  Some have disappeared altogether – out of business. We lost the educational establishment that was so devoted to the local community that they sent all of their printing to the low bidder in Atlanta. We’ve also lost a couple that have trimmed printing out of their budgets altogether.

The one that hurt the worst was a long-term account, a non-profit. We never did all of their printing, but for years we did the bulk of it and we supported them with fairly frequent donations.  I was worried a little when management changed a couple of years ago, but we continued along for awhile. One day, I received a request for pricing on all of the items we had printed for them.  I was led to believe that it was budget time and that numbers were needed to prepare for the next year.  I was naive . . . they were going out for bids and I missed it. We lost most of the business.  Shortly thereafter, Poor Richard received a request for donations for the following year.  They wanted a relationship, but not the kind that works for everyone involved.

Back to the gentleman and his book. Poor Richard grumbled and tried to make sure that the i’s were crossed and t’s were dotted. Both Brian and I had the same conversations with the customer.  First, we tried to convince him that it would be much better if we were allowed to do the whole job. He had already committed to Office Despot. All of their specs were the same, he said, but the price was cheaper.

Then, we tried to go over the details and repeatedly emphasized that we would not be responsible for waste or misprints. The old gentleman said that he understood.

When the job came to us, it was not a surprise. He delivered exactly 250 books. The quality of paper was poor and the quality of print was mediocre. Best of all, the book blocks had been miscut. Page sizes varied by about 3/8″ within each book. We pointed this out to the gentleman and did the best we could.  We did not put the finished product in Alphagraphics boxes.  The old gentleman did not complain, but he did not receive a good value for the money he spent on the project.

It’s difficult not to worry about the state of things  . . . of business in general, the printing business in particular and our business in specific. Poor Richard still maintains that printing does not make a good commodity. Too much detail is required and every project is different. The products of printing turn out best when printers and customers work together, when they have a relationship.

Poor Richard is decidedly old school . . . I like dealing with people. I prefer to buy things from salespeople and whenever possible from local businesses. It’s difficult to have a relationship with a website or WalMart.  I enjoy the relationships we maintain with our customers and I try to make sure that they are mutually beneficial. And I still believe that even in a depression, value trumps price every day.

But perhaps Poor Richard is idealistic . . . or naive. It’s tough turning 50.

Hi,

I was going around on stardoll blogs and i found something really surprsing

lets just say there is a girl, i used to know her  wayyy wayyy back and now she’s kinda decided to copy me

Same Medoll/Hair + her blog has mostly the same posts as me

Like say for instance my Eurovision post, she posted it 5 days later than me

and the same goes for the rest of my posts + she claims shes trying to break through Youtube aswell with other make-up tutorails.

Now when i knew her she looked nothing like what she is today

So hopefully, and i know she reads my blog that she will get the message and get off my back!!!

Why does everyone have to follow the crowd around these days? Whats wrong with just being orginal? This is Lel1997 all over again . . . . . .

Lel1996

xoxoxo

P.S Im not going to mention the girls name cause i know she’ll start blaming me, i know her too well

I have been slammed. I will be honest. It was as if everyone was getting married on the same day this summer thus sending out their invitations on the same day! Now, that isn’t at all true, but that’s how it felt over at the Tiny Pine Press studio.

In the hub-ub of the past month, I had many notable moments which I hope to share in the next couple of weeks. One notable experience was with this Lavender invitation. It was inspired by an invitation I did a couple of years back for Jeri Ryan & Christophe Émé’s wedding in the French countryside. (Though starred on Star Trek : Voyager, these are the most opposite of outer space invitations ever! Cotton, hand-made and old world as it gets with the hand letterpress!)

(Though actually, they were completely 100% tree free… and THAT is sort of like outer space, but I digress….)

This new client was very detail oriented and wanted two lavenders attached to this beautiful cotton handmade paper. I searched for the perfect lavender plants and found a really wonderful local farm who supplied a bounty of lavender stems to choose from. They smelled great. and when we glued them on, and stacked all the invitations, the lavender scent emanated from the papers to fill the room…. yum!

(I hope the guests got a whiff of the lavender when it came in the mail. I have worked with dried lavender many times and this was the most fragrant batch. OH, the variety is called Hidecote.)

It was a fun afternoon of gluing. I had my good friend Sharon Lowe (who is a floral designer – smart right?) help me glue the lavenders. Sharon understands how the plants want to go… and even which ones. We chatted with the lavender stems all afternoon. And then a week later chatted them into the envelopes and off to the guests.. You know that plants have feelings too! I think these lavenders were happy in their more permanent home, glued on these elegant invitations. I hope!!

I think I am a pretty good communicator but if the lavenders aren’t happy, I fear they will get revenge on me by getting lost in the mail! or revolting and busting out of their envelopes or something. It happens (More on that subject later)!

See… I AM delirious! Personification of Plants. Not a good sign……..

Description:  FreePrintables.net is a website that provides free downloads of different documents and templates for daily use. These are all freely downloadable, and most of them are in .pdf format. You can print them straight from Adobe Reader, but you can’t edit them. For those templates that can be edited (like letters, receipts, greeting cards, etc.), you can download an editable .doc version for $4, but actually this is not needed. You can use SomePDF to Word Converter (Review HERE) to convert the downloaded .pdf files into .doc files for editing. FreePrintables and SomePDF are a perfect combination.

The site features the following downloads:

Printables For Business

This term for art we are focusing on drawing and print making. On Friday we looked at making prints using painted leaves. We collected the leaves first, then we towel dried them. Next we painted our paper using a watered down paint. Then we painted our leaves different colours and pressed them down firmly onto our pieces of paper. They left awesome prints. We experimented with different colours and layering. It was easy to do, and is a great activity for a rainy day at home.

I’m telling you, I’m just about worn out after the excitement of the Whipup woo-hoo yesterday.  All the brouhaha also meant that much of today has had to be devoted to (shhhh) actual writing for, you know, money.

So tonight here’s a little peek at some more artwork from my gelatin monoprint experiments.

Complimentary catalogs are available in the lobby, and thank you for visiting.

I’m going to retire to my fainting couch now and recuperate from all the excitement.