The Future is Now for Young Graphic Arts Professionals
Nick Gawreluk In our continuing series of blog posts featuring recipients of monetary awards from the Print and Graphic Scholarship Foundation (PGSF), today we profile Nick Gawreluk, an enterprising student at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Nick, who has already done extensive internship work with Heidelberg, spoke with us about his focus in the graphic arts industry, interesting projects he has completed at RIT, and his thoughts on the future of the printing industry. 1. What area of the graphic arts do you consider your primary focus (Design, Print production, Digital media, etc.)? My primary focus is within the printing industry. Through past internships with Heidelberg in Brazil and Germany, I have really gained a passion for business development and product management. A second focus is within the digital media sphere as a “media architect.” The name of the game here is being able to strategize where content should go and in what channels to effectively reach the right audience. 2. Have you started job searching? If so, what has been your experience thus far? My job search has just recently started as of last week. I have been very proactive and contacted employers all around the word located in over 5 continents. I am continuously looking for job opportunities and maintaining a positive attitude that the right connection will present itself. 3. What will be your top considerations when looking for a job in the graphic arts field? (In other words, what characteristics are you looking for in potential employer?) My top consideration is that the company fundamentally understands how the printing industry is changing and has a strong vision in place to operate business and services offered accordingly amongst changed marketplace conditions. I am also looking for an employer that actively seeks out and presents hard working individuals with a proven success record the opportunity to move throughout the company to utilize their skills and talents and reach their career potential. 4. What are one or two interesting graphic arts projects you’ve completed at school? At RIT I took an intensive 4-month Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification and had a consulting project at a local printing company. The project I was in charge of created the company saving opportunities of over $150,000. This was possible through revising their material flow in the pressroom in addition to placing benchmarks throughout the entire print production workflow to be able to quantify and improve upon continuously. 5.Have you attended any professional events or conferences? What could organizations that host professional events and conferences do to attract more student participation? As a former president of RIT TAGA (Technical Association of the Graphic Arts), I have been fortunate to attend TAGA conferences throughout both the East and West coast. When working in Germany I was also very active in Heidelberg’s events at their world headquarters where customers from around the world visit to see the latest and greatest products. 6.How do you see print’s role in the media mix today? What do you think is the future of print? As media channels continuously grow, it creates an effect of lowering print volumes in a majority of the key commercial segments. We are far from the age where messages are communicated solely through radio, print and television. The effects of the Internet,...
read moreMaking The Cut
By Don Piontek When I think about the workings of the bindery, I naturally think about the various machines and systems that are part of finishing. But If I “dig down” to a deeper level, I come to the various components that make up the machines. You know,…
read moreThe Rise of Robots: Printing Automation Can Be Your Key to Greater Efficiency
From automated tellers to radiology, information technology is helping to automate the delivery of products and services. It’s no different with print—automating the print production process creates greater efficiency and less waste. It is also making many printers more profitable. In fact, Printing Industries of America Ratios studies have shown that about 25% of printers make 100% of the profit in the industry. One thing that these high-earning companies have in common is that they replace much of their labor with automation. Would you like to say that you can have a job on press in less than 10 minutes from its order time? Or how would you like to guarantee your customers that their jobs will ship the same day if the order is placed in the morning? If you have an automation strategy, there are plenty of benefits. But before you begin, you need the right education. Find the tools to help you learn how to implement an automated system. Printing Industries of America has plenty of resources to get you up to date, including events, publications, and webinars. Take advantage of our automation resources like reports, articles, and the Tech Hotline. If you want to be the best, learn directly from the best. Take part in the events from the Automation Solutions Network that highlight a company exemplifying best automation practices. Their meetings are excellent ways to network and learn. This May you can attend the newest event that will take you behind the scenes to see automation successfully implemented at Digital Lizard and Creel Printing. Hear about automated workflows and equipment straight from the company leaders. The meeting takes place May 2–3, 2013, in Las Vegas, NV. Find more information and a presentation schedule here. Hear from Digital Lizard president about how his company gets its edge. You will want to read up on the intricacies of automation technologies before you implement a system. Printing Industries of America offers many titles and webinars on automation through our bookstore. One of our newest titles is JDF Workflow: A Guide to Automation in the Graphic Communications Industry. Vital for print professionals and students, this book explains how to implement print automation and what you can accomplish. Get an in-depth review of this title and the importance of automation from James Harvey of CIP4 here. For more on automation, visit the Automation Solutions Network...
read moreReaching Your Customers Through Social Media
Jason Falls Jason Falls is a leading digital strategist, author, speaker, and thinker in the digital and social media marketing industry. He leads digital strategy for CafePress, a publicly-traded internet retailer consistently ranked as one of the top online shopping destinations. He also continues to serve as founder and chief instigator at SocialMediaExplorer.com, an industry-leading blog and digital marketing agency. Jason will be speaking at the Integrated Print Forum in May, and he recently talked with us about social media, marketing, and what attendees can expect from his session. What’s the best way for a business with an e-commerce outlet to use social platforms to drive traffic to the site? Draw your audience in with interesting, engaging posts including stories, photos, and questions that encompass your particular worldview. Then occasionally give them a benefit (a deal) for being connected there. The real answer, though, will vary by industry, audience, competitive marketplace, and more. What works for CafePress won’t work for some of you. What works for you won’t work for a business similar to yours and so on. You have to test and iterate within your environment to see what works best for your business. Specifically, I’ve seen e-commerce businesses do quite well with sharing imagery of products that links back to the product page. But that’s boring and very brand-centric. I’ve seen businesses do better by generating content that delivers an audience-centric focus (helpful tips, entertaining articles, initiates discussion on industry topics) to draw in those they’re trying to reach, then ensuring that for every 4-5 posts that engage, they offer one that rewards the audience with an offer, coupon, or free item. What do you say to small/medium business owners who claim there is no time for social media interaction? They may not be wrong. But they will eventually lose out to their competition. Social media fuels both search engines and word-of-mouth advertising in interesting and powerful ways. So if you don’t have time for social, you’re eventually going to lose out on the primary mechanisms—search engines and word of mouth—that customers use to decide to buy from you. Does it make sense for a small-business owner to personally spend time on social media interaction? What about if the company has a dedicated person whose job it is to manage the company’s social interaction? It depends on the person, the time commitment, and more. If the owner isn’t good with people and can’t communicate well, please stay away from social media. You’ll hurt more than help. The best bet is to have someone to interact on social channels on your company’s behalf who is as close to the bone as possible. Sure, you can use an agency or consultant, but do they know your business as well as your full-time staff? Your co-owner? You? You’ll need to weigh the options and either have someone on your team learn social or someone on a social team learn your business. It’s no different than having a public relations or advertising account person you may have used in the past. The more familiar they are with who you are, how you operate, what your goals are, and the like, the easier it is for them to do a great job for you. Are there ways for companies, like printing firms,...
read moreAs Digital Printing Grows, So Does the Premier Print Awards Competition
You only have to read through one industry publication to know that there is a lot of talk about digital printing. From package to commercial printing, innovation in this field is taking place daily. If there were a good time to declare a “Digital Boom,” you can say that time is now. We’ve expanded the digital print category for the 2013 Premier Print Awards competition because it has become such an important, growing segment in our industry. Printing companies can now choose from eight, more product-specific subcategories to enter their pieces like On-Demand, Variable-Data, and more. “As a representative for the industry, Printing Industries of America is no stranger to adapting to new technologies to support the needs of our members,” says Lisa Rawa, Vice President, Marketing. “We’ve seen a surge of digitally printed entries in recent years, and it is evident that these printers can really hold their own. We wanted to give them new, exciting opportunities to be recognized for their work.” Did we mention that there are more than 100 other categories to enter in the Premier Print Awards? According to Lisa, “We want this competition to touch upon every niche in the industry so that any printer has an opportunity to enter and win. Digital printing is expanding, and we have expanded our offerings to reflect this.” This is not the first time we have re-energized the Premier Print Awards to keep the contest relevant and in sync with the industry environment. And with all of the innovation among printers, it will not be the last change either. Here are the new Digital Printing subcategories for the Premier Print Awards: On-Demand Brochures and Booklets (1, 2, or 3 colors) Brochures and Booklets (4 or more colors) Juvenile Books Novelty Books Cookbooks Customized/Personalized/Variable-Data Digital Printing Campaign Read more about the Primer Print Awards and how you can enter on our website www.printing.org/ppa. Also find out about other digital printing education...
read moreValue of Print: An Integrated Marketing Campaign
The printing industry is constantly facing challenges regarding its place in messaging, its environmental impact, and its future. As recently as January of this year, Google launched a campaign to “Go Paperless in 2013,” and who can forget Toshiba’s ill-fated “National No Print Day,” announced in the summer of 2012? Both campaigns encouraged switching from paper to electronic communications as a means of protecting the environment. These are only two of the most recent cases. With industry giants making false claims about print, it became clear we needed to fight back. Printing Industries of America created the Value of Print campaign in March 2012 as a response to false claims about print’s negative impact on the environment and the loss of its effectiveness. This campaign has served as a resource for the industry to spread the message about the power of print and is available in a printed Flip-Book, PDF version, and a mobile app. Our President and CEO, Michael Makin, even referenced facts and statistics from the Flip-Book in his open letter to Google in response to their “Go Paperless in 2013” campaign. What started as direct mail pieces—including a brochure, poster, and a PR tool kit—grew into a bigger campaign, crossing several platforms. The campaign is now promoted on Printing Industries of America’s social media channels—you may have even seen our #FlipbookFactFriday tweets, which include quick statistics from the Flip-Book. The purpose of social media is to discover and share content you wouldn’t find though normal means. This campaign has reached audiences that we wouldn’t have been able to reach with just a social media campaign, or just a direct mail campaign. By integrating the various outlets available, we have been able to maximize our reach. The industry knows its value. When you marry the power of print with the efficiency of electronics, you can create an extremely effective marketing mix that is also environmentally friendly. Coming this spring, the campaign will even cross over to television. Printing Industries of America will be featured in a video to be aired on In Focus, a television series on PBS. The video promotes the industry’s sustainability and print’s effectiveness and features segments from Tim Burton, President, Burton & Mayer, and Chairman of the Board, Printing Industries of America; Michael Makin, President and CEO, Printing Industries of America; and Lisa Rawa, Vice President, Marketing, Printing Industries of America. Stay tuned for more developments from the Value of Print Campaign by visiting printing.org/valueofprint and be sure to download the mobile app for the latest facts and statistics to support our industry. Lisa Rawa in a behind-the-scenes image from the In Focus Video Shoot. Lisa stands in front of Printing Industries of America’s latest press, the iGen4, donated by...
read moreTake Advantage of the Great Benefits of the Performance Plus Global Logistics Buying Program
Below is a guest blog post from the team at Performance Plus Global Logistics, the newest addition to the National Buying Program at Printing Industries of America. For more information on how members can take advantage of the great savings as part of this program, visit www.printing.org/buyingpower. The year has gotten off to a busy start with an array of new customers for our team thanks in part to our recent partnership with Printing Industries of America. Performance Plus Global Logistics is excited to have had the opportunity to team up with Printing Industries of America as part of the National Buying Program. This program officially kicked off in January, and we have already seen great success. We have multiple webinars scheduled throughout the weeks with the PIA affiliates and their members, and we have also fielded numerous requests from PIA members to send more information and details regarding the program and how we can help. There are a great deal of benefits provided to PIA members when it comes to utilizing the Buying Program of Performance Plus to better suit your transportation and logistics needs, all of which have been outlined more specifically on the PIA website and can be found at www.printing.org/performanceplus. The key feature of utilizing Performance Plus that we would really like to express to the PIA members is the use of our transportation management system portal. The portal that we use and are offering to each of you at no cost is much more than just a rating tool and is full of time-saving features that allow you to manage your freight and invoices as well. For those affiliates and members who are interested in the program and have not yet gotten set up, please contact us today so we can send you more information and get you signed up for one of our upcoming webinars. We have a demo account that we can send to you to begin rating immediately. All we will need from you to be set up in our system is a credit application. Once the credit application has been received and approved, we will get you set up. The setup process for our program is as simple as utilizing the program itself. We look forward to working with each and every one of...
read moreTake Advantage of the Great Benefits of the Performance Plus Global Logistics Buying Program
Below is a guest blog post from the team at Performance Plus Global Logistics, the newest addition to the National Buying Program at Printing Industries of America. For more information on how members can take advantage of the great savings as part of this program, visit www.printing.org/buyingpower. The year has gotten off to a busy start with an array of new customers for our team thanks in part to our recent partnership with Printing Industries of America. Performance Plus Global Logistics is excited to have had the opportunity to team up with Printing Industries of America as part of the National Buying Program. This program officially kicked off in January, and we have already seen great success. We have multiple webinars scheduled throughout the weeks with the PIA affiliates and their members, and we have also fielded numerous requests from PIA members to send more information and details regarding the program and how we can help. There are a great deal of benefits provided to PIA members when it comes to utilizing the Buying Program of Performance Plus to better suit your transportation and logistics needs, all of which have been outlined more specifically on the PIA website and can be found at www.printing.org/performanceplus. The key feature of utilizing Performance Plus that we would really like to express to the PIA members is the use of our transportation management system portal. The portal that we use and are offering to each of you at no cost is much more than just a rating tool and is full of time-saving features that allow you to manage your freight and invoices as well. For those affiliates and members who are interested in the program and have not yet gotten set up, please contact us today so we can send you more information and get you signed up for one of our upcoming webinars. We have a demo account that we can send to you to begin rating immediately. All we will need from you to be set up in our system is a credit application. Once the credit application has been received and approved, we will get you set up. The setup process for our program is as simple as utilizing the program itself. We look forward to working with each and every one of...
read moreSurround Yourself with Resources at the 2013 BIA Conference
Imagine you are at a conference rubbing elbows with hundreds of people who have ideas and answers to make your business more profitable? Hundreds of industry executives and suppliers will be at the 2013 Binding Industries Association (BIA) Conference. The event is slated to be one of the most successful BIA conferences to date (find out why in the video below). We have a lineup of expert speakers from around the industry to provide how-to advice on creating leaner, more efficient operations, analyzing your customer, and improving your leadership strategies. With a surge of new and returning attendees, along with more than 50 of the industry’s top suppliers, this is the place to be this April 8–10. We’d recommend you get familiar with some of these suppliers before you arrive and get an idea of the resources they have to help your company. They’re here to answer your questions and show you their newest technologies and solutions. If you want to really “branch out,” at this year’s conference, take advantage of the unique networking events we have to offer: Tabletop Resource Lunches Spend one-on-one time with industry experts who can speak to innovative approaches and products specifically designed to help you achieve maximum efficiency. The companies represented are strong supporters of the BIA program, the association, and the industry, so please make it a point to visit with as many of the resource experts as you can. Customer Connections: Tabletop Reception Mingle and connect with the top suppliers for binding, graphic finishing, and loose-leaf manufacturing companies that will have solutions to help improve your business. “The BIA Annual Conference is the top event of the year for the graphic finishing and information packaging industry. It’s the one event I always circle on my calendar as a must-attend.” Rick Ciordia, Standard Finishing, Industry Supplier And if you still need a reason to come to the 2013 BIA Conference, we can give you five! In this video, Justin Goldstein, Director, Member Services, talks about what is in store for you at the conference. Find more information on the 2013 BIA Conference at www.printing.org/biaconference, and network anytime with top professionals on the Binding Industries Association LinkedIn...
read moreSpectrum Printing Aims High with New Speedmaster 74 from Heidelberg
KENNESAW, GA—March 20, 2013—Spectrum Printing & Graphics had reached a watershed moment. Faced with an influx of new work and demand for higher-quality and faster delivery times, the company recently broke a tradition of adding…
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