From the Super Bowl to the super market, bluemedia and its president, Jared Smith, cover it all. And we also mean that literally—they also produce and install wraps on buildings, race cars, and fleet vehicles

The next project Jared will cover is Color 2015, December 5–8 in Phoenix, AZ. We caught up with him to talk about his session and find out just how bluemedia has earned its place as one of the top printers for Super Bowl L. (Any chance you can score us some tickets, Jared?)

 

PIA: You work with some big-name clients, like the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, Coke, ESPN, NASCAR and NHRA to name a few… What are the top challenges you’ve faced in delivering their products?

JS: We’ve learned that our job can have no plan B. We must be proactively prepared—ridiculously prepared—to get the job right the first time.

When we are working on a building wrap, the scene might include police, road closures, rented lights, swing stages, and harnesses. When it takes 30 minutes to raise the swing stage platform up to the top of the building, this is not the time to find out you have a missing tile, a bad print, or a color issue. We have a purpose-built QC center at bluemedia that must take steps similar to when NASA heads up to the moon. We can’t forget anything—the cost for all would just be way too high.

Our customers don’t come to buy bluemedia to buy signs and printing. They engage bluemedia to execute projects and events that make use of our massive in-house capabilities. For those clients with those types of needs, bluemedia is a great source.

PIA: Working with a variety of markets, including sports, big box retail, and agencies, how does your company ensure brand accuracy from end to end?

Brand accuracy for us starts by taking steps to ensure we understand the brand first. This means we ask for style guides, branding guidelines, messaging rules, and Pantone colors very early in the process. We go a step further to research the brand and look at specific examples of how the brand is positioned currently. This gives us a great jump start on increasing the probability that our proposed solutions align with the brand right away.

The next main focus in brand accuracy after design is color. We don’t tweak color per job. We tweak the entire color environment from monitors, to color space on design computers, to proofing devices, to lighting, to measuring equipment to the final press and the media profiles used. Our strategy is to have a neutral environment that always produces an accurate output of any digital file.

PIA: What do you think gives bluemedia a competitive advantage?

JS: For one, experience—the knowledge you can only learn by doing. This will be our second Super Bowl, and the first time we learned who the players were, how the meetings work, and what is truly expected. Just like all projects, we will be more valuable now after banking that experience.

Another advantage we have is an implied trust. The work we’ve done in the past is a reflection on what we are capable of, and potential clients notice that. We will have incoming calls from major events and brands because they saw our work. We can assume that they feel a slight level of trust in our capabilities by the fact that they reached out to us first. We respect this trust in the highest level possible.

PIA: What is one piece of advice you can share with other printers about color accuracy?

JS: Color accuracy is a science, period. It has a certain number of steps. If you skip one, you will not have predictable results. On the other hand, if you employ the discipline to complete the steps, you can and will have predictable results. If you have to adjust color during a job on a press or by manipulating the file to get an accurate output, your system is broken and should not be trusted.

 

Want to hear more about Jared Smith and bluemedia’s strategy for color accuracy—the first time? Check him out, along with more than 40 expert speakers, at Color 2015, December 5–8 in Phoenix, AZ. Register here!

Learn more about bluemedia at www.bluemedia.com.