100 Years of Printing for Iowa State

By Bob Neubauer

Very few in-plants ever reach the century mark. Nathan Thole is proud to count his in-plant among them.

Iowa State University (ISU) Printing Services opened its doors in 1922, in a facility half the size of its current 29,000-sq.ft. operation. It witnessed the industry’s shift from letterpress to offset, the transition to toner, and is now blazing a trail into production inkjet printing.

Over the past century, ISU Printing Services’ staff has worked hard to serve the needs of the Ames, Iowa, university. The in-plant’s longevity, says Thole, stems from “having the leadership above us that understood the importance of having an in-plant print shop.” He also credits the shop’s managers over the years for keeping up with technology to enable the in-plant to best serve the needs of ISU customers.

“I’m proud of how much we’ve diversified and added products,” says Thole, director of Printing Services. “I think that’s important.”

Printing Services has particularly excelled at printing signage, notably braille signage. Its recent expansion into production inkjet printing puts it in the vanguard of university in-plants.

To celebrate its centennial, the in-plant has been doing a number of things:

It designed a custom logo for its 100-year anniversary. The logo has been printed on staff T-shirts and on notepads, which will be placed into every finished print order.
It designed and printed a department historical timeline on 48x96" aluminum composite, which was mounted to its lobby wall.
The in-plant sent out calendars with promotional coasters to all ISU faculty and staff.
The shop sends monthly email blasts promoting different products and services. Each one includes a trivia question and a chance to win a $10 university bookstore gift card.

Thole also plans to celebrate the in-plant’s centennial at an open house in October. He is excited to be able to cap off the in-plant’s first 100 years with the installation of a Canon varioPRINT iX3200 sheetfed inkjet press, a move he sees as symbolic.

“We are at our 100-year anniversary, and the same year we’re adding this brand new technology that will catapult us into the next 100 years,” he says.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.