A Feather in Yale’s Cap

As he headed to last month’s In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference, Frank Savino had faith.

Yale's Frank Savino, second from left, receives the Best of Show award during the IPMA conference.

“I think we’ve got a shot with this one,” he recalls thinking about his in-plant’s Gold-award-winning booklet celebrating the contributions of Jeffrey Brenzel, master of Yale University’s Timothy Dwight College from 2010-2015. The piece was in the running for Best of Show out of all the non-offset pieces in the annual In-Print contest.

When he saw samples of the other winning pieces at the IPMA awards reception in Denver, Savino was a little concerned, but he clung to his confidence. And when at last he heard Yale’s booklet announced as the Best of Show winner, his overwhelming emotion was pride.

Yale’s winning booklet.

“I thought it was absolutely fabulous,” says Savino, associate director of production operations. “It just shows what we can do.”

The victory is only the latest achievement for Yale Printing & Publishing Services (YPPS), a 48-employee operation that is among the most progressive in-plants in the country. The FSC-certified operation provides services well beyond toner on paper, such as e-publication development, scanning of vendor invoices, records management and more.

Still, getting this award for the quality of its printing and binding is a feather in the in-plant’s cap, even if it only confirms what Savino has felt all along.

“All of our work is prize-winning,” he declares, “but this one here was exceptional.”

Honoring a Master
Yale’s Best of Show winning piece is a perfect bound booklet filled with images and full-page solids. The New Haven, Conn.-based operation produced 15 copies of the 38-page-plus-cover piece, which were presented to Brenzel to honor him. Each section begins with the poster used to promote the various lectures given by Chubb Fellows during Brenzel’s five years as master, along with quotes from each fellow, short biographies and photos from the actual lectures.

The booklet’s design was a collaboration between four designers. Bryan Gillespie, Maura Gianakos and Lynne Reichentahl designed the original posters and Russell Shaddox designed the book itself using InDesign and Photoshop. Event photos were taken by Susan Wigler, associate Chubb Fellow.

The in-plant printed the booklet on a Xerox Color 800 using 80-lb. Mohawk Smooth i-Tone Neon White paper for the inside pages and 100-lb. Mohawk Color Copy i-Tone cover sheets. Production staff spent a lot of time on quality control, checking to ensure that colors matched the proof and making sure the crops on each page lined up front to back. The piece had a lot of solid toner coverage, so staff made sure there was no mottling. Each piece went through a rigid quality control inspection prior to delivery.

Savino credits the entire digital production staff for their work in producing the booklet: Cristian Garcia, Alex Nestir, Trish Smith and Sue Warakomski. The project was overseen by Prepress Design Manager Jason England and Mable Thorne served as customer service representative.

Pages were scored in-line on a Standard Horizon BQ-270 perfect binder and trimmed on a Challenge 305. Savino says the perfect binding and trimming may have been the toughest part of this job, and he credits Steve Abate and John Neiman for their precision in handling this critical task.

Winning the 2016 Best of Show award is a well-deserved reward for the YPPS staff, Savino says, for their dedication to quality.

“It’s just a great tribute to the hard work that everybody does here, and it’s just nice to be able to be recognized for it,” he says.