Catching The Technology Wave

AS JASON James Seto sees it, he was born to be a craftsman. Following in a long line of family members that have learned a trade, Seto chose printing as his profession at an early age. He now serves as the administrator at the in-plant for the Hawaii State Department of Education (HDE) in Honolulu, and holds the title of Reprographics Specialist III.

Seto made his first splash into the graphic arts scene while in middle school, taking on bindery and plate making duties at his uncle’s commercial print shop. His high school also had a print shop, where he took graphic arts courses. By the time he graduated from high school, Seto could run every machine in his uncle’s shop.

From there, the native Hawaiian headed to the mainland to attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he graduated with a degree in Graphic Communications in 1975. He then landed a job with magazine publisher Peterson Publishing in Los Angeles, producing various automotive magazines, including Motor Trend. The self-described “old-time drag racer” recalls getting a thrill by taking the first look at layouts of the car publications.

“I learned a lot, and it was exciting to be in L.A., but it wasn’t home,” Seto admits. So he returned to Hawaii with his college degree and a fresh set of skills and accepted a position back at his uncle’s commercial shop. Later, he took on the challenge of running the in-plant for Kaiser Foundation Hospitals.

But it was in 1992 that Seto made the move to the shop he still calls home. He came to the HDE’s print shop as a Reprographics Specialist II, which was a production supervisor position. The in-plant was housed in a cramped 5,000-square-foot space in a classroom building, and was running a handful of small presses.

Today, the in-plant boasts 16 full-time employees, plus one part-timer, in 7,200 square feet of production space. Seto notes that the in-plant is now better suited for production, with two roll-up electric doors and space to run electric forklifts. HDE employees print a variety of forms, stationery, manuals, syllabi, books, newsletters and promotional materials for schools on all seven islands, serving 185,000 students.

“We have a good reputation and are one of the few departments that everybody is happy with,” Seto boasts. “I plan to keep it that way.”

The shop is located on the grounds of a high school campus, about a half mile from the Pacific Ocean. Students will often grab their surfboards right after school and walk to the waves. The convenience isn’t lost on Seto, who keeps his longboard on the racks at a nearby beach, where he surfs every day before or after work.

From Print Shop to Classroom

The in-plant’s new digs on the high school campus came with an interesting twist.

“As part of the deal, they gave us the building but I had to take the senior graphic arts students and run them through the shop giving them hands-on training,” Seto notes. “We take the seniors and put them on live jobs and try to get them involved in all aspects of the shop.”

To avoid the potential for injuries or dealing with behavioral problems, the in-plant trains only the most serious graphic arts students, Seto points out. The shop trains four or five students each year.

In December, Seto was finally able to taste the fruits of a more than two-year bid and justification process when the shop installed a new two-color Heidelberg Speedmaster 74 perfector, a Heidelberg B-20 folder and a Heidelberg Eurobind 600 perfect binder.

“We are running the hell out of them,” Seto exclaims. “I can’t keep up with the Speedmaster perfector. I bring in pallets of paper at a time and it just goes so fast. I can’t imagine how we managed without it all these years.”

The timing couldn’t have been better. The equipment was installed just before the downturn in the economy brought state budgets cuts.

“We just made it,” Seto says, with a sigh of relief.

The world’s economic woes have hit commercial printers in Hawaii especially hard, Seto notes, since most printers rely on jobs geared towards tourism. Since tourists have cut down on island vacations, Hawaii’s printers have ground to a near halt.

“The paper delivery guys come and tell me that we are the only busy shop in town,” Seto says. “Commercial shops are laying people off and are going on every-other-day work schedules.”

Even after all these years, Seto still likes to get his hands dirty, whether it’s working on a race car or a piece of printing equipment. He recalls being influenced in his younger years by his uncles, who were electricians, mechanics and, of course, printers.

“Being a gear-head, hot rod guy, I like machinery and being hands-on,” Seto concludes. “I think any good printer has to be mechanical.”