Photo Finish for BYU
When Utah photographer Wally Barras learned last year that Brigham Young University Print and Mail Services had entered a case-bound, photo-filled memory book featuring his photos into the In-Print 2014 contest, his response was quick and certain:
"This will be Best of Show," Director Doug Maxwell recalls him saying.
Apparently photography is not Barras' only skill. His prophecy turned out to be dead-on accurate, as Maxwell learned at last month's IPMA awards banquet when the winning piece was revealed.
"I was blown away," he admits—despite Barras' prediction. "I really didn't expect it."
To come away with the top prize, out of all the offset-printed pieces, BYU's book had to prevail over some very tough competition. The final five pieces in the running for Best of Show included three striking publications from the Church of Scientology's in-plant. Watch the judges make their selection here:
In the end, the In-Print contest judges were impressed with the care BYU's in-plant had taken to produce this book showcasing Snow College, located in Ephraim, Utah, about an hour and a half south of BYU's Provo campus. The 108-page memory book features crossovers throughout, and all of them match perfectly.
"The crossovers absolutely are the hardest part because…when they're printed on two different pages, you have to make sure those colors match exactly," notes Maxwell. They did, and the judges took notice.
This victory marks the third time BYU has won Best of Show, and the second time under Maxwell's watch. It was the first time BYU Print and Mail Services had worked with Snow College.
The Early Stages
The job came to BYU through Barras, whom Maxwell has worked with for many years. Hired by Snow College to capture the spirit of the university in photos, Barras took up residence there for several months. Maxwell began working with Snow College two years ago, discussing papers, book size, page count and other matters.
"We had a lot of influence with the design," he says. Snow's designers talked with BYU's production staff frequently to ensure they would get the result they wanted.
When the time came to start work, job files were sent to BYU through its FTP site. With Delane Donithorne overseeing production, Lisa Nelson and Ed Godinez created proofs on an Espon proofer for review by the client and Barras. Once they were satisfied, Dave Simpson output plates on the in-plant's Fuji Saber CTP device. Then press operators Gilbert Peay and Ken Simmons took over. They printed the pages on BYU's five-color, 40˝ Heidelberg using Sterling Ultra dull 100-lb. sheets. The shop printed 2,000 copies of the books.
Because the in-plant has an Agfa Apogee CIP3 closed-loop system, colors were set in prepress. Operators pulled and scanned sheets frequently during the press run, and the system told them which colors to adjust.
Barras was on hand during the press run to make certain everything looked right. Then John Killpack folded pages on an MBO folder, making sure the crossovers all lined up.
Though the in-plant did bind some of the books on its ODM case binder, with Kelly Sanderson overseeing student workers running the equipment, the majority of the books were sent to Roswell Binding in Phoenix.
The in-plant also printed an inlay card for the front cover on its HP Indigo 7600 and UV coated it. A dust jacket was printed on the shop's six-color, 32˝ Akiyama press by Ken Simmons. Students placed the jackets on the finished books that were case bound in-house.
Snow College was extremely pleased with the finished product, Maxwell says, as was he. He credits all of his in-plant's 50 full-time, 10 part-time and 200 student workers for their dedication.
"We have just incredibly talented people here," he lauds. "It doesn't matter if it's our mail area or our IT group or wherever it might be, we have some all-stars."
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.
