Two in a Row 
for University of North Texas

As he sat on the edge of his seat at the IPMA awards banquet last month, watching the video that would reveal the non-offset Best of Show winner, Jimmy Friend tried to stay calm. But after seeing piece after excellent piece get eliminated until only the University of North Texas and Briggs & Stratton were still standing, his heart began to race.

"To see it get down to the final two...it was just really exciting," recalls Friend director of UNT Printing & Distribution Solutions. "I felt that if we had a chance, it would be with that piece."

That piece was a glossy invitation with a perfect gatefold. It was up against a spiral-bound Briggs & Stratton self-promotional booklet full of sharp, colorful photos. Watching the judges try to decide between them was excruciating. In the end, with the digital printing on both pieces equally impressive, the judges let the difficulty factor of the gatefold sway them and picked UNT as Best of Show winner.

"We were just blown away and excited about winning it two years in a row," Friend enthuses.

The preciseness of the gatefold was not just pure chance, he points out. His staff toiled diligently to make sure they could do it right, experimenting with proofs before even beginning to print the 2,000 invitations ordered by the client.

Practice Makes Perfect

"We went to bindery before we printed the entire job to make certain that we could make this gatefold," Friend remarks. "The trim had to be exact, the scores had to be great."

This was, after all, a very high profile job that had been entrusted to the in-plant. Ordered by the Office of Advancement, the piece was an invitation to key university donors to attend the Emerald Ball at the Belo Mansion in Dallas. Proceeds from the ball would benefit the Emerald Eagle Scholars program for financially challenged students.

"It's just an important piece," Friend emphasizes.

It was designed in Adobe In–Design by Bill Brock, of the Office of Advancement, who also took the photos of the Belo Mansion used in the piece. Lora Connaughton, the in-plant's customer service rep, worked closely with the customer to keep the project on schedule.

"She really kept this project going smoothly," Friend lauds.

Once the files reached the in-plant, Chris Johnson made adjustments and prepared them for printing. Sunny Aringada ran proofs on the HP Indigo 5500, and those were used to set up the Count EZ Creaser 18 to make sure the gatefolds would line up.

"We do a lot of gatefolds and we have to make sure everything is exactly right before we go back to press," Friend says.

After customer approval, Aringada began running the job on the HP Indigo 5500, one side at a time.

"We found that that gives us a much, much better control of the images," explains Friend. "Simplex on a very difficult job is the only way to go."

Sheets were pulled and checked for alignment by Aringada continuously throughout the run. The job was printed on 12x18˝ sheets of Appleton Utopia 2 gloss cover.

Coating Makes the Job Shine

When both sides had been printed, Aringada ran the sheets through the Epic CT 660 offline coater, to give them the glossy look that so impressed the judges.

Randy Groves did the initial trimming on a Perfecta cutter, a job that had to be done precisely. After that, the project was sent outside for die-cutting, to create a fold-up bottom pocket. When it came back, it was time to score it. The settings on the Count EZ Creaser 18 had not been touched since they were fine tuned before printing. Groves scored all 2,000 pieces before doing the final trim. Then he and David Fitzpatrick folded all of them by hand to ensure they were dead-on accurate.

"The main thing on that gatefold is the planning that we did prior to printing," notes Friend. "If we hadn't played with that prior to printing the whole amount, I doubt if that thing would have matched up like that."

To select which pieces are entered in the In-Print contest, the in-plant formed a seven-person review committee that went over them with a fine-tooth comb. This invitation passed with flying colors.

"It was a tough piece. We knew it was a tough piece. We thought we had a chance," Friend says.

Now the in-plant has side-by-side Best of Show awards in its trophy case to prove how dedicated its staff is to quality.

"I'm proud of those guys," Friend praises.