‘Mean Green’ Named Best in Digital

Raising money for a new business school building complex is a top priority for the University of North Texas. So when the dean of UNT's College of Business brought staff from the Advancement office to UNT Print & Mail Services to present ideas for a book highlighting the look and mission of the proposed complex, Director Jimmy Friend knew that this job had to turn out better than anything the in-plant had ever done.

"It was a very important piece," he emphasizes—not only for the university but for in-plant, as it presented yet another opportunity to demonstrate the shop's value by supporting one of the university's key initiatives.

Friend was not disappointed with the results. When the last of the "Business Leadership Building" books was completed in November—printed on the in-plant's HP Indigo 5500 digital color press—the quality was exceptional. But it wasn't until last month that he and his staff found out just how exceptional it really was.

That 32-page wire-bound book was selected to be the first recipient of the In-Print Best of Show award for digitally printed pieces. At an awards banquet during the In-Plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference, Friend and Assistant Director Judy Willis watched a video showing the contest judges unanimously choosing UNT's piece for this honor.

When Friend stepped on stage to accept the award, the emotion in his voice reflected not only pride in his staff but also recognition of how far his shop had come in the past decade and a half. After all, he revealed, in 1992 the in-plant had been in danger of being shut down. Moving from those precarious days to this national victory is certainly a momentous feat.

'Fantastic' Design

Friend gives all the credit for this award to his 40 employees. It started with designer Robert Peters, whom he praises as "an exceptional artist." Peters and Laura Connaughton, customer service representative, met with the College of Business and the Advancement office to hear their ideas for the piece. Peters fleshed out their concepts, and the project took off.

"Robert did a fantastic job designing that piece," praises Friend.

Architectural drawings of the buildings in the proposed business complex were incorporated, several running right across the spread. To ensure these images would appear unobstructed in the center, the book features a unique two-part double loop wire bind, with 3.5˝ of wire at the top and bottom only, leaving a 4˝ opening in the center. This effect would have been destroyed if any of the six crossovers did not match perfectly. Friend says the crossovers were the toughest part of the job, requiring everyone from design to bindery to pull together.

"Robert had to make sure those templates were the same for every spread on every sheet, because we had to make those crossovers work," Friend says. "That was really very hard for us at first, until we got those templates dead on."

He also credits Ed Martin, bindery supervisor, and his entire staff for their attention to detail.

"Our bindery did a very good job on trimming," lauds Friend. "We put a lot of extra time into that finishing."

This included hand collating the pages, since they were not printed in order. In the process, they had to make certain everything was crossing over exactly right.

Color Consistency Crucial

Ensuring color consistency was another tough job, Friend says, since adjoining pages were printed at different times. HP Indigo operators Mark Spicer and Sunny Aringada, along with Production Manager Clem Deussen, paid close attention to this as they printed the job.

Special paper was ordered for the job from Clampitt Paper, in Dallas. The cover was 80-lb. Carnival Linear Vertical Black; the text was 80-lb. Mohawk Beckett Expression Radiance; and a Glama Translucent sheet was used as well.

Because the cover needed special embossing, this was sent out to Letterpress Graphics, in Fort Worth. Once in-plant staff matched covers with the inside pages, the books were wire bound by a Dallas company called Handiwork Co. The initial run was for 250, but additional copies were produced later.

Though he was pleased with the finished product, Friend says that when he looked at the other winning pieces during the IPMA awards reception, he wasn't sure if UNT would win.

"There's some really tough competition out there from all over the country," he remarks—which makes his in-plant's victory that much more satisfying.

Friend says his staff had a party as soon as he returned to the office to celebrate winning Best of Show, along with the other 10 In-Print awards won by UNT Print Services. He plans to use these awards as a marketing tool. And he has every intention of winning more awards in the future.

"Every piece we deliver should be a contest piece," he proclaims.

Busier than ever, UNT Printing Services just installed a five-color, 29˝ Ryobi 755XLW press. Watch a video showing the new Ryobi being installed. This comes on the heels of a new Ryobi 3404 DI direct imaging press.