July 2008 Issue
A New Look for IPG
After more than 12 years, In-Plant Graphics has a new logo. As you can see from the cover of our latest issue, a sleeker, more modern design has replaced the boxy, red-and-black look that IPG issues have been sporting since January 1996. The new logo was designed by long-time IPG art director Frank Moore. It marks the first logo change for IPG since the magazine changed its name from In-Plant Reproductions in 1996. Below are a few of the other logos IPG has used over the years, going back all the way to its original name, Offset Duplicator Review.
Auburn Honored for Promotional Excellence
When Auburn University’s CopyCat Digital Document Center launched a marketing campaign last year, the shop hoped the resulting visibility would bring in both new customers and new job orders. By all accounts, the Ultimate Tiger Tailgate campaign was a huge success. Not only did the program yield a list of 1,000 current and prospective customers interested in receiving future promotional material, and a profit of $7,000, it earned the Auburn, Ala., in-plant the IPMA In-House Promotional Excellence Award. “Our entire staff put forth a tremendous effort to pull this campaign off, and I can’t tell you what it means to me to
Beyond Addressing
Mail imaging equipment has gotten sophisticated. In-Plant Graphics’ specifications chart lets you compare some of the latest systems. Click on the "2008 Mailing Equipment Product Chart (PDF)" link at right to view a PDF of the chart.
CSU-Fullerton Goes From Doc 12 to NexPress
The two-employee in-plant at California State University-Fullerton was doing some remarkable digital color printing volumes on its Xerox DocuColor 12. In just one month last summer it produced 47,000 impressions. “We had the highest click count this side of the Mississippi,” laughs Terry Jarmon, manager of Print Services. Still, Jarmon knew a lot of digital jobs were bypassing the in-plant due to the Doc 12’s speed limitations. So after checking out all of the latest digital presses, the shop added a Kodak NexPress 2100 plus. “This is our first true digital press, and it is an amazing piece of equipment,” he says. The
Drupa Demonstrates Bindery’s Crucial Role
THOUGH MOST of the press conferences and “big news” at Drupa centered on digital printing, innovations in bindery and finishing were no less prevalent. In fact, many of them sprang from the very digital printing trends that overshadowed them. As digital printing speeds have increased, bindery equipment has also gotten faster, with vastly improved automation and simplified touch-screen controls to make them even easier to set up. JDF compatibility is becoming more common in bindery equipment, allowing devices to be preset using production data. Demands for higher-quality printed products have led bindery vendors to improve their paper-handling techniques. Folds look better on the latest
Drupa Foretells Digital Future
DIGITAL PRINTING technology had its strongest showing yet at Drupa 2008, the world’s largest graphic arts trade show. The two-week event, which took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, last month, lived up to its billing as “The Ink-jet Drupa,” with “green printing” being the only challenger as a show theme, since virtually every exhibitor touched on it. About 391,000 visitors prowled the 19 halls of Drupa this year, (see sidebar about in-plants that attended), checking out the 1,971 exhibitors from 52 countries. Most of the attention, though, centered on the new digital printing devices, particularly those in the ink-jet category—though with prices ranging from $1
From the Editor: My Odyssey
Wow. It’s hard to believe I’m just sitting here, with no plans to travel anywhere. And having just completed a whirlwind, world-wide journey (capped with a stormy finish), I’m more than happy to stay put for a while. As you know, I was at Drupa, racing around that massive German trade show to see what the manufacturers have in store for you. I was back barely two days when I was on a plane again, headed for the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference in Tunica, Miss. (Germany and Mississippi; there’s a combination you don’t see too often.) I rented a car in
IPMA Conference: One of the Best Yet
BY MOST accounts, the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association (IPMA) conference in Tunica, Miss., last month was one of the best ever. Attendance was up, enthusiasm was high and the presentations were engaging, informative and well attended. True, it was a virtual oven outside, with daily temps in the mid-90s, but the action was all indoors, from the big vendor fair on the first day, to the excitement of the awards banquet on the last. “The participants seemed more serious about finding out new information this year,” observed Glenda Miley, manager of Auburn University’s CopyCat operation. “I noticed that most of the
IPMA Vision Awards a Hit
As if awards for printing weren’t enough, the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association ventured into a whole new media category this year: video. Its new Vision Awards highlighted self-promotional videos made by in-plants to publicize their shops’ capabilities. Fellow managers screened and judged the entries, and gold statues, reminiscent of the Oscars, were handed out during the awards banquet. The winners: • Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators - Funniest Video (Who knew coffee could launch an entire staff into overdrive?) - Best Actor (Chris Anderson has proven himself master of the bulging eyes look.) • Colorado Springs School District - Best Self Promotion (What
Offset Bigger than Ever at Drupa
MANY INDUSTRY pundits were quick to label Drupa 2008 “The Digital Ink-jet Drupa,” given the technology previews shown by Kodak, HP, Océ, Screen and Fujifilm. Nonetheless, traditional sheetfed and web offset press manufacturers were just as diligent in showcasing their visions of the future. The massive German trade show could just as easily have been called “The Large-format Press Drupa”; or “The Short-run, Fast Makeready Offset Press Drupa”; or even “The Value-added Press Drupa.” These themes were very apparent from Heidelberg, which filled two entire halls, networked with its JDF-based Prinect workflow management system. Among Heidelberg’s several press debuts and upgrades, the centerpiece
OU Earns IPMA Management Award
University of Oklahoma Printing Services made quite a splash at the recent In-plant Printing and Mailing Association conference. Not only did the 100-employee in-plant earn the most In-Print awards, it took home IPMA’s prestigious Management Award, created to recognize an outstanding in-plant that excels in efficient management practices that further its parent organization’s objectives. Providing everything from design through mail, the in-plant has undergone a series of recent upgrades, including a new eight-color press, new computer-to-plate equipment, a new workflow system and a new wide-format printer (all detailed in our April cover story on OU). To promote its services, the in-plant offers Printing
Running a Growing In-plant
MANY IN-PLANT managers find their way into the graphic arts industry by accident. But for Robert Delgado, following in his father’s footsteps and running a print shop was always part of the plan. As Print Shop/Mailroom/Facility Manager for Western Growers, an Irvine, California-based agricultural association and insurance provider, Robert Delgado knows that pursuing a printing career was the right move. Working in his father’s shop as a teenager, he knew that graphic arts provided stability. “Printing seems to be pretty good whether the economy is slow or not,” he says. So even though he attended Golden West College, in Huntington Beach, Calif., as
Stormy Forecast for Paper Buyers
THERE’S NO sugar-coating it: the paper market is bleak for buyers. The problems lie in both price and availability, and the forecast has almost no bright spots. Here’s a look at how we got here, what you can do today to cope, and what trends may affect paper purchasing this year and beyond. First, it’s easy to be puzzled about how the paper market could change so abruptly and intensely. Paper buyers have seen the dark clouds massing over the mills for years but little has come of it. Why is it actually raining now? In the last five years, we’ve seen several mill
Tapella Talks Sustainability at Drupa
In the midst of Drupa, the spotlight shifted briefly to the U.S. printing industry during a press luncheon in which Public Printer Bob Tapella and NPES President Ralph Nappi addressed journalists. Quoting NPES survey data, Nappi revealed that the key issues concerning U.S. printers are the economy (by far), followed by profitability and rising energy/paper prices. He noted that the U.S. print market will dominate the global print market over the next three years but will continue to lose share to Asia. U.S. printers will continue expanding into value-added services, he noted. Tapella, who led a delegation of 17 GPO staffers to Drupa to
Two in a Row for ConocoPhillips
FOR THE second year in a row, ConocoPhillips Creative Services has won Best of Show in the In-Print contest. This time, however, the honor carries much more meaning for the 18-employee, Bartlesville, Okla.-based in-plant. “Last year’s project, it was all printed in-house, but the design was all handled by an outside agency,” notes Mike Cranor, senior printing specialist. The perfect binding was also done outside. This year, though, the winning magazine was done completely in-house, from the writing, photography and design, to the prepress, printing and binding. “So [being] able to bring it all in...that’s just real special to us,” says Cranor.
UC-Berkeley Open House Highlights FSC Certification
To reintroduce itself to the campus and show off its FSC chain-of-custody certificate, University of California-Berkeley Printing Services held a well attended open house last month that drew 165 visitors, including some from other campuses. Customer service representatives welcomed guests, handed out media kits and explained the in-plant’s commitment to customers. Visitors then proceeded right to a booth where they learned about the in-plant’s commitment to sustainability. They were shown the shop’s FSC chain-of-custody certificate, which it just earned from Scientific Certification Systems, an independent analyst. Customers learned that the paper products the in-plant uses are certified to have been harvested from
