You have to understand that I first started in this industry in what many of you would call the dinosaur age. The age before internet access, email, Facebook and YouTube. Computers were huge mainframes crunching numbers for large corporations. Macs were called Macintosh computers and were small and putty colored with a tiny screen. Design was manufactured by hand using a large hand crank projector called an Artograph which looked like a rather huge dinosaur head attached to the side of your drafting table. I affectionately called mine Barney. If by chance you were part of the elite group to have room to house a stat camera, then you were cranking out some of the best special effects. Printers were using alcohol-based inks and the digital printing was called variable data. What excitement it caused allowing you to customize names and addresses on forms!

Things have changed but printing is still alive. I don’t say this because I am from the “old school” or because I love and will always love the feel of paper and the special eye grabbing effects of foils, metallic inks and embossing effects.  I say this because as we evolve into the digital and e-commerce world, printing is evolving with us.  Digital printing is evolving to sophisticated variable-data printing, photo books and custom publishing.

Even with all the talk of newspapers folding, the internet replacing more traditional forms of printed materials and the upsurge of social media, certain types of print are still in huge demand.  While people are visiting websites for products, services and information, catalogs and brochures are still being requested prior to purchasing.  You just can’t replace the impact and lasting impression of quality color reproduction and special effects like embossing, foiling or die cutting that a quality printed piece provides.  You also can’t deny those special moments when you put down those sleek, yet cold metal devices, pick up that special printed book, feel the texture of the rough paper and hear the crinkling sound while turning the pages.

What we have to realize is the perfect balance between digital and print.  It is the perfect partnership, the yin and yang of these the two worlds that creates success in our business. 

Are you creating the perfect balance and how do you see your print needs evolving?