Introduce yourself!

Hi Jack,
I started in September of 1961 when I was 16. It would have been the Tuesday after Labour Day which I think may have been the 5th. When did you start. In any case it is good to hear from some one of my vintage. etaoin shrdlu . . . I wondered what the hell that meant for about two years until I finally noticed it on one of the linotypes. That was one area I did not work in. I too am still looking for a better way to make a living. You probably never followed Canadian football but I believe Bill Symons came from Nebraska and he was a star running back here in Toronto.
Bill
 
Hello, Larry (pixelboy) here...

Hello, Larry (pixelboy) here...

My name is Larry Nichols, PrePress Supervisor for Direct Mail Printers, Inc.
Located in Wichita, Kansas. DMP has been in business since 1965.

I've been involved with design, production, and management of putting ink
on paper for almost 20 years now. I'm fairly new to the shop, 1 year & 3 months...
but here to make some great changes and grow this mid-sized, mid-west shop.

We are very strong with experience and expertice, lots of great folks who
are committed to their work. We have digital and offset capabilities along with
in-house mailing and bindery services.

I'm on board looking for answers and hoping to share ideas.
I'm looking to upgrade MIS, Print Workflow, Production Workflow, Data Management
and Proofing Systems. I've got big plans for down the road. Lots of potential here.

I'm a christian man, a family man and fair and trustworthy with my customers.
Glad to join the PrintPlanet Community.
 
Careful, Bill .... don't get a Nebraska boy started talking football !! .... you'll be here listening a long, long time !!!
j
 
Hello All
My name is Jason Beck I am 38 years old and have been in the printing field of some sorts since I was 16. I started out as a helper on a 38" Omsca 4 color. (What a dinosaur) I worked for that company for 5 years moving up to be lead in my 5th year. I had a knack of seeing color and it all just came to me like riding a bike. I lost all trust in family owned business's due to the fact that one day on a Monday I showed up for work and I stuck my key in the door and my key would not open the door. I tried all of the doors in the building and I couldnt get in. The funny thing is the key opened the door on that previous Friday. So I went back around to the employee entrance and looked through the window to find that my press was half gone. "Literally half gone" it appears that the owners fell behind on payments or they simply just drank all the funds away and the machine was being reposessed.

Luckily, after going back home and getting a call from the owner about two hours later I returned back to the shop to hear the full story on why half of the machine was gone. By this time the press movers were already back in the building finishing up what they started. The owner told me the story and I simply asked "How are you going to pay me" he said I dont know! Well we never recycled plates back then so we had seriously 2 pallets of plates that stood about 4ft tall. I said, I want all of the plates! He said take'm. Litho aluminum went for alot of money in the late 80's early 90's. Long story short I never trusted another printing company after that and proceeded to job jump for about 10 years, just going where the money was, taking odd jobs throughout but still remained in the field. In the earlier years I was in my early 20's and everytime I went for an interview, people wouldnt believe I knew how to run a press. I would just tell them let me run the press for a day, and if it appeared I didnt know what I was doing, then just tell me to leave. I didnt even want to get paid for that day. Once they saw I did know how to run a press and get color and make adjustments, I would get the job.

I have run Harris (Omsca), Miller perfectors, Heidlebergs, Komori's, Man Roland, and several small presses. I stepped out of the offset business for about 5 years now and have been in the wide format inkjet printer industry. I like it alot, the money is good, but man do I miss running a press. The offset printing jobs here in Dallas are very scarce and most anybody in their position is very happy to stay.

I have since been serving the repair side of the inkjet industry. I sell and perform service on Mutoh, Roland, & Mimaki digital printers. I like being my own boss, but I am just an indiviual trying to compete with the top dogs of the industry. I need something more consistant to take care of my family.

So with all of that said. If anybody reading this post knows of any company in or around the Dallas/Ft Worth area looking for a good employee that knows the business, please let me know.

I would be willing to take a 2nd Pressmans position just to get back in the field again. I miss the smells and the challenge of running a press.

Sorry the post was so long but I saw everybody giving detailed information, so thats why I did.
 
Introducing Bob Bliss

Introducing Bob Bliss

Bbliss Outdoor Headshot.jpg

I am a printing and graphic arts sales professional having specialized in technology and software sales for the past 29 years. I have served in management positions for Fortune 500 companies, have owned and operated two businesses for 17 years, and since 2000 have chosen to participate in the emerging use of the Internet for providing e-commerce services and solutions. My personal value proposition is in keeping my hand on the pulse of the industry I am serving as a whole and communicating what I believe is in the best interest of meeting the objectives of my clients.

Currently, I own and operate Communications Bliss. This company was formed once I identified a need for helping emerging companies to bring their products and services to the attention of and into their target markets. I have been successful in creating demand
and growth in sales for young companies with products and services for the printing and graphic arts industries. Areas of specialization have been in TQM, CRM, & W2P Systems.
 
Re:Bob Bliss

Re:Bob Bliss

Bbliss Outdoor Headshot.jpg

By the way, if anyone out there is aware of a new or better product that is trying to find it's place in our industry, please feel free to hook me up to see if I can help them get on the map. Thanks!

Communications Bob, aka Spongebobbyga, aka Bob Bliss
 
Hello

My name is David Stokes. I am 20 years old and a Graphic Communications major at Clemson University. Right now I am interning at Intelligencer Printing in Lancaster, PA. I love printing, and love running presses and getting my hands dirty. I am not exactly sure what I want to do in printing, but I definitely want to be in the manufacturing side of things, (no customer service or sales for me). I love going to work everyday, and I am still amazed by printing industry. I get told all the time to get out why I am young but I just cant
 
Intelligencer Intern

Intelligencer Intern

Hi David!

What a great company to intern at. You are very fortunate to have that opportunity. The Intelligencer is one of the finest printers in the NE. Say hello to Michael Stief for me and make Dr Leininger proud while you spend a semester in Lancaster.

Bob Bliss
 
Sorry....I got that beat

Sorry....I got that beat

Sorry guys...I've got you beat:

Paper Boy, Clinton Daily Item, 135 papers on my route, started in 1954. I'm still printing...sigh. I held a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible in my hands and I was hooked for life, I guess.

I recently returned to the town and got some photos of the old "Item" and "Courant" buildings; they're still standing. The papers themselves have long since gone out of business. We buried 'Colonial Press', too.

Joe Pasky
Cathay America - Shenzhen China

blogs/photos:
rounce & coffin
Printing to International Standards with G7
Picture China
Picasa Web Albums - Joe
 
Greetings!

Greetings!

Hello Everyone, The name's Eran.

I'm still quite the newbie to the industry (~2.5 years) but the passion has taken hold- and hard. I run the prepress department for a small shop of around 20 people in the southwest corner of Colorado. I started in our digital department (which is little more than a full service copy center) and have been busting ass to climb the ladder since. In prepress we run TrueflowSE which outputs to a Screen platesetter and a small handful of Epsons (with either Best or GMG in front.) Our pressroom subsides on an all Heidelberg diet of two four colors (one GTO and one PM) a two color GTO and two single color TOK duplicators. On the digital side, we have two DC240's, a Xerox 4112 and a Canon iR7095.

In my free time I find the seasons divide my behavior. In the summer, Durango is a fantastic place to bike and raft so I partake in such as often as possible. In the winter, I'm an alcoholic.

It's a pleasure to be aboard, all.
 
Advantages

Advantages

What are the advatages of using the Esko software over Artpro? We are installing the Esko deskpack and backstage and I am just wondering what advantages am I going to see.
 
I am John Christoph and have worked for American color and The Color Company for the past 24.5 years and have made a change to work for Blackdot which is part of the caps group.
 
Guess I should say HI

Guess I should say HI

Hi All. My name is Dave. I'm a Production Manager for a small commercial printer in southern New Hampshire. (hence the nik "nhprinter")

Like a lot of you I grew up in the business having worked with my father almost from birth from sweeping floors, doing bindery, delivery, camera work, stripping on to running duplicators then to running 4 color on a 1 color ATF Profiteer (if you remember those you're as old as me) and on to 4 color presses and then into management about 35 years later. I've now worked at my current shop for the last 23 years. I'm 50 years old and I have two girls and a grandson. (and a wife) :)

The industry is really sinking around here. I'm hoping it comes back a little so I can make it to retirement cause it's all I know. (i do a little web page work on the side, but it doesn't pay the bills)

I've really enjoyed checking things out here on PrintPlanet. It's nice to hear how other folks do things since I've been working at the same shop so long it gives me a fresh look a lot of times.

Happy Printing.

Dave
 
Last edited:
Hi, I'm also from the Northeast. I've been in prepress/layout since high school, mostly self-taught, first with rubber cement and later, on mixed Mac & PC networks. I have a number of years in conventional offset printing setup, and also in digital laser (high speed color copy machines) using Fiery and Harlequin RIPs.

Now I suddenly have to learn how to run a Mimaki inkjet and plotter setup using an Onyx Postershop interface, which is nothing like the circa 1997 model inkjet with only an onboard RIP that I last used in 2002!

The manuals for both the software and the machines are, shall we say, a little bit lacking, and since they often say "see the help files" and the help files don't say anything, I'm getting a little stressed out trying to control output quality (esp. since my boss begrudges me the time and materials to experiment with settings by trial & error - sigh!) I'm hoping to be able to presume on the collective wisdom resources here to answer some of my questions, and to be able to provide help in turn, too.

Thanks in advance,
JMB
 
Hello all,

I'm Gil. I'm fairly new to the industry... just three years. I enjoy every minute however. I do EVERYTHING you can think of in our Prepress room... even work on and fix our Heidelberg Trendsetter.

Anyhow, I am here to give what ever advice I may have to offer to anyone who needs in and at the same time, to take advice from anyone who has some to offer. I understand that in this industry, one will never know all there is to know.

If you have any specific questions you wold like to ask me, please feel free to.

Aside from work, I do have a life...lol. I am happily married and have a 10 year old son. Oh yea, I have a 3 year old son on four legs also...that would be our little chihuahua Tipsi. =) I enjoy music and designing on my spare time.

Well people, I hope I can be of assistance to anyone. Also, I would like to thank in advance everybody who will help with or answer any questions or problems I may have.

Take care,
 
Hi, my name is Scott Ellis and I am G.M. for Sales at Kinyo Virginia, Inc. We are a blanket manufacturer with a factory in Newport News Virginia. I have been in the blanket business for 30 years ( 17 years at David M and 13 years at Kinyo). I enjoy reading a lot of these posts and feel like I learn a lot from them. I have handled technical support for about ten years and have the good fortune of traveling to many countries to help with offset blankets. Of course we have seen many advancements in our industry over the past few years, but I still contend that we need experienced people to know how to make things work when the "gremlins" attack. As a manufacturing person at heart, I love talking to the people who get ink all over themselves and still love what they do.
 
Goodmorning all.

My name is Michael Braennback and im born and raised (and still living) in Sweden. I have been working in the offset business since 1994 as various forms of prepress manager/administrator and my main focus and responsabilites have always been prepress/ctf/ctp. During 2008 i was offered a job with Agfa Graphics in Sweden as Pre-sales support and application specialist with main focus on the Apogee Suite. Ive been with the company for almost a year and i even managed to survive 8 days in our booth at drupa :)
Im married to a much smarter person and together we have two kids. I enjoy spending free time on our boat and to balance up the very calm days at the office i also practice martial arts to keep me sane :D

Pleased to meet you all.
Kindly, Michael
 
Hello from CNY

Hello from CNY

Outside of work I enjoy cooking & grilling on my outdoor kitchen, I'm restoring a '72 'Vette, I have 3 kids - 1 son in college, 1 12 yr. old daughter & my almost 5 yr. old son.

Scott
 
Last edited:

PressWise

A 30-day Fix for Managed Chaos

As any print professional knows, printing can be managed chaos. Software that solves multiple problems and provides measurable and monetizable value has a direct impact on the bottom-line.

“We reduced order entry costs by about 40%.” Significant savings in a shop that turns about 500 jobs a month.


Learn how…….

   
Back
Top