Hello, all!
I'm prepress manager and senior designer for a small commercial printer amidst the cornfields of Indiana. We have three locations, each separated by about 60 miles, with small format presses in two locations and printing of our large flats in one shop with a Speedmaster SM74 and an aged Miller TP29S.
We get everything from agency work to Microsoft and Print Publisher files thrown our way, and our job is to make them all look good when they go out to our customers.
We use a Nexus rip with concentric screening on a Screen/Fuji platesetter, and try to maintain a high degree of print quality and consistency in spite of the fluctuations and disruptions in our supply line from time-to-time. Our biggest challenge is keeping up with current software to meet our clients' needs in an unpredictable economy (when it's good, it's really good... when it's bad, it's really bad).
Newspapering put the ink in my blood, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Having been around since before the birth of digital technology, I am constantly amazed at how often new technology is less productive than the way it used to be done.
I think there should be a ban on anyone referring to a service or product as a "solution," and think Comic Sans should be regarded as a computer virus.
Outside of work, I'm a singer/songwriter of country, country gospel and praise music, and worship leader for a United Methodist church. Father of three, youngest of five, older than I want to be.
Thankful for PrintPlanet forums.