Introduce yourself!

Re: Introduce yourself!

Hello, hello...I just stumbled across this site and thought I'd check it out.

I am a Prepress Manager for a large print shop in Northern California. I have been invloved in various aspects of Prepress & Graphic Design for a little more than 19 years. Although I do enjoy this trade, I am getting a little tired of the "New Breed" of so-called Graphic Designers/Artists who wouldn't know how to set up a file if thier lives depended on it.

Among my favorite headache-creators: Bozos who submit a file on disk without fonts, and a plethora of 72dpi images they lifted from the net. Yes indeedy...+this+ is the type of garbage and ineptness that qualifies one as a Graphic Designer nowadays. *sigh*

My hobbies include stargazing, gardening, cooking, traveling, reading, electronic gaming and spending time with my wife and our grandson. My wife an I also operate a reptile rescue facility and have a large collection of snakes.
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

I'm a Monkey-Man. Have been since I was foolish enough to start doing paste-up in high school. I have been in printing long enough to know that computer graphics will never be as good as film. Started out in'87 doing the paste up gig, then bindery, paste-up, stripping, camera and finally mac. In my eternity in printing, I've learned a few basic things. 1) If it isn't one thing, it's 6. 2) Don't try to confuse the boss with facts. 3) The easiest way to get up in the morning is to take a shot of scotch, rub some instant coffee on my gums and hit the shower. I've managed to make it this long, think I'll hang around and see what happens next.

Monkey
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

My name is Matthew and I was prepress for just over 5 years and have started my own design shop. Prepress Forums was my right arm when I was "in the trenches" and I find myself coming back to try and keep relevant and keep my files tight.

I was sorry to see PPF go, but I am glad to see some familiar faces (pointyhat and others).

Raising a Guinness to you all...
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

My name is Jason and I am an addict. Coffee and cigarettes, the best friends of the Prepress Operator. I have been on this steady diet for about 17 years now, whew! time flies. I started doing Prepress as a way to get into the movie business, long story... I ended up in Oklahoma, WTF?! Anyhoo, I used to hate my job up until about 4 years ago, but since I have discovered new life. Not that anything changed, well significantly anyway, I just woke up one day put a cigarette in my mouth, put on my sweats inside-out, and went to work. I realized that I can have tattoos, believe in the devil, have a mohawk and a drinking problem and still be a God to all the churned-out, generic, it-looks-good-on-my-screen, moron designers out there. Point: I have it good, and get paid well. By the way, I don't believe in the devil or have a mohawk.

Being in Oklahoma does have it's advantages. We are about 10 years behind everyone else, so technology has not quite caught up yet. Yes, we have seen the fall of the Service Bureaus about 7 years ago, and the introduction to CTP about 6 years ago. As far as automation or any internet driven workflows, none yet. Since I work at one of Oklahoma's largest offset printing companies, I am in the forefront of Prepress technology in Oklahoma and believe me when I say, there is a lack of good Prepress guys out here. The job market is a little crowded, (due to the onslaught of Vo-Tech newbies) but when it comes to good people, Oklahoma City lacks them. Prepress is a state of mind, of solid work ethic, self-reliance, and of self induced misery when mistakes are made. There are not many people who could amass the knowledge needed to dissect a file in any number of apps, on any number of operating systems, be a competent tech-support person and IT and Graphic Design and color expert and CSR and whatever else I am forgetting. How many people do you know that would sit in front of a computer redoing clipping paths for 53 hours straight with no lunch. You can't learn that, your either born with it or not. Just because a slip of paper states you are "sufficiently" trained to do Prepress, does not mean you are. Many people have said it in this forum, experience comes on-the-job. Well said.

I don't believe I am an expert, and I don't believe 99 out of a hundred people spitting out their qualifications and experience are either. I have worked with hundreds of people doing what I do right now, and maybe 3 have stuck with it. Not because the shitty economy, or the supposed end times for Prepress, it is because they suck. Some people are meant to be gardeners or dentists, some people, a few are meant for Prepress. I am a high-school drop-out and stubborn and a perfectionist, not a good combination, but those qualifications are just the right combo for my job, and that is why I love it. I change jobs every 3-5 years to keep fresh, and I never work anywhere if I am the most competent guy. I need to learn and progress and bounce ideas and have competition. The best way to learn in Prepress is to A. Have the drive, B. Learn from the guy with the shittiest attitude C. Do it yourself, and do it until it is done, off the clock if need be. Remember, to be the best you have to think your the worst.

I am not going to list off all the machines I work on, or the presses I have at my company. It is pointless. Everywhere I work is something different, AGFA, Scitex, Lino, CREO whatever... Komori, Heidelberg, Mitsubishi, Harris I could go on and on. I think the most important thing is to stay current and perfect techno-babble. The bane of Prepress existence is the Salesman, and if you can keep them confused, it makes the days and nights seem so much more enjoyable.

Thanks for reading this crap, and I hope we all strive to accept that our job as Digital Shit-Shovelers will soon be the way of the DoDo.
I think I am going to piss off some Salesman on the way down, smoking, drinking coffee and cussing the whole way.

Jason
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

greetings from the middle of the world.

hi my mane is Mario Graber i ve been i the industry for over 7 yaers , i am 25 now,
specialized in digital print and one to one marketing campaigns.
well my country is not so developed in technogies but we tried and make the best ,
we have small studio with xerox docucolor machine, we love print , hanging on the beach, surfing a lot , party too (its a part of it ).




well that all , greetings from Ecuador
"Nuestro compormiso es con la naturaleza" " Our commitment is with Nature"


mario graber
manager
impresion datavariable
guayaquil /ecuador
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Greetings from beautiful Montreal.

It seems like I got out of bed one day and woke up to find myself in the printing community.

I was faced with the fact that I needed to re -invent myself after being forced ( with great chagrin ) to retire my beloved airbrush after 15 years of creating art. Technology came like the grim reaper and left me out in the cold ( trust me when you live in Montreal, you don't mess with the cold ).

As it often happens in life, opportunity came from right under my nose. My brother in law is a mechanical engineer and ran a consultation firm for printers world wide. I quickly realized that I was back to creating art and technology has become an angel of creativity. I've been in the graphic arts industry in various capacities for just about 10 years now ( pre press - on press - post press- under the press ) and realize that you can spend a lifetime in this industry and still learn something new. ( never quite figured out how to get out of it though ). I appreciate niche applications that require creative finishing and converting. I look forward to sharing and conversing with all of you in this fabulous forum.

Today, my wife still loves me after 12 years of marriage ( okay, she still puts up with me ), my 11 year old boy and 8 year old girl still think I'm the cats meow and we're all keeping young playing ice hockey and sharing a daily joke. ( it seems like the only joke these days is my bank account statement ).

All things considered, at the end of the day,. I feel like the richest man alive ( and a little sore from the slap shot I took in the arm last night ).


Cheers

Jacques Gravel
RJL Industries
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Thank the LORD, there's a CHRISTIAN prepress forum, without all the folderol and blasphemy that I See! Every day! Do I hear a PRAISE JESUS!
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Hello,

My name is Brian Dieckman. I work for Sony DADC Americas as a Project Facilitator in the Statistical Quality Services department. I have an Associates Degree in Graphic Arts Technology and a Batchelors Degree in Graphic Arts Management from the University of Central Missouri (formerly known as Central Missouri State University) I also have a Master's Degree in Industrial Technology from Indiana State University and hold the level of Black Belt in our Six Sigma Quality Initiative.

My life in printing began in Arrow Rock, Missouri when I was 9 years old. It's an historic communicty with a traditional letterpress print shop. During their yearly expo, you go to the printer, who locks your name up in a chase with the daily events and fifteen minutes later, you're headline news! I was hooked on the power of print.

I love all things print. I haven't run a machine in years, but I stay close to the process; working with vendors to improve raw materials, organizing the workforce around process changes and making continuous process improvements at every possible stage.

The people I work with are some of the brightest, hardest working and focused individuals I have ever met. Being a part of a team working towards a common objective is exciting and challenging.

What can I say? I love the industry, I love the idea, LONG LIVE PRINT!
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Hello all,
I've been in the printing industry for 23 years now. All prepress in Flexo. When I started we shot images on an old NuArc camera then upgraded to an Alan Imaging camera that did all the stepping and distorting at once. We hand developed negs. Around 1989 we implemented our first Macs. Mac IIci. Soon after that we got our first imagesetter and developer. Lino 200. MANY years later we are still film based and still using Macs to an Ultre Rip and Lino 560.

Darin

Edited by: Darin on Feb 28, 2008 11:55 AM
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Hello, I am new here. This post caught my eye, however . . .

*"Although I do enjoy this trade, I am getting a little tired of the "New Breed" of so-called Graphic Designers/Artists who wouldn't know how to set up a file if their lives depended on it."*

I've been in publications since the late 60's (started as a tech typist in Cambridge, MA) at 15 years old because my mother ran publications/printing for an R&D company and the M.I.T. engineers were notoriously late (they kidnapped me coz I could type like crazy). We used IBM proportionately spaced typewriters with interchangeable keys. When typing equations, we would twist out one of 4 keys, grab the appropriate Greek letter, insert the key, click up or down, type, remove and replace and reposition. Lots of cut-ins, lots of retyped pages. Some equations were actually an entire page deep! Many of the engineers came from foreign countries where penmanship was never a consideration in grade school. YIKES !!!

One of our chemists invented the formula for Liquid Paper and we were the first ones using it. (So while my girlfriends were earning money babysitting, I was working through the night in the tech typing pool as we endeavored to get huge reports/proposals to press.) I loved it and worked all through high school, vacations and business school.

It proved to be a real asset on my resumes over the years in addition to graduating from Katherine GIbbs (Boston). I always felt privileged to have grown up in a family of artists and engineers and live in a community where I felt comfortable talking and spending time with creative folks from an early age. After Gibbs, attended Massachusetts College of Art (Interior design and integration with some commercial design). Unfortunately because of already being married and having children and working, I could not finish and get my degree but the courses led to many well-paying consultant projects over the years.

My Dad was an airbrush artist, commercial photographer, and illustrator with his own business. My mother had 2 degrees, one in marketing/advertising and one in business but also studied design at art school. She designed logos and promotional materials. My parents deadlines were crazy and I wanted nothing to do with this field. But after business school and working as an executive secretary at Arthur D. Little, M.I.T. and W.R Grace. . . . I got totally bored with secretarial work even though the level was administrative. Had lunch with my Dad who was getting type set for ads he was creating, got fascinated with the Varitype machine and asked a bunch of questions (specifically about salaries) and immediately landed a job as a typesetter for a printing company in the Boston area. That was in 1976. It was wonderful to work nights and not have to sit in traffic (then living in New Hampshire but commuting to the Boston area) and better yet not have to pay for child care. I never looked back.

Started typesetting before Macs came on the scene. All my work was in technical, medical and pharmaceutical publications. Worked extreme amounts of overtime for 15 years. Supervised both art and comp departments for years and filled in doing paste-up, worked in Stripping, etc. when deadlines were tight to help out. Took courses in running AB Dicks and loved everything about presses except getting so much ink on my hands!

Joined the Typographer's Union in Boston. Set entire books in Italian, German, Spanish and French. Nickname at one shop was "shape queen" because I could wrap type around shapes quicker and tighter than anyone in the shop.

We were given layouts. You measured each line with a pica ruler and wrote the line lengths and the number of lines allowed for text, etc. Could hand-condense type and copyfit anything and have it look great and be pleasantly readable. Our shop consistently won the Hatch Awards for excellence in typography and our work came in from all over New England and even some from NYC. My ads appeared in Time Magazine.

Once in San Diego, I was watching a young fellow struggle with copyfitting some type. I told him to hand-condense to 96%, blah, blah. He did it and it popped into place perfectly! We became fast friends and worked on projects together until 2002. Just the other night he brought up this very first introduction and how he was fascinated in how I could make this call. I told him how the guys in the union called me the shape queen. He loves to retell this story to new colleagues.

Kerning tracks were also a favorite project of mine. We had a rule in our shop "Typo House" (Typographic House, Boston) . . . "Tight but not touching!" . . . and our QC people marked for changes in tenths of points. This dedication to type is lost today. Also we were not allowed to hyphenate the first sentence of a paragraph, would never allow 3 hyphenated sentences in a row and never never hyphenate the last word of a paragraph. The rules were to strict!

There was a 4-year apprenticeship to get your Journeyman's card but I got mine in 9 months. It was a real education and ad typography was quite a bit different from the typesetting publications for companies like Raytheon, RCA and Hewlett Packard, etc.

Left the Union and helped a large commercial printing firm make the transition to Macs. Supervised art and comp, typeset and did QC. Used to stay til dawn at times to do press checks and meet deadlines. Had a very close relationship with all the departments because I was very fussy but also wanted to head off problems down the line.

*Over the years, especially down in San Diego, I had great relationships with the printing companies when I went on my own. They loved that I would show them a layout prior to setting a job. I always asked about foreseeable problems with what I wanted to design and especially about line screens and inks and stocks. Therefore they would receive negs and press matches and have no problems with my seps, etc.

Late 80s helped another typesetting firm make transition to Macs. We were the beta test site for Agfa Compugraphics and got all our type in exchange for running type books. Helped establish 'bulletin board' (transmission of files). Ran negs and did troubleshooting for Agfa equipment 3rd shift (alone) after departments went home.

Moved to San Diego late 89 and continued working for large commercial printers. Went on my own mid-90s. Provided typography, illustration, photography, copywriting and marketing, as well as print brokering. Also consultant for architectural/law firm specializing in construction defect litigation cases and prepared courtroom presentation boards as well as floor plans, elevations, roof plans and site plans to-scale. Color correction consultant also.

Remarried 2000 and moved to the Olympic Peninsula 2002 and went into semi-retirement. Have since restarted my graphic design business and am getting quite busy. Very involved with the community and have volunteer graphic design which in turn has proved to open many doors and be the best advertising.

Have a G4 and a G5 and am getting ready to purchase Leopard as well as upgrade to CS3 and get into Dreamweaver. Most websites in this area are very poorly done and I have been asked repeatedly if I design websites so I will now plunge into this area well.

Was a Quark XPress fan and haven't gotten too deeply into InDesign. Found this Forum looking to see what problems exist trying to import Quark files into InDesign for actual usage. HA! I have a new client coming Sat. afternoon with Quark files. I don't know what version but will be finding out.

If her brochure, etc. look hokey, I'll try to talk her into a redesign. This may be best overall.

I did just so this past week and the new client is very pleased. Saves time and my energies actually.

Glad to have found you all! I've already picked up quite a few things here. Thanx.

Edited by: picas and points on Mar 8, 2008 7:54 AM

Edited by: picas and points on Mar 8, 2008 7:57 AM

Edited by: picas and points on Mar 8, 2008 7:59 AM

Edited by: picas and points on Mar 8, 2008 8:02 AM

Edited by: picas and points on Mar 8, 2008 8:16 AM

Edited by: picas and points on Mar 8, 2008 8:21 AM
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi Everyone!

My name is Michelle and I kind of fell into the printing industry about 3 yrs ago. (It seems longer!)
Have been in sales all my life and I must say... I love my job. Being somewhat new to the industry and being inside sales I want to learn more about prepress and software.

I am not here to knock down competitors or hassle anyone about purchasing our products. 99% of my clients are newspapers, some ctp some not. If I see something on the boards I can help with I will contribute my thoughts and ideas. If there is any questions you may have please feel free to ask and I will always help out.

I'm really happy to have found this site and look forward to making some friends. I have four children 17, 14, 6 and 5. They are great kids and we like to go to the beaches in the summer and camp. I also dabble in art. I make sculptures with cement and mosaics. I have had a few showings but.. not much sold so that is why it's very necessary for me to keep my day job!

My goal is to one day be able to breath a sigh of relief when my kids are over 18 and they are either in college or doing something purposeful in their lives. I also golf and bowl in leagues sporatically.

Have a great day and thanks for having me!!

Michelle

Edited by: Konica Girl on Mar 20, 2008 2:29 PM
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi

Wow, my path is relatively different than the majority of those I have seen posted, but like the buddhists and christians, it all points to the same place.

I began my imaging path in '92 with a BFA in graphic design, but deciding to forgo my internship I bounced to paint, drawing, and printmaking for a second degree, while double-majoring in Art History, Theory and Criticism. Spent 2 years screenprinting signs and T-Shirts in Arkansas and Vermont.

Then went into pre-press for digital "press" (big color laser machines) in their toddlerhood and witnessed a dramatic improvement in quality in Canon and Xerox machines parting ways a few weeks after installing an iGen. I then progressed into pre-press for traditional offset where I am the Pre-Press "Coordinator" for a smallish shop in Little Rock, Arkansas.

What a step back in technology it was to an E30 box running Brisque for a Dolev 4Press! Fortunately I made it through to our 3 year-old Prinergy CTP with Trendsetter. We have four sheet-fed presses: a 4-unit Heidi GTO, a 2-color Komori 32", 6-Color Komori with coater and extended delivery, and a Ryobi 3302. As well, we have a triad of heidi windmills for embossing, foiling, and scoring, some folders and stitchers; and another company in-house that is a manufacturer of scrapbooking supplies.

But, am I really so fortunate to be bored incessantly with no problems at the RIP and no need to figure out a way to make it work tricking the machine with non-used spots? My body practices Buddhism in the Kwan Um school of Zen. My mind practices being a better father for my two wonderful sons.

We are fortunate to be able to provide our customers with products that help them know more. They appreciate it by giving us money.
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Greetings All!

Quickly:

Have been involved in many aspects for 20+ years, now in an ownership position.

Located in Central US and very much looking forward to sharing and learning information from fellow lovers of the Industry :)


~Joshua
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi All!!

You may have seen me in the latest member spotlight (had no idea I would be featured in that so quickly!!) but this thread seems like a good way to get to know some fellow suckers... I mean prepress people!!

In all honesty I do still love the trade... Here's my background.

Have always been interested in computers/art/graphics from an early age. When I finished high school I enrolled at Uni in IT, got accepted but at the same time saw an advert for Graphic Prepress apprenticeships at a local printing firm. Thinking about the money side of it (a whole $4.50 my first year!!) I applied, got the job and jumped on board!! Place I completed my apprenticeship at... was... interesting. In retrospect I think they were more interested in the cheap apprentice labour than anything else, but I must admit being thrown in the deep end does help you learn quickly!! Anyway, cut that whole long story short, completed my apprenticeship and moved on to a different printing firm. More of the same, did further my prepress knowledge, but then decided to go out on my own for a while doing freelance design. That was great except for the fact there were no holidays, no super, etc, so took up my current position at USQ Printing Services about 3yrs ago. Casual at first but when the full-time offer came along I grabbed it. Love it, I'm my own boss, not a huge workload and I have had a chance to really implement my own initiatives with regards to colour management, systems maintenance, etc. and the small shop means I am working closely with print and binding staff which has advanced my knowledge of the whole printing process. Now I am always considering the overall finished job rather than just the design aspect!!

Anyway, thats a brief rundown and if you want to know more PM me, always happy to make new friends!!! Really love the PrintPlanet boards, great way to learn new methods plus share the knowledge with others which I am all for...

Cheers, Tony
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi everybody,

My name is Juan Georgiev and I come from Bulgaria.

I work for a digital service bureau and I am a manager of the Digital Printing Dept. The company's name is Bulged. You can check our web site - http://bulged.net for details.

We are running one HP Indigo 3050, Xeikon 5000, Prinergy Evo and two proofers from Kodak - Matchprint and Integris.
I am interested in automated workflows, W2P apps. and 'smart' medias.

I have three children:)
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Guess it's my turn to introduce myself....

First of all hello to all my fellow diehards!

My name is Jason Christner, 29 yr old married guy w/ kid with about 13-14 years experience in pretty much all aspects of printing.

Currently, I'm a fresh face at Paragraphics, Inc., a medium sized print company in Canton, OH. Been there for a little over 6 months and really like it, always have loved this line of work....even with the stress.

I started off straight out of school running a composition department for a small weekly newspaper. Did everything the old way, Xacto, wax, rubylith and many, many layers of hand cut color... After 3 years the parent company realized we were turning a profit, so no longer a tax write-off, doors closed.

Went from there to Harmon Media Group (they make those real estate guides in you grocery store), started as a artist and eventually moved into more of an impo/quality control position second only to the main boss. Had a LOT of responsibilities..... now only if they paid for it. Only took me 6 years to realize this.... loyal to a fault.

I ended up getting recruited to the Akron Beacon Journal in the Creative Technical Services, aka Prepress. Worked there for a little over a year until new ownership came in a swept away all non-union employees. I would have stayed there until I retired if they would have let me.....

Bounced around for a while trying to find new work. Ended up selling cars for a year still looking for something to open up.

FINALLY, my saving grace came from a random viewing of the want ads. After an interview process that lasted a month (yes, a month) I landed the job that I have now. They've had problems in the past of people padding resumes, so they had to be thorough. This is the kind of place where they want you to be there for a long time.

They intially wanted me to do a trial period, I came in and did one day and showed a lot more than what my resume suggested. Offer sent in my email the following work day. I'm re-learning some of what I missed in the last year and a half, but I'm developing a niche of being VERY fast and being the guy to bring your PDFs to when noone else can fix them. I <3 Pitstop.

At any rate, thanks for humoring my rambling... see you all around and hope to learn as well as teach a few things to newcomers.

REMEMBER KIDS: Just because "it looks good on screen", doesn't mean it's remotely close to right!
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Hello, I lurked around this site for about a year now and finally decided to join and introduce myself.



My name Mike Brumley



I am been in this trade for over 20 yrs now ,{insert old fart jokes here.} I started out boxing books and loading trucks and now I run a three million dollar, ten color, Komori Super perfector. I work at Herff Jones in Edwardsville, Kansas.

I am an avid weekend bass angler and I have watched the internet change my sport by connecting fisherman from all over the country, by letting us share, tips, techniques, and stories, on message boards.
I kind of hoping sites like this, might do the same for us ink stained wretches.
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Heh, Stated out around in1977. The guy who hired me called me a printers devil and "if I knew then what I know now I would of gotten out." After 30 years mostly pre-press. Worked for some of the biggest and best printing companies in TX, NC, SC. Sorry but most of the people I have met in printing are a bunch of cut-throats. You will become one too in time. ]:)
One thing about technology in printing is, it gets rid of good people and keeps the asses.
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

My turn... I was a PrePress Forum participant, now and then, and a regular on the forums at quark.com until they changed 'em around yet again... Now I spend most of my time in email forums on YahooGroups or the -L lists (Publish-L, Copyediting-L, etc.) and tend to forget that online forums are cool too.

Anyway, I was cleaning out my email, and found my welcome mail from PrintPlanet from last September... but that login didn't seem to work today, so created a new one. Glad to see so many familiar faces as I poke around. :)

My work is largely composition and design for book publishers, and lately for self-publishing authors, as well as newsletters and corporate identities and even onsite stints at ad agencies. Variety, that spice of life, I guess...

Outside of work, my passions include my husband's newly released book, This Water Goes North, <http://www.thiswatergoesnorth.com> and Hybridfest, an annual event I help organize and execute <http://www.hybridfest.com>. I work at home (nice office space), have the requisite two lapcats, drive a shiny red Insight, have a raspberry patch that's not producing this year, native wildflowers growing around my mailbox, and need to get to Radio Shack to get my digital converter box before my coupon expires.

All in all, life is good.

Edited by: Linda on Jul 31, 2008 2:56 PM to change italic codes
 
Re: Introduce yourself!

Hi, My name is Jim and I am relatively new to printing have come from 12 years as a high school band director. My wife Wendy and I run a small printshop in rural Virginia. I like printing because the press doesn't talk back. I do miss the students, but I love working with my wife and for myself more.

In past hobbies(jobs), my Wife and I sold Lego(by the piece), were mystery shoppers, and sweepers(contesting).

I like fishing, music, video games, and anything Apple!!
 

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