… I know, I know, the most used phrase in printerdom.
How many times have you heard that? (How many times have I said that!). Having recently returned to pound the streets of London I’m amazed that anything gets delivered at all. Once you’ve avoided the stalking, thieving, bastard speed cameras, paid the extortionate £8 congestion charge (thank the lord for my boss’s credit card), been stuck behind the number 13 from Golders Green for an hour while the driver argues with a taxi driver in front of him about who has more right to use the bus lane and finally found somewhere to park that doesn’t require you to remortgage your house (again) – all this before the traffic itself –don’t get me started. It took me nearly two hours to travel less than 12 miles this week. Two freakin’ hours! So when a printer tells you that your no fail must deliver by 9am or else the security of the western civilisation may be jeopardised job is on the van – it probably is. Somewhere! Or they just haven’t printed it yet!
Anyone with any exposure to printing–or service industries in general–will know the above to be true. And it doesn’t matter how nicely (or not) you ask, it doesn’t change (though, if you spend too much time asking, you’ll be down to one or none available). It’s usually better for everyone concerned that this fact is accepted as soon as possible.
Reports of print’s death are greatly exaggerated.
Published April 26, 2007 Uncategorized Leave a CommentEveryone might be rushing towards a new digital future, but there’s a whole bunch of people going the other way. Stores like Best, Playlounge, Kid Robot, the fantastic DPMHI, Zakka, Moss, Citizen Citizen and numerous others are all flying the flag for The Thing You Must Have.
Artists like Kaws, Dalek, alife and everyone else in the sneeker / streetwear world are prolifically churning out collectable pieces that stay on the shelves for a matter of moments.
Rising paper prices don’t worry me. Digital printing presses stealing market share don’t worry me. Not even the suicidal price-cutting by my competitors worries me (that much). What keeps me awake at night (a slight exaggeration perhaps but nevertheless a concern) is the fact that there are so few skilled printers being trained nowadays. The average age of a properly-apprenticed machine minder is somewhere around the mid forties – that means that unless we do something soon, within the next twenty years, there will be a dangerous shortage of skilled printers and finishers.
Now, I know technology has made the modern day printing press slightly easier to operate, certainly faster and definitely less physically taxing on the minder, but the skill and experience needed to produce truly excellent print (and the same applies to finishing) can only be delivered through experience. And that’s a hard earned experience – three long, tough years or more in some cases. This is not an industry for the faint hearted or the get rich quick brigade!
Manufacturing (yes, I’m from the school of thought that hangs onto the notion that printers are manufactures) is not appealing to school leavers and why should it be: long hours, physically demanding, often thank-less, wrong end of the value chain and so on vs light air-conditioned offices, staff canteens, blue-sky thinking sessions, chemistry meetings and that gorgeous Andrea in accounts!
I wish I knew the answer. But I can see what the future might hold if we don’t do something now. Increased labour costs and reduced quality both in terms of output and general perception, loss of support service jobs and yet another strand of British manufacturing gone the way of many others.
I know that pressure on margins has never been greater, especially in today’s over-supplied highly demanding market. What proprietor can afford time or money on training? Why take the risk when more often than not there is little or no return on the investment. (Ahh a wider societal discussion there me thinks!) Murray W. Arbiter
Or, why are most women in print only featured on calendars? The print industry is a far worse place for the lack of women within it. It would be great to see more women being encouraged into sales, senior management, marketing – yes, even on the presses. I have only ever known of one female minder – Shirley, as I recollect. Met her once at a friends printing company in North London. Her work was excellent – no, really excellent, the most amazing attention to detail. Shirley had real pride in what she produced (that’s not to say we men don’t – but lets face it, when it comes to detail we’re often aced by the fairer sex!) Likewise, the only woman I knew in a senior role was Carolyn L (you know who you are). Brilliant – a real asset to her business. She understood the market, product and processes, knew her PUR from her burst binding so to speak. I hated pitching against her – always lost! Anyway, my point is that print should not remain the male dominated bastion it has been for so long it’s really important that we encourage more diversity amongst our ranks and recognise that employing more women will bring a whole new skill set and perspective to our industry.
Oh yes, and please lets get rid of those calendars!
Murray W. Arbiter
Living in America is like living in England in the seventies before Terrence Conran and all the graphic designers made everything look the same.
In the UK it’s hard to find to something that’s not had the hand of the graphic designer passed over it, whereas in America, it’s still seen as an option. And though it makes England seem very considered and polished, it also makes it seem very sterile. There’s so little of our vernacular language left, it’s hard to imagine how much texture it must have given us.
Contrary to popular belief, when most printers get home at night they don’t say to their better halves “hey honey I pissed off loads of clients today”. Often I’ve walked in after a long day crest-fallen that all my efforts to please a client have resulted in piles upon piles of printed paper being set-off, or run to warm, complete with trim marks still visible around the out of square edges. Frustrating. Or that the extra special varnish was so special on this occasion that it decided to glue itself to its neighbour – the bastard! Then, the crowning glory – having to face those uncomfortable discussions in a client’s office where your hard work (or apparent lack of!) is further dissected – “I know it’s shit – I know, I know” you scream inside your head! Then the killer blow “why can’t you get it sodding right?”. If only the fire alarm would go off now – I could run shouting and screaming out of the building and forget about the late nights spent praying that the traitorous double-crossing vindictive ink would dry on that new ECF OBA ABC recycled uncoated hokey bleeding pokey paper that the merchant persuaded me to try for the first time on my new, hard earned client’s top account. Or that the man at the XY finishing company had an argument with his wife that morning about what to do with the kids during half term and decided to take it out on my job because no one wanted to go to camping with him!
We printers care. We really do care passionately about what we do and it’s not just about the money, it’s about the great sense of achievement we get in delivering a job well done.
Murray W. Arbiter
Welcome to Artomatic. Again. The idea for this came after a conversation with Murray and we both felt there seemed to be a renewed interest, fascination even, with print and what it can do. More so than there was three or four years ago, which is a good and encouraging sign.
In 1998, our good friend Malcolm Garrett outlined a scenario: that in the same way that painting went from ‘paint-this-view-from-my-window’ to revered cultural icon, print would enjoy a reevaluation as a result of digital communications; that people would grow to value the things they could hold in their hands as electronics enter more of our lives.
Timing? I know the future’s digital, but something seems to be happening in the non-digital space. This year, there seems to be a reinvigorated interest in making printed pieces. Who knows if it’s clients demanding it, designers pushing it or everybody realising there’s things you can only do physically? Whether this is the start of Malcolm’s prediction or merely a blip, where here to be part of it and help it along, if we can.
