Leslie Edelman is Director of Production for Black Rocket Euro RSCG. She was a Photo Journalism / Color Theory major in college and her first job out of school was designing black and white movies for color conversion. Because the technology was considered "sophisticated" Leslie was lucky to keep landing cutting-edge positions. Leslie eventually landed a position at the GAP in their in-house advertising department. Due in part to a recession and encouraged by GAP’s Print Director, she found herself learning the ropes of print production. Leslie never knew the smell of ink could be so sweet.

Black Rocket is nearing its 6th year of business. It was founded by a few, very talented big-agency guys - In the beginning they had Eddie Bauer, S&W and Yahoo!. They had just finished Yahoo!'s first TV spots and brought Leslie in to help with producing an insert. Since then, Black Rocket has done ads for Discover Brokerage, MSDW, Buy.com, Pete's Brewing Company, Wired, PetStore.com, Ourhouse.com, fusionOne and Lucky. Black Rocket employees 30 professionals.

Leslie, tough year so far?

We continue to feel the effects of the economy. There seems to be a fair amount of restructuring in the ad community and client side. When numbers are down, branding and ads are first to be "re-thunk."

Who is your primary print vendor?

We have two key vendors, one for color seps and one for printing. Our relationships are loyal and long-lasting. They are an extension of our Black Rocket family. Our printer, Waller, really pulled through for us in a pinch last year when Yahoo! wanted to print 7 Million posters in 5 days. The creative wasn't a challenge - but, getting paper, press time and delivering was a test of anyone's will. Waller used all the existing paper on the floor, brought us up on a sheet fed, when the web rolls arrived we were printing on every press in the shop. The final heroics we're in the packaging/delivery. We had multiple versions and a national distribution - we quickly prioritized and distributed. My motto, "never say never", our vendors understand this.

What do you expect from a new vendor seeking your business?

First, we will not go to lunch if we are not doing business with a vendor. Second, after giving us the what-you-got offer to do a test separation or print - show us the "why." The last vendor I met with was a large format supplier. I am very honest about our workload and what they could expect from a client like us. They in turn are (to be) consistent enough to check in, but not over bearing.

I like to know what vendors specialties are. The more information the better. We don’t track these (equipment) niches, however, if we were bigger, we might. I believe it would help financially.

Tell us how the Internet has changed your approval process?

It has greatly affected our approval process with our clients. We are now able to send clients PDF's and get sign off within minutes. There is also many more publications that accept digital files rather than film, however, they still want matchprints. Im waiting for that "proofing" printer from HP to come on the market. I also believe there is potential for workflow assistance utilizing an online ASP, or other type of Internet. It hasn’t exactly changed us, but, we're changing.

Does Black Rocket handle the process just through design?

No, we contract and track everything from conception to final output. Beginning with Art Buying to Reconciliation. We enjoy being part of the creative process and seeing the job through.

Tell us about a recent large job you handled.

The largest job we've had at Black Rocket is an "instant application" ad for Discover Brokerage. The application itself was unique, however we had to tip into publications perfectly to line up with the headline of the ad. It was successful and we we're extremely satisfied. Mostly, it was a lot to wrangle.