Hi this if Frank Romano from WhatTheyThink.com, welcome to another episode.  I'm always on the lookout for new things and here's a new thing.  You all go to get your coffee at Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts or wherever and they put one of these little gismos around the cup so you don't burn your hand.  I saw this recently at a Xerox demonstration.  These come on a sheet they're already die cut and you print them.  This one is personalized with my name on it as you can see.  And then you peal them off and then you give them out to people. 

I love this idea because this is a new product.  This is a new idea that you can apply a new business and I'm always on the lookout for any that creates new opportunities for printers.  Here's another one, this was done on Mohawk Paper using the indigo machine and they're printing white.  That's something unusual on toner based devices.  There only a few that do it.  And so you can now print on either colored stock or tinted stock of sort and you get this wonderful effect.  Here's one on the other side and put it on beautiful paper and you've got an unbelievable approach. 

By the way here's gold leaf that's being printed there.  Again this is somewhat unique to the indigo system.  I was at a meeting the other day and I met a young man who runs a company called The Print Concierge.  They are - doesn't have a city and state, boy that would be interesting.  I guess he does business in one city and state and everyone knows where he is.  And I do not.  Well that's just the way life is.  The Print Concierge and here's his promotion piece like a film roll. What he does is he has samples for each different market segment so he has the financial market, doctor launcher -- a new doctor coming into town, dentistry, sew and vac.  Oh these are companies that do those services.  Credit card processors, industrial, chiropractic.  Wow, consulting, restaurants, fitness.

In other words he's found the market segments that are out there and each sample is typical of that market so it could involve packaging, direct mail, promotional materials of all kinds.  And there you see them in one piece.  He also did this nice little booklet called Direct Marketing for Smarties.  And I like the fact that they put a price tag of $9.99 on it.  Again it has some good ideas in there but it's mostly a promotion piece for Print Concierge wherever they're located.  It says, "The Print Concierge is much more than a printer."  And by the way it makes no difference where they're located from what he said they've got business from other places.

In face, very little from their actual home base but why wouldn't they have the city and state or address.  They only have a phone number and an e-mail.  Inforattheprintconcierge.com.  Phone number, toll free, 866-994-9933. Website www.theprinconcierge.com.  So I guess this is truly the first cyber company out there.  Are they a printer, no.  Are they a direct marketer, yes.  Are they and advertising agency, yes.  So they're doing many of those functions under one creative and production roof.

The other day I saw an article in USA Today and it said, "Price falls for turning a pic into artwork."  You got my attention.  There's a guy standing in front of a large format printout and it says, "You go down to Costco and they will print your photo on canvas.  Search online for canvas prints."  And it says, "You can find them now at Costco."  Sixteen by twenty's are about $90.00 so now we're brining this capability wide format, inject printing to the big box store if you will.

Actually this an idea whose time has come.  We all have digital photos and we want to print them out in various ways.  Well, what's going to happen now?  We're going to print them don canvas and have them framed and that will be the art that will be in American homes.  You may go to a photography to do that and they definitely would have wide format printing but to do it yourself opens a whole new market.  I mean, we're already doing it on the little ink jet printers that we have at home, use that high quality photo paper and you get the equivalent of photo prints, and give them to grandma because grandma doesn't have a digital camera.

Well now grandma does have a digital camera.  She has a computer and she wants to see the pictures instantly.  In fact, she wants to talk with the grand kids over Skype.  It's a brave new world for grandparents I can tell you that but a fantastic idea.  Now normally I start out with the cartoon but I'm ending with the cartoon right now because this one is dear to my heart.  Dov Isaacs found this one again and it's one of those people that marches up and down with a placard.

And it says, "The end of grammar and spelling is near."  If spell - I don't know if spell checkers really helps us out.  They only find words that when spelled are really bad but if you misspell a word and it spells another word the spelling checker doesn't know that.  And so The  New York Public Library often has this typo that goes out, The New York Pubic Library.  And the other thing that I don't like is they all try to change - like Microsoft, Word tries to change my grammar.  I want to use the word which, W-H-I-C-H is a perfectly good word.  That is a perfectly good word.

And that's the way I talk and that's the way I write.  Why can't you leave me alone?  No - no you've got to underline it so it's there for ever saying, "We think it should be this and it will be this. The end of grammar and spelling is near."  Are near, ah-ha.  In any case that's my opinion, take care.

It has been my goal to see every Gothenburg bible on earth.  I've seen 36 so far.