Interviews with Industry Executives, Commentary & Analysis from WhatTheyThink Contributors and other video features.
Dave Cich, President & CEO of Vanguard Durst, shares his thoughts about Durst's investment in his company, the driving factors for both companies, and some of the benefits the combination brings. He also reveals two new printers that will be unveiled at PRINTING United. Watch Video
Frank talks with Dave Seat, one of the few Linotype repair experts. Dave and a few of his peers keep these mechanical marvels running. The 1886 Linotype revolutionized typesetting and many museums are struggling to keep them running. Watch Video
In this video sponsored by HP Indigo, Dror Kella, Technologist, R&D, in the HP Indigo 100K Lab, demonstrates the HP Indigo Optimizer. Available on all sheetfed Indigo presses, the Optimizer is a user interface and set of tools that increase productivity by giving operators the information they need to plan their jobs. Watch Video
This week, Warren talks to Summer Gould, President of Eye/Comm Inc. Started by her father in 1990, EyeComm offers print, direct mail, and digital services such as email and social media management, as well as fulfillment. The company seeks to be a resource for their customers for sending effective direct mail and printing it with postal regulations in mind. Watch Video
In this interview, Modern Litho's Jeff Davidson, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and a member of the ownership team, provides an update on Modern Litho and background on its latest acquisition of Kansas City based Watkins Lithographic. If integrating an acquired company isn't enough, the company is also embarking on deployment of a MIS/ERP solution in partnership with Kodak. Watch Video
Mark Michelson of Printing Impressions sent Frank a collection of materials for the Museum of Printing. (Or perhaps he was just cleaning out his office.) It is interesting what he saved after four decades in the printing industry. Each piece tells a story, and Frank adds his footnotes. Watch Video
This week, Warren talks with Bill Atta, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Melbourne, Australia’s Dreemar. A sister company of the prestigious and award-winning Eastern Press, Dreemar develops augmented reality (AR) products specifically for the printing industry. Eastern Press launched Dreemar with the goal being to add value to print in areas where they saw print declining. Watch Video
When Shutterfly announced it was acquiring Spoonflower, we sort of said to ourselves, well, that makes sense. Now, Michael Jones of Spoonflower and Dwayne Black of Shutterfly share the entire story with our viewers—how the acquisition benefits both companies and their respective customers as well as the industry at large. An exciting move! Watch Video
Sappi is a well-known name in the printing industry, known for its high quality fine papers, its dedication to sustainability, and more. But did you know they have a product that can deboss wood grain on wood products that use printed laminate for products such as cabinets, or create a 3D paper-based structure that can imprint leather grain on artificial leather products? Nicholas Yardy, Director of Release Technology, explains this and more in this interesting video chat. Watch Video
Frank heard that American Airlines is discontinuing its inflight magazine. This prompts a discussion of the “war on paper” that began more than 30 years ago, which had led to many paper mill closures—a situation only made worse by the pandemic. Watch Video
David Zwang talks to Tasha Ventimiglia, Americas Event Director for Labelexpo Americas, about the challenges of the pandemic for an event company and the much-anticipated return to in-person events with the upcoming Label Congress in Chicago at the end of September. Watch Video
In this video sponsored by HP Indigo, Regina Guslitzer, L&P Materials Development R&D Manager, talks about how HP developed materials and processes for primers, varnishes, and lamination along with a new inline priming system to allow the HP Indigo V12 to offer the utmost in label versatility. Watch Video
This week, Warren talks with Garry Gunter, President of Mitchell Since 1928. Founded in...1928, the 81-employee company comprises three units: Mitchell Press (high-speed web offset), Mitchell Digital (digital printing and Web development), and Pacific Bindery (a trade bindery). Mitchell Since 1928 thinks of itself more as a communication company than a print company. Watch Video
Felix Mueller, President of Heidelberg USA, shares his excitement about the company's presence at PRINTING United, which will feature a Smart Print Shop, whose core is software infrastructure that helps to reduce touches and make the manufacturing process more efficient. The booth will also feature a Heidelberg Versafire digital press and a Heidelberg sheetfed offset press, as well as a Polar cutter. Watch Video
Frank talks about very old printing presses, specifically, the evolution of the two-person hand presses into the single-user platen presses named for George Phineas Gordon of Salem, N.H. The advantage of the platen press was that it used a foot pedal, and thus could be operated by one person, unlike the older hand presses which required two operators. The platen presses were the workhorses of the 1800s and early 1900s, and many are still in use. Watch Video
This week, Warren talks with Andrew Ettinger, CEO of The Best Postcards. The Best Postcards is a Connecticut-based multimedia marketing company that started in direct marketing. The company specializes in helping customers find their own unique niches. Watch Video
In the latest installment of the Print Geeks Interview Series, Resident Print Geeks Jim Raffel and Shelby Sapusek talk to Marty Davis, President of Alder Color Solutions, about how “color management” should really be “color IT.” It’s not just being able to hit a brand or PMS color, but how fast can you get to color? Are you wasting materials and time getting to color? Are you reworking jobs? Watch Video
Kristen Dettoni founded Design Pool in 2019 as a B2B initiative targeting interior designers with an extensive design library and a network of printers who could execute their projects. During the pandemic, she launched Domanda Designs, a B2C initiative. In this conversation, she discusses some of the challenges with gaining mindshare in a B2C environment and what she is doing to counteract those. Watch Video
What the Hell? Frank talks about color scanners and emphasizes the granddaddy of them all, the venerable Hell Scanner, named for Dr. Rudolf Hell. Their use in the 1960s made color common in the printing industry, and trained scanner operators could pull in a decent salary. Soon, more than 10 companies had scanners and prices dropped so that every designer could have one. Now scanners are built into most desktop printers. Watch Video
Diversified Global Graphics Group (DG3) was founded as Cunningham Graphics International Inc. (CGI) to provide time-sensitive investment research printing and worldwide distribution in response to customer needs not being met efficiently by other firms. Over time, the company has diversified its client base and its product and service mix to become a leading provider of end-to-end communications solutions to financial, life sciences, and other industries. DG3 has trusted HP technology to provide their customers with the best printing quality in the industry with the latest enhancement to their fleet being the HP PageWide Web Press T250 HD with Brilliant Ink. Watch Video
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