There was a time when you could buy five simple pieces of equipment and run a printing business indefinitely. That time is not now. There also was a time when the standard turnaround for a simple job was two weeks; that time is definitely not now. I was there then, and I’m here now. I have worked as a tradesman, manager, small business owner, and sales representative in the printing business since 1980, and it’s a fascinating story of adaptation and change in a world now overwhelmingly visual.
The bad parts of the “good old days” were that printing was slow, expensive, and technically constrained. The good parts, however, were correlative; the timeline and cost demanded real planning and expertise on both sides of the deal. Typesetting, particularly, required pre-production editing and formatting to insure the gallies were only purchased once. We could use some of that care today, as any graphic designer will tell you.
Nowadays, the good parts of our industry are that we are fast, inexpensive, and operate with almost no technical restraints whatever. The visual complexity of an average color print job, and speed and unit cost of production, would astound a print business owner who fell asleep in 1960 and slept until the present.
The constant throughout has been the resourcefulness of our people; from those who open, run, or inherit the business, to the tradespeople who handle production, to the salespeople who interact with print buyers. Finally, there are legions of engineers and product managers who drive the technical side of equipment and software. The five simple pieces of equipment needed in 1960 could maintained by yourself; now we rely on very skilled people with laptops and briefcases full of exotic tools.
I like to share as much of the printing business as people will allow; from my first Blogger site, to the now-retired Graphateria, and finally my new home at Gandy Printers. I hope you’ll read along.