Third Place Press – On Demand Books

Third Place Books is one of the few owners of the Espresso Book Machine® from On Demand Books; it is a fully integrated system that prints, binds and trims books with full color covers.

The Espresso Book Machine can produce paperbacks in variable combinations of trim sizes between 4.5″ x 5.0″ and 8.25″ x 10.5″ for a production cost less than one cent per page and prints a 300 page book in about 4 minutes.

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Academy Press – Supporting Community

Nearly one-third of all offset printing establishments have fewer than 20 employees. Forecasts are predicting that we’ll see a loss of even more printing companies over the next decade. Like small businesses of all kinds, printers have always faced challenges. So what has it that has made it possible for some small printers to overcome adversity and keep going? Let’s take a look at Academy Press and see.

And the future, what does it look like? “In 10 years I’ll be 85. We have lots of room to grow in this new building; Academy Press can double,” says Terry Karis, founder of Academy Press. “We provide quality service and deliver good work. It’s like a restaurant; you have to give good service. The business has been good to me; I hope it will be good to my boys.”

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Grays Harbor Paper – Sustainability as a Survival Strategy

The “Greenest Paper Mill in the United States” did not plan to achieve that status. It took Grays Harbor Paper more than 10 years to build a solid basis for its “triple bottom” line: people, paper, planet.

David Quigg, Director of Marketing for Grays Harbor Paper, says “If we can make this happen here, there are mills like ours that have closed all over the country and they can do it. We are turning blue-collar jobs into green collar jobs. We’re doing this to make money and to do the right thing for our community. We’re not all Ivy League graduates; we’re doing this because it is what we should be doing.”

Here’s what David Quigg, Director of Marketing for Grays Harbor Paper had to say about supporting his community.

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Labels – Not Just a Pretty Face

Rolls and rolls of labels come pouring out of John Shanley’s plant, Labels West. Located in Woodinville, the heart of Washington “wine country,” Labels West produces labels for some of the best names among the nearly 300 wineries gaining national and international recognition in the wine industry.

Traditionally labels like those that appear on consumer products, food, and wine have come off flexographic printers, however more and more labels are printed on digital presses like the HP Indigo.

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Exploring the Packaging Eco-System

Packaging is more than just a pretty box that sits on a retail shelf. Packaging is an entire eco-system consisting of science, art, and technology to contain, protect, preserve, transport, inform and sell products.

AllpakTrojan is a remarkable company that combines corrugated converting, package manufacturing, and commercial print to deliver sophisticated and attractive packaging with environmental sensitivity.

Combining graphic and structural design, lean manufacturing, and complex software and hardware, AllpakTrojan produces packaging that not only enhances the image of the product in the hand of the consumer but also provides protection for transporting products around the world.

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Marketing Converts Operations to a New Way of Thinking

Dave Zamorski, COO, Associates Graphics Services, will tell you that he’s NOT a marketing guy; he’s operations. In fact, he mostly doesn’t believe that the marketing programs his staff recommends will work. What he will tell you is that his marketing team proves him wrong regularly, and he credits his company’s sales jump of nearly 29% in 2008 to good marketing.

At OnDemand Expo, Dave and I talked about his most successful campaigns. Read how he and his sales team take 3 weeks from the time they make an appointment with a prospect until they walk in the door for the first meeting. .

From Tents and Awnings to Architectural Textiles – Rainier Industries

When you start a company whose major product is fabric hung from a frame, you fall into one of two categories: a sale maker or a tent maker.

Since the year was 1896 and not 1796, the man who founded the company destined to be Rainier Industries, Seattle WA, settled on tent making just in time for the Klondike Gold Rush.

Now Rainier Industries products range from printed fabrics as ornament (banners), information (signs), protection (awnings), and habitation or shelter (cottages and yurts). .

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Wide-Format Printing – Just About Any Substrate

Walk into Stella Color, Seattle WA, and you are faced with a “forest” of items printed on substrates ranging from Plexiglas to wood.

With an eye to being more environmentally friendly, Stella Color produces a huge variety of items including: posters, fine art prints, textiles, wallpaper, trade show displays, banners, point-of-sale items, and vehicle graphics on a full line of specialty substrates.

Stella Color even makes shopping bags, totes and envelopes from materials that could have been waste. .

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UV Technology – Not Only Green, It Delivers Colour and Detail

A recent visit to 3S Printers, Richmond BC, gave me the opportunity to learn more about UV printing technology and to see first hand what fine work can be produced on uncoated paper. 3S specializes in incorporating processes used by the packaging industry to give projects new sparkle and texture while keeping costs down with relatively inexpensive uncoated papers.

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Being a Small Printer Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Be Green

Marine Printers, Vancouver BC, delivers on the green mandate to reduce, reuse, recycle and replace. In this case, small is not only beautiful, small is green. “Green printing” is not limited to FSC-certified paper and vegetable-based inks; new technology reduces the waste generated throughout the production cycle.

And to top it off, Marine Printers is located in the heart of Vancouver, where staff have access to excellent public transportation..

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What Makes Green Printer a Green Printer?

Printing green and being a green printer is one thing, but to call your company “Green Printer” is another. Not only are you clearly defining your principles, you are setting some pretty high standards.

Green Printer, Burnaby BC,  doesn’t just talk the talk, they are walking it – or more likely, running it!

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