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It’s a new year and a new chapter in the thINK user group. Happy New Year! I am pleased to begin 2018 as your newly elected thINK Board President. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Chief Customer Officer at SG360° and I was Conference Chair for thINK 2017. I’ve been involved with thINK since the very beginning, serving on the steering committee. As part of a group of ten Canon customers, we began meeting in April 2014 to shape the group’s direction, goals, and educational objectives.  Mark DeBoer, our previous thINK President was also part of the steering committee, and I’m focused on picking up where he left off. I’m also excited about working with all the board members. They are an amazing group of people with a lot of knowledge and viewpoints to share.  thINK 2018 and Beyond The thINK conference has grown every year. Attendance is up. Sponsorship is up. Our educational offerings are right on target. Our challenge going forward is to stay in tune with the marketplace and keep …

Like any savvy business professional, Jeff Birmingham understands that to be successful your company has to keep evolving. As president of Houston-based Alliance Printing and Graphics: Print Evolved, Birmingham continually enhances his shop’s offerings. To that end, throughout the company’s 30-year history, Birmingham has expanded on the shop’s original offset capabilities to become a full-service shop, adding digital flexography for label production, digital storefront technology for online ordering, digital printing for short-run and on-demand work, and most recently with the installation of the Océ ColorStream 3700, continuous feed inkjet printing for fast turnaround, high-volume, high-quality output. Alliance has not only expanded its offerings, it has also grown in size, opening a second Houston location following the July 2017 purchase of the new equipment. While committed to technology and the innovation it fosters, every piece of hardware and software purchased has to both …

Inkjet: Advancements in inkjet technology have print service providers asking not if, but WHEN they should invest. InfoTrends interviewed a number of inkjet users to find out the critical strategies they are following to accelerate their organization’s path to profitability.  In the recent Keypoint Intelligence | InfoTrends “Inkjet: The Pathway to Profitability” analysis, Barb Pellow shared key highlights: InfoTrends expects global digital production color volume impressions to approach 895 billion in 2020, with inkjet representing 60% of total volume.  Investing in inkjet is not enough to drive business results; building a business with sustained growth requires service providers to develop a solid strategic plan. The real value of inkjet comes from doing things that can’t be done with other print technologies, including the ability to produce more affordable high-value personalization, short runs, and versioning. With the question being “not if, but when” to make an inkjet …

Recently while perusing my local wing joints sauce heat index I started thinking about an all too common problem for printers. How spicy is too spicy? Color perception, like taste is very subjective.  I grew up with an Asian influence in a step-mother who immigrated from South Korea. I enjoy very spicy foods. My wife on the other hand grew up with a comparably “bland” palate. Thus food she finds too hot I regularly enjoy. Similarly when discussing color do we know how “spicy” our customers want their color? Generally when discussions about color or color accuracy come up they usually center on industry specifications, calibration methods or how close to a particular technology or media can achieve to some other technology. These are important topics that speak to consistency and accuracy, what’s usually missing is what does the customer expect to see? A press can print 100% accurate and still be 100% wrong to the end customer. How is that possible? When measuring spiciness something …

For more than 60 years, Darwill has been creatively addressing our clients’ most complex direct marketing and communications problems. We don’t just push the print button or turn on the machine. We spend time understanding a client’s needs, customizing a strategy and applying our expertise to their biggest challenges. Our most advanced tools and technology are supported by a staff that goes above and beyond to help you realize your vision – and connect with your audience for high response rates. Specializing in direct mail, marketing collateral and employee communications, we provide full printing, fulfillment, and mailing capabilities. Our Canon inkjet printing equipment includes an Océ ColorStream 3900 6 Color, Colorstream 3500, 3900 and 6900, Prostream 1000, iX 1800, as well as an Océ ColorStream 3500 with MICR Capability and in-line Dynamic Perfing Contact: Mark DeBoer 11900 West Roosevelt Road Hillside, IL 60162 708-236-4900 …