As a marketing professional, I've worked with lots of vendors, most of whom I can happily say have been outstanding. But occasionally there have been some bad ones; I've heard some pretty outrageous excuses for poor quality deliverables over the years. Which, if you read this post, you'll learn I have little patience for.
Several hours into my first day on press in Seoul with “day shift man” I was asking myself how this project was going to get done. (Read how it all works out in the end.) This guy couldn’t or wouldn’t get the plates to register, which meant that all of the four colors of dots that mix together on the paper to produce the final color weren’t aligning, making for fuzzy edges and weird colors. I think he could have done it - but he just didn’t seem to want to bother to try. I kept telling him the plates were off and he and the translator would wait me out to see if I would change my mind or acquiesce. But I would just wait them out. It was an interesting game to say the least, since time was money.
Registration is so fundamental and crucial to printing that he shouldn’t have asked me to take a look until it was aligned. He had lots of excuses as to why he couldn’t do what I was asking. All of which was communicated to me by my congenial translator and host, Mr. Young:
“If you push the magenta any further it will smudge the ink and it wont dry properly.”
“This is not possible to do in CMYK, it could work in five colors though.”
“The registration is off because we replaced the film for some pages, we may have to remake the plates.”
Then, finally:
“We didn’t understand the level of quality you wanted.”
Needless to say, that first day went excruciatingly slowly. We were averaging 1 signature every 2 hours. There were a total of 46 for the book, plus the cover so at the rate we were going, it would have taken over 90 hours to get the book printed. Time neither I or the print shop had. We had to get moving or we’d get kicked off the press or I’d lose my patience. Maybe both. It was quite distressing. I made judgement calls and let go of some things in order to keep the job moving so we could stay on schedule. What else to do when someone tells you, in hand signals, that they can’t do what you are asking them? (If you're asking yourself whether I would outsource a print job again, click here for the answer.)
At one point, vexed by day shift man, I wandered into the next printing room to look at the other projects being printed. Most of the stuff I looked at coming off the presses didn’t need to be very high quality like my hardbound book. It was mostly catalogs and mass mailers. If this was the type of projects that this shop was typically producing it made sense that I was getting pushback. The printers were doing the quality of work that was expected and I couldn’t fault them for that. And Mr. Young wanted to give me the quality of work that I paid for and I couldn't fault him for that either. Perhaps it wasn't really fair of me to expect the same quality of work that we would get from an American printer at outsourced prices.Despite the rocky start, the book was actually looking really good. I was processing all of this and the fact that I had flew all the way there and made the decision to continue to push them to go farther than they would have done if I hadn’t been there.
At 8pm Captain Yim and "night shift man" arrived on the scene to relieve day shift man. Young was long gone so I was without a translator. It was 8pm, I’d been on-press for eleven hours and we hadn’t gotten too much done. After a few minutes with him and his terrible broken English, things finally started to look up. He had a fantastic work ethic and clearly cared about putting out a quality product. And night shift man was really talented at his job and made no excuses about why things couldn’t be done. He had experience working with “export” projects. Read, demanding Americans like me. Great. I was all over it. Let’s get to work.
Night shift man and Captain got the project back on track, and restored my faith in their capabilities which, after many, many hours on press with little food and rest was exactly the pick me up I needed. At one point during the day shift when I’d reached my limit on mediocrity, I issued an ultimatum to the man through Young: “Don’t even bother showing me something that’s not registered and acting like it’s ready for me to review the color, because I wont look at it.” No such ultimatum needed last night. Night shift man nailed it every time and anticipated what I was looking for with his keen eye for color. More times than not, after I dragged myself out of the chair to look at a signature, all I had to say was “looks great.”
It was a big relief after a trying day.
This story continues in a series of posts. Read the next installment.
Printing Press Check Part 2
Print shops are grimy places from the paper dust, the oil and chemicals. And not good dirty, like camping or gardening. They are the kind of places where you don’t want to put your fingers anywhere even close to your mouth. Everything is usually caked with layers of grime and dirt and human grease that looks like it’s been around forever.
As I mentioned in my previous post this book was a complex and challenging project for several reasons:
1. The project had tons of images that I had to evaluate and try to get to work together without any thing to compare them to. Translation: I didn’t know what any of those images were supposed to look like printed because none of the photographers provided printed proofs of the images. I wasn’t involved in the pre-production phase of the book so I didn’t know if they were asked to provide them. My guess is that this step was overlooked because of time and/or budget constraints, but it's a critical part of the process that ideally, should not be omitted. As a result, it was my eye and the printer’s eyes that determined the look of this book, which meant that I needed to be around to approve every signature.
2. Since this was a short run by printing standards (each signature being run 3000 times zips through the massive printing machines pretty quickly, approx 20-30 minutes) I couldn’t leave between signature printings. Sadly, the client lounge was three flights of stairs away from the printing floor, and it wasn't practical for me to use it so I set up camp in a rickety chair in the corner under a humidifier. I got rained on then alternately showered with dust from the walls and pipes every time paper got moved around. Added to that it was very, very loud and I was breathing solvents constantly.
3. Perhaps, most importantly, the language barrier was brutal. Not being able to understand each other slowed things down and was tiring for both me and the shift man and our intermediary translator. It was very hard to communicate the subtleties that color correcting requires and there was a lot of pointing, head shaking and gesticulation involved. I was convinced that those guys thought I was nuts. (At times, I agreed with them…who comes to Korea for a press check anyway?)
Ultimately I didn’t care too much though. I wasn’t there to make new friends but to get this job done efficiently and deliver a quality work product.
This story continues in a series of posts. Read the next installment.
As I mentioned in my previous post this book was a complex and challenging project for several reasons:
1. The project had tons of images that I had to evaluate and try to get to work together without any thing to compare them to. Translation: I didn’t know what any of those images were supposed to look like printed because none of the photographers provided printed proofs of the images. I wasn’t involved in the pre-production phase of the book so I didn’t know if they were asked to provide them. My guess is that this step was overlooked because of time and/or budget constraints, but it's a critical part of the process that ideally, should not be omitted. As a result, it was my eye and the printer’s eyes that determined the look of this book, which meant that I needed to be around to approve every signature.
2. Since this was a short run by printing standards (each signature being run 3000 times zips through the massive printing machines pretty quickly, approx 20-30 minutes) I couldn’t leave between signature printings. Sadly, the client lounge was three flights of stairs away from the printing floor, and it wasn't practical for me to use it so I set up camp in a rickety chair in the corner under a humidifier. I got rained on then alternately showered with dust from the walls and pipes every time paper got moved around. Added to that it was very, very loud and I was breathing solvents constantly.
3. Perhaps, most importantly, the language barrier was brutal. Not being able to understand each other slowed things down and was tiring for both me and the shift man and our intermediary translator. It was very hard to communicate the subtleties that color correcting requires and there was a lot of pointing, head shaking and gesticulation involved. I was convinced that those guys thought I was nuts. (At times, I agreed with them…who comes to Korea for a press check anyway?)
Ultimately I didn’t care too much though. I wasn’t there to make new friends but to get this job done efficiently and deliver a quality work product.
This story continues in a series of posts. Read the next installment.
Printing Press Check Part 1
I traveled to Seoul for a press check and spent 72 straight hours on the job aside for a few hours here and there to get some sleep, get some food and take a shower. Those few days were the ultimate cure for jet lag.
Press checks for large print runs are arduous, even without international travel thrown in, because printing presses, unlike humans, don’t need to sleep. They usually run 24 hours a day with two shift changes at sunset and sunrise. When the day shift man (I’ll stick with man, because they invariably are men) goes home to a warm meal and a soft bed after his twelve hours of labor, the client–if the file being printed is of any importance–has to stay put and work with the night shift man to check, adjust and approve regardless of how tired or hungry or cranky they are until the job is done.
Some press checks are longer than others, depending on the amount of pages being printed. This particular print run went so long because the book I was there to get printed was a 300+ page hardback cover with more than 300 annotated project photos in full color. It was printed in signatures of 8 flat pages which are set up so that as the page is folded in half, then in half again, those pages will nest together, to be easily “stitched” and then trimmed. Because a signature must run flat on a press, there are always at least two pages running “in line” with each other. A book is never run where there is no color compromise because of the multiple-page press sheet of the signature format. If the color is perfect on the lower page but off on the upper page, for example, the printer will have to compromise the color on the lower one to correct the upper page.
Actually being on press with the printers requires skills above and beyond just knowing whether colors are balanced or not. Printers that work the machines don’t really want clients around. First off, there is the perceived danger of the print shop floor. But mostly, they just want to put ink on paper and keep the machines going. They have great rhythm, and often move as if they are part of the machines, which in a sense they are. Clients like me tend to break that rhythm.
Don't get me wrong, the good ones care about putting out a quality product and will accommodate clients and strive for perfection. If you’re lucky, the excellent ones will even impart their considerable knowledge and there is a lot that can be learned from them. But bottom line, they are there to work, not stop the presses every five minutes to make changes. As the client one needs to be available (and alert), polite and assertive, but not intrusive. Knowing when to push and when to say something is good enough is key.
So, on press, it's important to know what you are talking about or the printer may look at you like you are wasting their time. Acquiring this knowledge takes years of practice combined with a naturally good eye for color. I know when an image is not color balanced, but I am always learning what to do with the inks to fix it. That’s where the printer comes in. The good ones get what you want, make a few quick adjustments and take things where they need be as if by magic. They can also help keep the whole book balanced in their minds so that each form closely color matches the forms that make up the other pages that it will appear next to in the bound book.
While printing has become very much a science then, there is still an incredible amount of artistry involved. At the end of the day, it's a human being telling a machine what to do. You either have the ability to nuance color or you don’t. One can learn to operate a printing machine, but color and tone and value can’t be learned rote, it almost has to be felt.
The American printers that I’ve done press checks at have client lounges where you can rest up, work and catch a few winks between checking a particular signature. What usually happens is that you’ll approve the color of a signature and then it will be run through the press. Depending on how long it takes (size of the run, speed of the press) you might get anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours to watch TV, grab a bite to eat, or take a nap. Talk to the printers. Have a few jokes. Build camaraderie, you get the idea.
Not so much the case with this press check.
This story continues in a series of posts. Read the next installment.
Natalie Zensius is a marketing communications strategist with experience in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Learn more about Natalie at http:www.linkedin.com/in/nzensius.
Press checks for large print runs are arduous, even without international travel thrown in, because printing presses, unlike humans, don’t need to sleep. They usually run 24 hours a day with two shift changes at sunset and sunrise. When the day shift man (I’ll stick with man, because they invariably are men) goes home to a warm meal and a soft bed after his twelve hours of labor, the client–if the file being printed is of any importance–has to stay put and work with the night shift man to check, adjust and approve regardless of how tired or hungry or cranky they are until the job is done.
Some press checks are longer than others, depending on the amount of pages being printed. This particular print run went so long because the book I was there to get printed was a 300+ page hardback cover with more than 300 annotated project photos in full color. It was printed in signatures of 8 flat pages which are set up so that as the page is folded in half, then in half again, those pages will nest together, to be easily “stitched” and then trimmed. Because a signature must run flat on a press, there are always at least two pages running “in line” with each other. A book is never run where there is no color compromise because of the multiple-page press sheet of the signature format. If the color is perfect on the lower page but off on the upper page, for example, the printer will have to compromise the color on the lower one to correct the upper page.
Actually being on press with the printers requires skills above and beyond just knowing whether colors are balanced or not. Printers that work the machines don’t really want clients around. First off, there is the perceived danger of the print shop floor. But mostly, they just want to put ink on paper and keep the machines going. They have great rhythm, and often move as if they are part of the machines, which in a sense they are. Clients like me tend to break that rhythm.
Don't get me wrong, the good ones care about putting out a quality product and will accommodate clients and strive for perfection. If you’re lucky, the excellent ones will even impart their considerable knowledge and there is a lot that can be learned from them. But bottom line, they are there to work, not stop the presses every five minutes to make changes. As the client one needs to be available (and alert), polite and assertive, but not intrusive. Knowing when to push and when to say something is good enough is key.
So, on press, it's important to know what you are talking about or the printer may look at you like you are wasting their time. Acquiring this knowledge takes years of practice combined with a naturally good eye for color. I know when an image is not color balanced, but I am always learning what to do with the inks to fix it. That’s where the printer comes in. The good ones get what you want, make a few quick adjustments and take things where they need be as if by magic. They can also help keep the whole book balanced in their minds so that each form closely color matches the forms that make up the other pages that it will appear next to in the bound book.
While printing has become very much a science then, there is still an incredible amount of artistry involved. At the end of the day, it's a human being telling a machine what to do. You either have the ability to nuance color or you don’t. One can learn to operate a printing machine, but color and tone and value can’t be learned rote, it almost has to be felt.
The American printers that I’ve done press checks at have client lounges where you can rest up, work and catch a few winks between checking a particular signature. What usually happens is that you’ll approve the color of a signature and then it will be run through the press. Depending on how long it takes (size of the run, speed of the press) you might get anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours to watch TV, grab a bite to eat, or take a nap. Talk to the printers. Have a few jokes. Build camaraderie, you get the idea.
Not so much the case with this press check.
This story continues in a series of posts. Read the next installment.
Natalie Zensius is a marketing communications strategist with experience in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Learn more about Natalie at http:www.linkedin.com/in/nzensius.
Branding Is About People
I came across this article in the Korea Times, which states that "it is now widely recognized that Korean tourism needs some serious upgrading and a thorough re-branding in order to contribute to the national reputation and economy on the scale that it could and should."
The author, David Mason, is an American who has lived in south Korea for a long time. In his article he focuses on leveraging the country's incredible history and heritage to attract religious, spiritual and pilgrimage tourism. While I don't disagree that Korea has much to offer the visitor in search of this, and that these cultural attractions should be promoted, part of the rebranding effort has to focus at a more fundamental level – on the customer (aka visitor) experience. When I was there on business, it was sometimes hard to accomplish some simple things. Here's two things the Korea Tourist Board should be thinking about now:
1. Front line employees can positively impact the customer experience.
One night during my trip I was out walking and looking for something to do that didn’t involve shopping or being out in the bone chilling February cold any longer. Business travel can be stressful and I needed something to iron out the kinks so I decided to seek out a bathhouse and get a scrub massage, something I'd been told by friends was a not to be missed kind of experience. Unfortunately for me, the woman who staffed the information center that I stopped into barely spoke English and wasn't able to be terribly helpful about the bath house or any other tourist possibilities I could have availed myself of.
I managed to get a name on a piece of paper and some directions which seemed easy enough but I was tired and cold and soon forgot where she had said to go. So, I was stuck - I couldn’t pronounce the name on my piece of paper and none of the signs on the buildings matched up with the characters written on the paper. What a missed opportunity, at minimum, to alleviate stress, which studies show can be causal in changes in brand preferences. It's statistically likely that many visiting tourists will have some knowledge of the english language so why not then make information centers easy to find and staff them with people who speak English well. This could have been an opportunity to inform and delight.
2. Invest in brand ambassadors. (And think outside of the box abut who they are.)
Once I was lost, my interest in figuring out what to do next diminished rapidly and a soak in my bathtub back at the hotel sounded just fine all of a sudden. I was tired and cold so I decided to jump a cab home, since I really had no idea how far it was from where I happened to be standing at that moment. When I showed the business card of the hotel where I was staying to the cab driver, he said a lot of things to me that I didn’t understand, then ejected me from his cab!
Understand, like the department of tourism in Belize, that cab drivers are an important touchpoint for your brand and position them as such.
Natalie Zensius is a marketing communications strategist with experience in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Learn more about Natalie at http:www.linkedin.com/in/nzensius.
The author, David Mason, is an American who has lived in south Korea for a long time. In his article he focuses on leveraging the country's incredible history and heritage to attract religious, spiritual and pilgrimage tourism. While I don't disagree that Korea has much to offer the visitor in search of this, and that these cultural attractions should be promoted, part of the rebranding effort has to focus at a more fundamental level – on the customer (aka visitor) experience. When I was there on business, it was sometimes hard to accomplish some simple things. Here's two things the Korea Tourist Board should be thinking about now:
1. Front line employees can positively impact the customer experience.
One night during my trip I was out walking and looking for something to do that didn’t involve shopping or being out in the bone chilling February cold any longer. Business travel can be stressful and I needed something to iron out the kinks so I decided to seek out a bathhouse and get a scrub massage, something I'd been told by friends was a not to be missed kind of experience. Unfortunately for me, the woman who staffed the information center that I stopped into barely spoke English and wasn't able to be terribly helpful about the bath house or any other tourist possibilities I could have availed myself of.
I managed to get a name on a piece of paper and some directions which seemed easy enough but I was tired and cold and soon forgot where she had said to go. So, I was stuck - I couldn’t pronounce the name on my piece of paper and none of the signs on the buildings matched up with the characters written on the paper. What a missed opportunity, at minimum, to alleviate stress, which studies show can be causal in changes in brand preferences. It's statistically likely that many visiting tourists will have some knowledge of the english language so why not then make information centers easy to find and staff them with people who speak English well. This could have been an opportunity to inform and delight.
2. Invest in brand ambassadors. (And think outside of the box abut who they are.)
Once I was lost, my interest in figuring out what to do next diminished rapidly and a soak in my bathtub back at the hotel sounded just fine all of a sudden. I was tired and cold so I decided to jump a cab home, since I really had no idea how far it was from where I happened to be standing at that moment. When I showed the business card of the hotel where I was staying to the cab driver, he said a lot of things to me that I didn’t understand, then ejected me from his cab!
Understand, like the department of tourism in Belize, that cab drivers are an important touchpoint for your brand and position them as such.
Natalie Zensius is a marketing communications strategist with experience in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Learn more about Natalie at http:www.linkedin.com/in/nzensius.
Why I Love Business Travel
To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.
-Bill Bryson
When I went to Seoul for business it felt like I was learning to read all over again, trying to glean meaning from the logographic cues around me. It was fascinating, but also quite unnerving, that I was unable to decipher much of anything written there. In high school, I took 5 and 7 years of French and German respectively and my understanding of those languages swung back and forth between complete incomprehension and such fluidity I sometimes stopped thinking in English. During that week in Seoul I felt as helpless as a four year old, dependent on signs of westernization and the kindness of strangers who wanted to practice their English on me. It was a lot of work to scan symbols and try to find meaning before I could process things and move on. Being on the incomprehension side of not knowing a new language (not to mention jet lagged) was tough. But it was good for me. Tired as I was, I was also exhilarated and, stimulated.
For their research on the link between time abroad and creativity, William Maddux and Adam Galinsky, PhD, from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, conducted studies to test the idea that living abroad and creativity are linked. According to the authors, "gaining experience in foreign cultures has long been a classic prescription for artists interested in stimulating their imaginations or honing their crafts."
Indeed. For the artist in me, that trip was just what the doctor ordered.
Natalie Zensius is a marketing communications strategist with experience in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Learn more about Natalie at http:www.linkedin.com/in/nzensius.
-Bill Bryson
When I went to Seoul for business it felt like I was learning to read all over again, trying to glean meaning from the logographic cues around me. It was fascinating, but also quite unnerving, that I was unable to decipher much of anything written there. In high school, I took 5 and 7 years of French and German respectively and my understanding of those languages swung back and forth between complete incomprehension and such fluidity I sometimes stopped thinking in English. During that week in Seoul I felt as helpless as a four year old, dependent on signs of westernization and the kindness of strangers who wanted to practice their English on me. It was a lot of work to scan symbols and try to find meaning before I could process things and move on. Being on the incomprehension side of not knowing a new language (not to mention jet lagged) was tough. But it was good for me. Tired as I was, I was also exhilarated and, stimulated.
For their research on the link between time abroad and creativity, William Maddux and Adam Galinsky, PhD, from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, conducted studies to test the idea that living abroad and creativity are linked. According to the authors, "gaining experience in foreign cultures has long been a classic prescription for artists interested in stimulating their imaginations or honing their crafts."
Indeed. For the artist in me, that trip was just what the doctor ordered.
Natalie Zensius is a marketing communications strategist with experience in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Learn more about Natalie at http:www.linkedin.com/in/nzensius.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)