Printers and those involved heavily in prepress can be a mysterious breed. I knew this already, but the past few months served to solidify the fact for me. For instance, in the Writers and Photographers intro section of the DWW Series, researching information about each participant was easy. I either read jacket covers, blogs or websites. Their information was served up whole. Printers and those working prepress, on the other hand, are more private. It makes sense actually, as their work is mostly behind the scenes, making the rest of us look great.

I say “mostly” because those involved in this series cross-over at all angles, which is why I combined printing and prepress. Some are designers / printers. Some are designers / prepress. Some are designers / prepress / print brokers. Others are 100% printing or 100% prepress. All are knowledgeable about getting final materials to clients, and that’s what this series is all about.

This series also holds an international mix of characters. Served up below alphabetically. By country. So now on to the introduction …

AUSTRALIA: Lyn Eggleston is well known for giving exact advice on getting files printed correctly (her knowledge certainly shows in the information you’ll read). On the personal side, I’ve had plans to visit Lyn for the past six or so years, all which were scrapped for a handful of reasons. Next year we’ll try again, so wish us luck!

CANADA: Brad McAuley (Kwik Kopy) and Matt Beazley (www.eyemean.com) are our resident lads from way up there. Managing to ‘almost’ meet in Seattle this year, Matt is a long time buddy of mine from a graphic design forum. Matt’s a true round-the-clock maniac when it comes to work, Brad is his super busy round-the-clock maniac buddy who joined in for the first two questions.

ITALY: Elisabetta Bruno (ThinkCreation) is another long time friend. If I wasn’t so vain about my age (and if she wasn’t so [cough] [cough] with chocolate), I’d call her my second daughter. Betta is a regular of the About.com design forum. You can also find her at the About Desktop Publishing and About Graphics Software forums as their forum host and contributor. And, as you can imagine, her strengths in software troubleshooting made her perfect for this series.

NEW ZEALAND: Genie Ho (PDQ Print) is from my side of the world so I found it easy to bug her in real time. She’s “worked in prepress in Auckland, New Zealand for 2 and a bit years. Her interests include fonts, food and rabbits. One day she wants to be a children’s book illustrator”.

Ps: we came < —THIS — > close to getting another Kiwi to join in. But, no cigar.

THAILAND: For Thailand, I asked a friend of mine in Bangkok and she highly recommended her own printer – George Lee (Nan Sing Printing), a Filipino and fellow expat. Although we’ve never met (we’ll have to ‘lunch’ one of these days), George printed a job I worked on last year.

USA: From the United States we have Alex Noguera (www.bowne.com), who “has a B.A. in Graphic Design from Felician College, does design work on the side and, for fun, and also spends time as a volunteer firefighter”. At first glance you’d think being a fireman / designer / printer is an unusual combination. Right? Not quite.

Chris Tomlinson (Gonink - Design & Print) is also a designer / printer / firefighter, personal long time friend and another ‘almost met’ in Seattle of this year. He swore it was due to stopping his own house from burning to the ground :-D

Derald Schultz (Mediarail Design, Inc.) is another designer / printer combo, but instead of firefighting he’s heavily involved in raising a beautiful baby boy and showing his ultra neat, classic 1967 GTZ musclecar. Derald is also Creative Latitude’s much loved editor, our very own ‘mr.d’. We met in Seattle last year and had a blast. Although he skipped Seattle 2007, we are hoping to make up for it in 2008. Btw - Derald has kindly agreed to have two of his articles reprinted for the series. Thanks Derald!

John Carvalho (Mixed Media: Design & Printing Services) is a “28-year-old independent graphic designer/printing broker originally from Massachusetts, currently residing in Amelia Island, Florida, where he attempts to redesign the entire island one business at a time”. John is another forum member free with needed advice.

Tom Stege (Print Time Online) says - “I’ve worked in printing for about 10 years, and in prepress for 4 years. Troubleshooting is fun (especially when it’s not my machines causing the trouble). I’m a family man with a wife and two kids who lives in a suburb of Seattle, and who likes to be a part of a few online communities. Oh, and I do make awesome Eggs Benedict”. Tom lives in Seattle, so we’ll have to get him over to the Seattle Meet ‘08 for sure!

PrintDriver will mainly stay a mystery, but has offered up – “I’m an in-house wide format/specialty graphics specialist. I also do signage, trade shows, corporate theater, artistic ‘facilitation’ (realizing artists’ concepts), you name it, we do it.” I will say this, I’ve been reading his advice online for years and it’s all good.

Hopefully I’ve taken the mystery out of most for you. And after reading, is that a great lineup, or what?

Next up will be their responses to question one: “As a professional printer / prepress specialist / print broker, what are the main points that you’d expect / want designers to know before contacting you about a project?”

until the next
Designers WW,
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