Mark Stephenson · Fast Forward · The Church Minister · Printer · Wharfedale · S750
My father, who was a church minister. He would use, I guess, a Techni Duplicator to publicize his rallies and meetings. And try to bring people to Jesus. All this blessed thing, he would say. It’s been the first time I ever saw print happening. There was the smell of the ink. Things took a long time. And sometimes it was not just budget. It was like you wanted to do something now. You could have 30 or 50, 100 within half an hour. Somebody comes up with a bright idea. And when you look at the background to it, you find out: Actually, that’s how things used to be. But just framed in a different story. By 1977, this was me. Handsetting type. Out by the poster machines this was. You’ve got a very tight set of constraints to be able to design something. You know, putting text on a curve is like: Whoa! I’m one of those sort of sub creative people that knows when they look at something, if it’s right or not. A lot of the terms we use today go back to letterpress composing. So, leading between lines was a physical piece of lead. When two characters are one like ‘fi’ and ‘ffi’. We call it a ligature. This is a Wharfedale. The one I operated was called an Elliott. But it was all out of the same factory in Otley. It was a double Demy press. That was the biggest sheet it would take. And I would hand feed this press. And hand ink it. On my training, I was told: Never walk around the back of this machine. The last person that did that when it was running, lost their leg. It was taken at our Advanced Print Technology Center in Brussels. Where I haven’t been in fourteen months. And I’ve been here in this room with the exception of one trip. I have this picture on my desktop. And on another screen, I have a picture of that old press. I can see the journey I took. And this process has been my life now for around four years. We’re reaching the speed. An offset B2 press. It’s bringing together a whole team of people. To achieve what we’ve done. But at the moment we’re being quiet about it.
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Mon April 1st
Increased Productivity using CERM and ESKO ·...
Increased productivity is extremely important - and yes, CERM and ESKO play an enormous role with the Sicialian label producer Auroflex. Still, the business is developed around a quality and passion for supporting the Sicilian wine, food, and luxury products industry. But Auroflex does many things that are a bit out of the standard, for example, an annual design competition, where designers are invited to challenge Auroflex - and all the designs are produced to show what's possible - and as Fabio Butera tells INKISH, this develops a close relationship between Auroflex and the designers, that eventually will make some of the most complex and interesting design. Auroflex produces labels in both flexo, digital, and offset. The most important reason for investment in print technology is from Nilpeter - an offset/flexo hybrid machine - by all means, an amazing company, and see how CERM and ESKO are used in planning, pricing, color management, and, of course, inspection - in tightly integrated solutions - merging beauty with efficiency - love it.