Separating the good from the exceptional

A post on LinkedIn caught my eye last week. It thanked a company for hosting a design business, for taking the time to show the visitors around, to talk about print and discuss what is possible with a Speedmaster, some ink, non standard papers and perhaps additional finishing techniques. The post continued: “We left inspired to challenge the norm. To think about lighting. To consider how something feels in the hand. To understand what it really takes to turn a regular file into something physical and alive”.

The implication is that other printers are not doing this. That other printers are happy to accept what they are given and do not push back with ideas on how to improve the project in hand. There is a depth of experience in print, one of the few benefits of an average employee is more likely to be a 50 year old rather than a 25 year old. The designers, however, are more likely to be at the younger end of the scale and while well versed in working on a screen rather than a drawing board and scalpel, will inevitably lack knowledge of what is possible with print.

This is undoubtedly what Sappi is trying to change with its Let’s Talk About Print campaign. It is far too easy to accept a comfortable ‘sorry we find that print isn’t for us’ argument than to challenge this. Print continues to work for the world’s major brands; it continues to work for the some of the smallest artisan start ups and undoubtedly can work for any business in between, But it can no longer be more of the same print. That does not excite, that does not stimulate. As the visitors to Hampton Printing concluded: “Detail and generosity are what separate good from exceptional”.