TO PRINT OR NOT TO PRINT - THAT IS THE QUESTION

Recently I was asked by Dan Mullen, Assistant Editor for Decor & Volume magazines "Your current opinions on whether an artist should own their own printer or hire a printer". That is a profound question, the answer to which changes based on an artist's objective.

The key word in Dan's question is "artist". I can only presume that an artist is a person that creates original images to be presented in a two-dimensional art print. I phrase these words carefully, because we at Harvest are now pioneering imagery reproduction in three dimensions. So, it's back to an artist who wants to make prints.

In the early days of printmaking, it was uncertain as to whether an originals reproduction would be pleasing. That is to say, no one really knew what an image was going to look like, when printed on paper or canvas. I remember the first print I ever made was the color test pattern off the IRIS printer in 1988. I sincerely felt the test pattern was art in itself. It just seemed like a miracle, that all those colors could be displayed on a 30"x40" piece of paper. Each time we received a new artist and prototyped their image on to a paper print, we were eager to study it. It required study, because there was many unproven variables in the digital process that made it impossible to predict the end result. Bit by bit, component by component, there has been introduced control tools expressly for the purpose of predicting a color rendition. Everything from the recording device, it's optics, it's resolution to the monitor it's color correctness and stability to the color management software running the calibrations to the printing machine and it's drop size as well as it's consistency to the post coating materials that are currently used greatly improves the likelihood of a predictable outcome. So, one reason that artist's used to have printing machines, was because it was their only way of controlling their final product. Today there are number of Giclee printers who can do a more than adequate job, and give most artists a more than adequate product. There should be no reason why an artist would want to take control of their printing due to quality concerns.

That brings us to economy. Perhaps an artist would need to own their own printing machine so they could make prints cheaper. Of course, the answer to that question would be in the definition of cheaper. There's material cost, labor cost, time costs, depreciation costs, defective product costs, but most important of all, there's opportunity costs to consider. One would expect, and indeed it's my experience that an artist has more free time and makes more money than a printer. Or, you might think that if an artist had a certain amount of time to dedicate to the development of his career and brand name that his time would be better spent painting rather than printing. I've never seen an artist get a promotion to being a printer. But I have seen printers who have received a promotion to be an artist. This would imply that an artist's time is best spent at the creation of his craft and development of his customer base. Time spent in the print room is time wasted. Most of the printing companies that I've known over these years, have evolved into publishing companies. Or, gone bankrupt being a Giclee Printer. When they go bankrupt it's usually depreciation that gets them. That is to say, technology evolves and changes, it takes more of an investment one might think to stay current. If the technology improvements occur before you have the opportunity to pay for your last purchase, you end up broke. Many Many Artists are locked into Epson 9500's without the ability to work on a 9600 which was followed by the 10500 which is now the 9800 which will be replaced this year by a new Epson model, the 9880. This one example of Epson Technology evolution has left many owners of printing equipment "high and dry". The manufacturer can't afford the integration of an upgrade path. That's called depreciation costs. The very definition of a Giclee print is "The Highest Quality Print Available to This Culture at This time". This was decided many years ago in the Giclee Printers Association (GPA). So, dealing with depreciation is an important part of being an art printer and a good reason why artist's would not want to own their own printing machine.

ART BASEL

We’re getting really excited about Art Basel here at Harvest Productions. Never been there before, but the BUZZ is becoming a drone.

In our excitement, we decided to make a contribution somehow, so we created art. We got together with a budding Pop artist, Elayne Rogers, for her contribution to the event. She submitted a unique piece, to be made as Toujours. Again, we’re pushing the envelope with the deliberate objective of expanding art reproduction milieu. Her original work was a cognitive drawing in felt pen. It’s kind of a moreau’ish, I can’t tell what she’s thinking of, but it looks cool in a pre-cognitive way. At any rate, we’re taking this original drawing and printing it on 1/8” acrylic. We’ve come back across the acrylic with white ink. Let me say that again. You can’t print art reproductions with white ink, but this one has been printed with white ink, which is necessary because we’re printing on a clear transparent material. Then we hand-pressed gold leaf to the back of the acrylic illuminating the drawing. Looks very unusual and I might say pleasing in a quirky way. At any rate, we compliment Ms. Rogers on her contribution to the show. They’re a limited edition of 32 signed and numbered by the artist. She and we will be giving them away during the course of the show. No, we don’t know who we’re giving them to and we also don’t know why, but if you see us in the show, ask for one. If we still have any of the thirty two left, we’ll hand it right over for your viewing and collecting pleasure. I think it’s a little piece of history.

p.s. below is a photo of the guy with the prints in his bag.

THE FULFILLMENT OF GICLEE PRINTING

As markets naturally mature, there’s an on-going demand for consolidation as well as innovation. Who would ever have imagined the services that a Giclee printer needs to render today, only a few years ago. I guess it all comes down to streamlining, and efficiency and reducing waste. Over these many years, Harvest Productions has routinely had customers pick up completed prints or most often, we would ship to them, in tubes or boxes, prints on a global basis. It used to be that they would have their own stretcher and framer and shipper/delivery service in order to be able to complete their sale and collect their reward. More and more customers are demanding that this service be all in one, all in-house. Many times I believe it was expected that the way to contain costs was to do as much as you could yourself. In principal, I think this is still correct, in fact but it doesn’t pan out at all. If each customer had a constant sales rate, thereby manufacturing a constant number of prints per day or per week, then they could staff for that consistency. If you didn’t include their management time, you’d save money. But that’s not a world that many of us live in today. In truth, what happens more often than not is that sales are delayed, sales are advanced, sales are below, sales are above – whatever it is that we expect. It’s a global marketplace and on average, things are better than ever but any specific seems to be able to change at any moment. Hence, Harvest fulfillment.

It was in January of this year that Harvest began its first all-inclusive fulfillment services. It was a specific customer who had offices and personnel as well as packaging space and a relationship with its vendors and freight carriers that wanted to close its operation. They had evaluated their cost of operation over the last three years, and knew what their “per unit” fulfillment costs were. They made me a simple offer. We’d be happy to pay you what it costs us anyway if we don’t have to manage it. Quite honestly, I didn’t know what my costs would be and I went on their records and agreed to bring fulfillment under our roof. It’s worked out well for both parties, but for reasons we had not anticipated.

Instead of us making money on fulfillment and them saving money, we ended up enjoying more print orders and they ended up enjoying more sales. Turns out the time that they were spending on customer satisfaction, delivery and accuracy issues, was better spent finding new markets. Their overall sales have increased 23%, which I’m told, relates to a 37% increase in gross margin. Our additional print orders further saturate our overhead costs, allowing us to have lower average rent expense. All in all, a Win Win.

Today, we service six companies in total, some with “white label” as well as some that require the actual installation of the final product. It’s a big chore to keep track of costs, but in the end I think its good business and I’d recommend it.