An industry awareness campaign? About time!

May 1, 2002 12:00 PM, BY M. RICHARD VINOCUR President of Footprint Communications | mrvinocur@aol.com

I first fell in love with printing when, as editor of my junior-high-school newspaper, I visited a print shop. I don't know if it was the clackety-clack of the Linotype machine, the smell of the ink or the thrill of locking up the chase, but there was something exciting about watching my work jump to life on the printed page.

Nearly 25 years ago, when I was hired as publisher of a graphic-arts magazine, the industry was going through massive changes. Letterpress was dead, replaced by offset. Hot metal had disappeared and computerized typesetting replaced it. Color separations were now being made by electronic prepress systems. It was a new world, evidenced by a cover we ran picturing a Ben Franklin look-alike. He was removing the “Ye Olde Type Shoppe” sign above his facility and replacing it with a new sign that read, “Computerized Typesetting.” I realized then that the printing industry needed to revamp its image and put on a new face.

After I wrote an editorial about the need for a new image, PIA (Alexandria, VA) invited me to join a new committee to promote the industry. The five industry executives that were selected outlined a plan. I don't quite remember why our efforts stalled, but they did. We persisted, but to no avail.

INK UNDER FINGERNAILS TO HIGH TECH

In the mid-1980s, I was on the industry advisory committee for Carnegie-Mellon University, which had one of the foremost graphic-arts-education programs in the country. We discussed how the industry had transitioned from a craft, and how it was now embracing electronics and other new-fangled technologies. Printing was no longer represented by Ben Franklin with ink under his fingernails. It was evolving into a highly computerized industry with exciting technologies.

So the committee decided to create a promotional video that tracked printing's history. When the video was completed, a number of us visited colleges and universities and worked with career counselors in an effort to recruit students to the field. GATF (Sewickley, PA) was supposed to oversee the program, but the program eventually collapsed.

But I refused to give up. In the premier issue of our “Footprints” semimonthly industry newsletter, we included a special report on the printing industry's image. We called for the creation of an industry-awareness campaign.

NEED TO WORK TOGETHER

Recently, there has been a barrage of campaigns. The first was created by the Graphic Arts Educational and Research Foundation (GAERF) (Reston, VA), which produced a publication for school-age kids, explaining the printing industry. The campaign is still in its early stages.

Then, recently retired Sun Chemical CEO Henri Dyner announced at a luncheon last year that he, too, was creating an awareness campaign. The goal was to raise money to create a video that would be shown at colleges and universities to encourage students to consider printing as a career choice. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?) Dyner recently told me that he's meeting with GAERF to see if the two groups can work together.

The most recent effort comes from PIA and GATF, which announced a new campaign earlier this year to promote the industry. The slogan: “Print: The Original Information Technology.” I understand it was created by a UK public relations firm, based on a study by the British Printing Industries Federation that confirmed that print is not as well perceived by the general public as other media.

I've been told the effort hasn't been that successful on the other side of the Atlantic, but PIA/GATF hopes that printers will use the tag line on their letterhead, delivery trucks and other promotional materials. I doubt that will happen. I haven't talked to any industry observer who believes the slogan tells our story.

I'm all for a strong graphic-arts promotional campaign that will create a positive image for the industry. But I propose we all work together as a team to develop it. The industry associations should create an advisory board with executives from printing companies, vendors, dealers, associations and publishers. Together this group should enlist the support of the entire industry.

If and when such a board is created, I'd be happy to serve. It's about time we told the world of our love of printing and its place in informing and educating the world.