Folk was recently appointed to a creative agency panel for a large financial institution. They created a DM piece to raise Folk’s profile and get the client’s marketing teams talking and thinking about working with Folk in the future.
With its key message of “enjoy working with a creative agency that’s a good fit”, the ‘Perfect Fit’ was a T–shirt shape die-cut card, we printed two sides onto yellow (Folk’s signature colour) Kaskad stock (K.W.Doggett Fine Paper) with fabric label (singer sewn) stitched in. The key message was reinforced through ‘idea instruction’ and label copy – ‘100% ideas’, ‘Designer fit’, ‘idea instructions’ – and a collection of quirky icons.
If you have not heard about the Linkedin group Print Production Professionals or website PrintmediaCentr.com you may not know Deb Corn. Deb is the creator of one of LinkedIn’s largest Print groups.
I met up with Deb at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas and interviewed her about all things print. Deb was there as a media sponsor to find out the low down at PODiAppForum 12.
(L-R) Deb Corn, Jim Raffel (Co-Founder of ColorMetrix Advantage) with Harley & myself at this years AppForum2012 in Las Vegas
Q. Hi Deb, you start off all the interviews with this question, so it’s fitting I do as well… Who is Deborah Corn and what does she do?
Well, if I were a package, the label would say, “Contains 100% all natural Print Production and Integrated Marketing and Project Management Professional grown from 24 years industry experience, primarily in advertising agencies. This product also contains the COO of PrintMediacentr and its primary blogger, a social media marketer, and a LinkedIn Group cultivator”… but when you opened it up you would pretty much find a multi-tasking lunatic who enjoys a good laugh.
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Q. What is PrintMediaCentr and how did that come about? Can you also tell me about the LinkedIn group you started “Print Production Professionals?”
PrintMediaCentr is a website that provides information and resources to the Print and Integrated Marketing Industry – at least according to my business card. We tend to focus on what I call “the people” – meaning that you can find information about a new printing press from a number of sources, so we focus on “the people” who are using that equipment, how are they using it, and the cool projects we hope are being created by them and their customers. We believe the power of print in the multi-channel world does indeed still exist in what we call “The Printerverse”… and while we are avid print supporters, we share information on digital technologies as well. Best case, print is the catalyst to the digital world.
Ah my little LinkedIn Group. That is something that still amazes me. A few years back I was looking for work and exhausted my resources. In true Print Producer fashion, I created a way to bring people to me vs seeking them out, therefore expanding my networking circles exponentially without having to do the work. Or so I thought. At first it was small enough to manage a visit here and there, but then a community started to develop. Besides networking for jobs, people were asking their peers for help with projects or resources for them. Conversations about the evolving world of marketing were taking place – and intelligent ones at that. People started emailing and thanking me for creating the group. One comment I will never forget was “joining Print Production Professionals is like having 5000 colleagues down the hall” – that meant something to me. And yeah, at that point the group had just a little over 5000 members, which blew my mind it had gotten that big. Little did I know that was just the beginning of it!
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Q. When I first met you at GraphExpo in Chicago last September, your Print Production Professionals group had approximately 24,000 members. Four months later here at PODi AppForum I learn the group has grown to 27,500 members! That’s a staggering number. Can you share your secret on how you single handedly created an international print community of over 27,500 members in less than 4 years?
You have to keep up Theo! We are now at 28,700+ – so yes almost another thousand members since we saw each other. I wouldn’t say I had a secret, but I can tell you that the growth does reflect upon my dedication, time and effort to make it work as much as the active and quality contributions and participation of our members. I may be the group owner/manager, but I am still just one person who cant possibly comment on every discussion because I don’t know something about every subject. When I do know something, or even have a question about the topic, I do try to chime in without being annoying. In some cases I may chime in on a subject I think is interesting to get it going so I can learn. So I guess maybe that is the secret – create a place where relevant content can be shared and discussed with knowledgeable professionals… in an orderly fashion of course. I have a zero solicitation policy in regards to freestanding posts – but if someone asks for help, members can respond with their capabilities and contact information. Monitoring that is very time consuming, but per the results, well worth it.
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Q. How important is social media with your marketing efforts and do you have a strategy behind it? How do you manage to control so much online activity?
Social media is imperative with everything I do wearing my PrintMediaCentr hat, and of course that includes LinkedIn. Im also very fortunate to have a built-in audience of 28,000+ Linkedin Group members to share relevant PMC info and posts with, and also connect to through other channels.
My strategy is very simple – BE YOURSELF, and the rest will follow. If I think something is cool and worth sharing, then a whole bunch of others will as well. If they don’t, well they always have the option of opting out of “me” and my feeds. I’d rather have 10 followers engaged with me than 30,000 ships passing in the night – (do you use that expression down under?) but somewhere in the middle of that spectrum is the perfect audience balance.
Control is a word I don’t think you can really apply to social media. You certainly have control of what you initially put out there, but where it goes and how it is shared or restated or reused I would say 95% of the time I have no idea besides the google alerts and emails I get from LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. I do use tools to help me like hootsuite to follow twitter and tweet adder to send direct messages about events or webinars and things of that nature. The rest is all done manually and quite often my office sounds like a casino with all the dings and pings from numerous social media channels and email accounts going off that belong to me, PrintMediaCentr, and a few of my social media clients that I monitor channels for. I use the word monitor specifically since I NEVER pretend I’m them and reply to anything. I just watch and let them know something is up and either they respond or instruct me on how to.
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Q. Over the past year I have been watching both PrintMediaCentr and Print Production Professionals with keen interest. I have watched it grow and develop a strong solid following. It provides a great facility to reach out to the print community via your resource in a very easy and time effective manner. What makes it so good and why is everyone so keen to be connected to it?
Well first off thanks for your kind words. I think with anything new that comes along people are willing to take a look through the window. If they think they see something of interest, they will take the next step and walk through the door. If they find themselves a nice comfy spot by the fireplace, they are willing to hang out for a while. If they make a few friends while roasting some marshmallows, they will come back. That is a very round about analogy for growing an audience. If we go the metaphysical route, the Law of Atrraction states like attracts like. If we go the movie route, “If you build it, they will come.” I created a community that I would want to belong to, and hoped more me’s would show up to hang out and roast some marshmallows. Luckily, it worked out!
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Q. My personal experience with my own business and Print Production Professionals has been amazing. Recently our company needed print and fulfillment services in both London and New York. Can you explain how you were able to assist us?
One of the greatest benefits to having 5000, or 28,000 colleagues down the hall is that someone out there can always help you. Pretty much daily people put posts up asking for help with vendor resources, supplies, and referrals. Some even put up specs and ask for quotes on print jobs. Business gets done in there, which is kind of cool.
When you asked me for referrals in 2 cities on 2 continents, I knew I had London covered, but in NY there are so many options and pricing can really vary so I didn’t feel comfortable recommending someone specific. I simply suggested you ask the group and ‘viola you had several responses and options in a pretty short time. I know you were happy with the vendor you chose to work with, and you made a new connection. Win, Win!
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Q. So the buzz at the moment is about Documobi (Intelligent Print Recognition). I learned about this new technology through a LinkedIn discussion within your group. The technology is amazing and has provided us with a new perspective on print. Our company was the first to utilize it and had some staggering responses. This would have been unachievable without your resources. PrintMediaCentr recently presented a very successful webinar an on Documobi – can you explain how you conducted the webinar and what kind of response you had from participants?
Yes, Digitalpress was the first to use Documobi on Planet Earth for a real project – how cool is that!
The webinar was actually awesome. We had just about 500 people register, 272 showed up and stayed on for 63 minutes – not one person dropped off until the Q&A, which only lasted another 6 minutes.
We worked with Peter Lancaster over a few skype calls to hone his presentation for our audience. He is a BIG TIME industry speaker and used to speaking with a certain crowd. It was important to us that we brush past some of the more technical/ROI aspects of the APP and get right into what it is and how you use it from “the people” standpoint. That means, if I only wanted to see the cool stuff and let everyone else know that you can make cool stuff – all triggered from print – our audience would too. There was no sales pitch. No pricing information, just knowledge sharing. I think that is why it was so successful. We had even discussed the answer to what we thought for sure was going to be the most asked question during the Q&A – “How is Documobi different than a QR code” – and to our amazement, the number one question was – how much does it cost, followed by how can I get it. People were emailing us during the webinar for pricing info… and the inquiries are still coming in.
The replay we posted on YouTube has over 700 views, and if you don’t know what Documobi is grab a cup of coffee and watch below
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Q. By being connected to so many members does it effectively mean you are always exposed to new technologies before anyone else?
Not really, but it does usually mean people want to tell me about them. So in that sense, I probably find out sooner than I would if it happened organically. On the flip side, everyone and their mother sends me info on their products and services and press releases. My email inbox can get scary.
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Q. You have become a bit of a print celebrity. At PODi AppForum I noticed many people whom you never met stopping you to chat. You are instantly familiar! I would say you probably have one of the most recognizable LinkedIn profile pictures in the world. What do they usually say to you?
Usually they say – hey I know you, or you look really familiar, or waitress can I have some more coffee. Sometimes they tell me I look shorter in person than I do in the movies, but then I explain they have me confused with Whoopi Goldberg, who also happens to be an African-American. I sincerely doubt I have one of the most recognizable LinkedIn profile pictures in the world, but if we added the caveat as related to the print and marketing industry, I’m probably up there with some good people.
When it does happen, most of the time it is because they are in my group, or read my posts or have seen some of the more humorous YouTube video’s I have made and shared. To date, and for the record, no restraining orders have been filed. My people are nice!
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Q. If I am correct in my understanding, Print Production Professionals started out initially to invite members who work as professional production managers. This obviously has changed and thankfully extended to printers and others working within the printing industry. Do you use your discretion and ensure only industry people are in the group?
The method has evolved as the group and requests to join have grown, but yes, I do review pending members before I accept them. As well, if they are not connected directly to me, I do ask them to do that or provide me with an email address. On top of that, I keep all new members in a posting moderation queue for a certain amount of time. People who disguise their motives with a “normal” profile or job title – marketing for example – quickly reveal themselves as soon as they attempt to post spam and I not only remove them from the group but block them from requesting to come back. I also do not allow accounts under company names (which LinkedIn doesn’t allow either – they cheat the first name, last name fields) vs a person’s name to join since I assume they are only joining to promote their company. I do make judgment calls however. For example, I let a “company” from Ghana in the other day because even if their motivation were to promote themselves it wouldn’t cause a riot amongst the US printers who occupy most of that space. I also think it’s important to support emerging print markets and Ghana fits that bill.
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Q. Now here is the tough question Deb…. Let’s say I am a rep at a printing company and unashamedly want to promote my new 12 color press. Can I post a message on your group and tell everyone about it?
Well you can certainly try… but one of 4 things will happen for sure: 1. Before I see it, another member will and flag it as an “inappropriate post” 2. I will see it and delete it. 3. I will see it, delete it and send you a message regarding the group’s posting protocol. 4. I will see it, delete it and then delete you if it’s an ongoing thing.
I’m happy to say that I rarely have to remove people who post messages like that. They are excited to share news and know there are customers in the group and I get that. When I ask for their cooperation to follow the rules, 99% of the time there is no issue and they just didn’t read the rules posted on the discussion board, or are so used to being able to do that in other groups never even think twice about it. With over 29,000 members – yes, since I have started answering these questions 3 days ago I have more than 400 new members – if everyone posted promotions and solicitations about their company I wouldn’t have a group, I would have a really big and unmanageable list of posts no one really cared about instead of a community.
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I am glad to hear that, no doubt by keeping very tight controls your group remains credible, informative and never self serving. Congratulations Deb on behalf of the world’s printing community thank you, respect to you and keep the good work up. Thanks for your time and also for saving me from losing my hundred bucks on the poker machines!
As part of China’s 2012, year of the Dragon celebrations, Sydney based design agency Toko was invited by the China International Design Competition Committee to judge the first ever annual design competition in Beijing last September. This competition, hosted by PoloArts, AIGA and Beijing Design Week in conjunction with the Capital Museum of China, aims to promote communications, exchange and interaction between China and the World.
Besides judging, Toko, as part of an international group of judges including renowned designers; Brian Collins (USA), Jianping He (Berlin/Beijing) and Kan Tai-Keung (Hong Kong), was invited to create an original design or artwork for the world-class ‘Chinese Dragon Exhibition’ which opens on 23 February 2012 at the Capital Museum of China.
To grasp the story of the Chinese Dragon and spark the imagination required to create the artwork, Toko participated in ‘Dragon’ specific tours, workshops and discussions, and whilst still in China quickly came to the realisation that creating an original Dragon piece would be a daunting task. The Chinese Zodiac, being an integral part of Chinese culture and society, both young and old, takes on mythical proportions, furthermore complicated by the accessibility of traditional and contemporary Dragon examples.
Toko decided to capture the sheer scale, complexity and history of the Chinese Dragon in a book. A monumental but foremost conceptual interpretation of the Dragon. The book celebrates every Dragon year since it’s supposed origins in 2697 BCE, based on the most widely ‘tolerated’ myth.
The 4,716 page book carries the title ‘Long Story Made in China’. ‘Long’ as in the rich culture, cultivated over thousands of years, and ‘Long’ as in the Chinese word for Dragon (Long story / Dragon story). The book (edition 5) should be seen as a paper sculpture and is a tribute to Chinese culture by western interpretation.
To succeed in creating this mammoth project, Toko sought a collaborative print partner in
us at Digitalpress. Lead by Theo and Stacy, our enthusiasm, passion and expertise made the project a physically possible reality from start to finish.
Digitalpress – Book Finishing Process
Below are some images and a video we documented, as part of the printing process of the book.
Book Specifications
Case bound measuring 286mm high x 171mm deep x 245mm wide with 4,716 printed pages and documenting each year in the Chinese Zodiac for every thousand years. The book is bound by traditional binding techniques. Covered with red linen, it is gold foiled with a dragon scale pattern then debossed. The end papers are also gold foiled with a unique digital foil technique using the same dragon scale pattern. Internal text pages were digitally printed CMYK with special red throughout on K.W.Doggett Fine Paper Envirocare 100% Recycled. Five red satin ribbons were inserted at every 1,000 pages to symbolise every millenium.
For further information about Toko or for Media Enquiries
Toko Design // Eva Dijkstra + Michael Lugmayr
phone: +61 (0)4 136 133 81 // email: info@toko.nu // www.toko.nu
Credits: Concept and Design:
Toko. Concept. Design. www.toko.nu
Inside the beautiful book publishers shop in L.A, Taschen.
Above:. Taschen has published one of the most expensive books in publishing history, the $15,000, 75 pound, 700 page GOAT (Greatest of All Time), a tribute to the American boxer Muhammad Ali which Der Spiegel called "the biggest, heaviest, most radiant thing ever printed in the history of civilization."
"Three legends" Monroe by Mailer and Stern " 125 numbered copies (No. 125-250), each signed by Bert Stern, comes with the pigment print on archival paper Contact Sheet, 1962, also signed by the photographer Stern.
The quintessential California Modernist Richard Neutra and his search for modern architecture.
"Funk & Soul covers" Boogie wonderland! Grooving down memory lane: record covers that defined an era. Theo's new addition to his library.
Mark Ryden Pinxit Fuzzy bunnies, big-eyed girls, meat, magic, and mystery Mark Ryden’s carnival of curiosities.
"Menu Design in America" Private Launch and Tasting at The Soho House New York. Interesting to see how menu design and culinary taste have evolved.
John Gould. The Family of Toucans Jonathan Elphick Loose Leaf Collection with 51 Fine Art Prints, Booklet incased in a box.
Christo's jewelry design for Jeanne-Claude's hand The Art Edition is limited to just 100 signed and numbered copies, each with the original pigment/silk screen print Project for Jewelry on Jeanne-Claude’s Hand, after a 1965 study.
Theo and Ausra Venckus of Taschen, L.A
Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs Leaf through! Leaf through! Please contact one of our stores to inquire about remaining copies. Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs Linda McCartney, Annie Leibovitz, Martin Harrison, Alison Castle Hardcover in a clamshell box, 12.3 x 17.3 in., 268 pages
Taschen is an art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. Whilst in the US recently, Theo documented his visit to the world-renowned book masters, Taschen with outstanding highlights above. From a passion and love of books from design to architecture to autobiography, Theo visited the famous shopfront three times and bought numerous titles back to Australia with him. Below is the Taschen story…
It began as Taschen Comics publishing Benedikt’s extensive comic collection. Taschen has been a noteworthy force in making lesser-seen art available to mainstream bookstores, including some fetishistic imagery, queerart, historical erotica, pornography and adult magazines (including multiple books with Playboy magazine). Taschen has helped bring this art into broader public view, by publishing these potentially controversial volumes alongside its more mainstream books of comics reprints, art photography, painting, design, fashion, advertising history, film, and architecture.
Taschen’s publications are available in a variety of sizes, from large tomes detailing the complete works of Leonardo Da Vinci, to surprisingly uncommon middle-sized books, to their “Icons” series of small, flexicover volumes which encapsulate themes of everything from old ads of Las Vegas, Nevada to male nudes. The company has also produced calendars, address books, and postcards of popular subjects.
The company’s stated mission has been to publish innovative, beautifully designed art books at popular prices. The Icons series, for example, has several new volumes published a year, and retailing for about $10 are inexpensive for published collections of art. Another popular series is their ‘Basic Art‘ series, which has around 50 volumes, each about a separate artist, ranging from artists such as Michelangelo to more contemporary artists such as Norman Rockwell. They also publish a ‘Basic Architecture‘ series in the same style as ‘Basic Art’ that covers some of the most prominent architects in history, such as Frank Lloyd Wright.
Taschen has published one of the most expensive books in publishing history, the $15,000, 75 pound, 700 page GOAT (Greatest of All Time), a tribute to the American boxer Muhammad Ali which Der Spiegel called “the biggest, heaviest, most radiant thing ever printed in the history of civilization.” They have also published the $15,000 Helmut Newton retrospective Sumo and a $4,000 limited edition Araki volume.
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