April2
During much of the 1990’s I worked as an artist inside the publishing industry. I designed and published fine art posters for distribution worldwide. My wife and I founded a small publishing company in 1990 to publish my own artwork. By 1991 we had a few designs that showed great promise and we looked to distribute nationally. I decided to rent a booth at the Jacob Javits Art Expo in New York City and show our line to wholesale buyers. Before leaving for New York we designed a really cool catalog for our line of posters and dropped it in the back of Decor Magazine. Decor targets the gallery and framing industry. I can remember long morning walks as my wife, Sheryl, and I discussed risking much of our life’s savings on a one shot printed catalog. I was teaching painting and drawing classes at Northern Oklahoma College in nearby Tonkawa, Oklahoma at the time. My yearly salary would not begin to cover the printing cost of our catalog, much less the cost of distribution through the magazine. This was a big roll of the dice for us.
Looking back, I cannot even imagine doing something like that again. We were much younger and resilient in those days but the cost of distributing our own color catalog was enormous by our own standards. The art business is extremely competitive and the poster business may be even more so. Things are quite trendy and change very quickly in the art publishing industry. Buyers can be quite fickle and often have a rather herd mentality. We were selling to large retail chains as well as mom and pop shops. Perhaps we got lucky, but we managed to catch the wave and took it for a long ride before cresting sometime in 1996. Our publishing company, Third Street Art Publishing, hooked up with art distributors like Bruce McGaw, Graphic de France, and a few other of the largest publishing houses. Soon, my posters were being sold throughout the universe. Not only did they sell well, but we had one of my own images, called Sunflower Sampler, that sold over 28,000 copies in a short period of time. I was on top of the world.
In those days our printing runs often were 5000 to 10,000 copies at a time. This was in the era when printing technology was just beginning to change from film to digital printing. We did all of our printing with Printing, Inc. in Wichita, Kanas. I had used P.I., as it is often called, for years and felt that they were one of the best companies in the middle of the country with the knowledge necessary for reproducing fine art. They already did business with several large fine art publishing companies.
It was a thrill standing on the printing floor as they started up one of their mammoth presses. We quickly ran through hundreds of sheets of wasted paper while color registering the press. The smell of solvents and ink is still imbedded in my senses to this day. To save time and money before starting these big offset lithography presses, we would run an exact color proof on a much smaller Iris 4700. An Iris is a highly technical digital printer, standing maybe three feet tall and four feet wide, capable of printing a single color proof that should match the same art print that we would later print on the bigger machines. Any corrections could then be made to the color proof prior to starting up the massive offset printers used for the final run. The iris print became my color proof that I took to the printing floor.
An Iris machine made a quality print on a cotton rag paper that was absolutely stunning. The colors were luxuriously rich in tone and depth. Artists like myself soon dreamed of using an Iris for the final product. There were two problems with that. First, was the cost of the machine. The earliest Iris printers cost over $100,000.00 each. Secondly, they were basically slow as molasses. It took about fifteen to twenty minutes to produce a small proof. Larger prints could take much longer. In addition, it also almost took an engineer to run an Iris ink jet printer. Yet, specialty houses on the west coast began springing up offering Iris prints to artists dubbed as “Giclees.” It did not take long before giclees became a part of our popular culture and they were showing at the same wholesale trade shows with the rest of us.
In 1994 I moved my family to Wichita, Kansas to be closer to Printing, Inc. I watched and learned on the pair of Iris printers that P.I. operated as proofing machines. Soon, they too, were offering digital giclee prints to artists. Printing outfits were popping up all over the country offering similar digital services. In 1996 we sold our poster publishing company to a large greeting card company in Indiana. I continued designing and licensing my designs to the stationery and gift industries. In 1999 I bought a used Iris on ebay and refurbished it with the help of a few friends and technicians. I purchased technical support from an east coast company that I talked to almost daily. Iris printers were not what you might call user friendly. For one thing, an Iris can never be turned off. Ink runs continuously, and when you are not printing they are still wasting ink. But, I loved that machine. I taught myself to be one with the machine.
Digital printing is not as easy as simply pressing a button and watching a print drop out of the bottom. The quality that comes out is only as good as the quality that goes in. Making quality giclee reproductions requires an understanding of color and color correction. Most importantly, it all starts with a great digital capture. Artists sometimes make the mistake of photographing their own work without the quality equipment necessary to achieve a good capture. Over time I learned the many skills involved in making great archival reproductions (giclees) on my own printers. About 2004 I retired my Iris and bought an Epson 9600. This was a much more affordable machine to purchase and operate. Best of all it was user friendly.
I currently use an Epson 9800 that I have owned for several years. Technology continues to move forward. Many photographers that I know personally, use similar machines to digitally print their own commercial photography or reproductions of original artwork. It has truly become a digital world. My oldest son got his MFA in print making from Cranbrook Academy of Arts in Detroit. By the way, he designed this web site. He would be the first to tell you just how quickly the digital world is changing. Who knows what is next.
As a customer interested in purchasing a giclee, you should be concerned with both the appeal to the eye and the longevity of the printed reproduction. I produce archival prints on acid free paper using pigmented inks that meet with museum standards. By printing my own giclees inside my studio, I am able to control both quality and costs. I do photograph my own images these days for reproduction purposes. For years I used a commercial photographer with a large format camera and a digital back for my digital captures. Advances in technology has since allowed me to purchase my own camera equipment at more reasonable pricing than was once allowed. I believe that my personal involvement with all stages of the printing process keeps me closer to the final product. Many of my images are available as giclees. Because they are digital images, I can also print custom sizes for special order. This can be especially attractive for corporate work because I am capable of producing large scale imagery.
To those artist seriously considering following similar footsteps to my own, I say study all the possibilities. Do not cut corners when it comes to the quality and longevity of the final product. That may mean having a professional photographer do your digital capture. You can also have a professional high quality scan done of your artwork. Always start with the best image possible. Serious printing requires an investment in both time and money. If the learning curve is not for you, or should you not feel comfortable with the investment in the necessary tools; seek out a professional digital printing house.
