All That Glitters is Not Gold...Sometime's it's Silver!

by Kate Dardine

We’ve always referred to each other as “family” -  maybe that is why we just celebrated two 25 year anniversaries:  both Mike Roberts (production manager) and Patricia James (color technician) marked their silver anniversaries with Fine Print this past April.  Aside from owners Mark Lukes and Linda Helm, I am officially the “oldest” Fine Print employee – I passed my 25 year mile marker in 2014.  Other contenders for extreme longevity are Mary Hills (24), Tonya Aspegren (15) and Jerry Hummel (18).

In an age where staying at a job longer than five years is virtually unheard of, what is it about Fine Print that creates an atmosphere where employees want to stay?  In a nutshell (and sometimes he IS a nut), founder, owner and president of Fine Print, Mark Lukes and his partner in love and business, Linda Helm.  Together, they have nurtured a business culture of independence, cooperation, dedication, fun, honesty, caring, environmental stewardship and compassion.  Mark and Linda lead by example, are always there for their employees, demand excellence and forgive mistakes.  All the ingredients needed to make their staff feel proud and appreciated for the work we do. 

Although they have different roles at Fine Print, Patricia and Mike have some things in common.  Both got married within a month of working at Fine Print.  (Both are still married – to the same people!). Both had children who were born and grew up in that 25 years – Patricia’s son David graduated from college 2 years ago, and Mike’s 3 are all in college now, with one graduating this Spring.  Both are still doing the job they hired on for, although how they do their job has changed dramatically. Both are willing to pitch in and do whatever needs to be done to help the business and our customers.

Yes, 25 years is a long time… In 1991, digital imaging wasn’t even a blip on our computer screens; in fact, we had only just gotten our first computers in 1989. At that time, all of our printing was done in the darkroom,  using negative film and enlargers to create prints on photographic paper.  We had three full-time “spotters” (they used photographic dyes to fill in the tiny white spots on prints that were caused by dust on the negatives).  We didn’t do “single” prints; customers had to buy in quantities of the same image/size:  20-5x7s, 10-8x10s, 5-16x20s… Instead of entering packages into a computer system for tracking, everything was handwritten into logbooks. Nobody had a cell phone. Our newest piece of office equipment was the cutting edge fax machine!

Through all the changes in technology, the changing economy and  the changing “face” of our customer base, one thing has remained constant – Mike and Patricia’s dedication to getting the best prints possible to the best customer in the world – YOU!

 Kate Dardine has been helping photographers and artists market their prints for over 25 years. She is currently Marketing Director at Fine Print Imaging, as well as a professional artist selling original paintings and prints. Need one on one advice?  Call 970-484-9650 or email info@fineprintimaging.com to learn about our marketing consultation service

Goodness. Richness. Simplify.

We read Barney Davey’s recent blog and something in his words resonated. Instead of coming up with a list of New Year’s Resolutions, he came up with three words to serve as his guideposts during 2012. You can read his excellent blog here.

We started thinking how we at Fine Print Imaging might apply his words to our business.

The first word is Goodness. We like that word. It implies something beyond creating an excellent product. It implies a conscious effort to always do our best for our employees, for our customers, for our business, for our community and for our environment.

Those of you who’ve been with us for awhile know that this is not a “new” way of thinking for us. Since our humble beginnings 36 years ago, it has always been our intention to offer the best product, service and price to our customers.

The second word is Richness. We’re not talking about monetary wealth here, although we are not adverse to making a profit and sharing that with our employees and community. The richness we will embrace is a more abstract concept. It means we will look for and create opportunities to share our wealth – of knowledge, experience, ideas – with our customers and our community.

We’d like your feedback here. What information might we have that you would like us to share? Click here and ask away!

The third word is Simplify. Back when Fine Print first started, our business WAS simple. We had one main service – photo printing on matte Kodak paper.  We had one main type of customer – photographers who were selling their prints at outdoor arts festivals. We had one type of pricing – wholesale. Our customers had to order an average of 10 prints of the same image/size.

Fast forward to 2012 and we are more of a fine art printing department store. We offer art copy/film scanning, digital photo printing on four surfaces, ink printing on six surfaces, canvas stretching, Duraplaq mounting and mounting on gatorfoam board. Last year we added a full-service frame shop. We also have an online ordering system (Fine Print Express) and an online print gallery (ArtForConservation.org). And we handle the printing, framing and shipping of gallery/museum photography exhibitions.

Our customer base has changed, too. Half of you are painters, the other half photographers. Many of you are still doing the art festival circuit but many have scaled back and some have quit. Lots of you are selling prints through galleries (unheard of 10 years ago!) and even more are selling through various online outlets – including the social networking sites. Most importantly, the way you order has changed. Many of you are taking advantage of our Express online ordering. Still others like the ease and convenience of our Full Service online order form. And while we still have a good number of customers who take advantage of our quantity pricing, a large percentage prefer to buy prints a few at a time.

So how do we simplify? In ways that directly impact you – we’ve made ordering fine art paper and un-stretched canvas giclées much easier. (Click here to see our new price chart.)We’ve become your one-stop shop for prints, mounting and framing (we can design and frame for you or we can provide you with the supplies to do it yourself). In the months ahead we’ll continue to find ways to make YOUR life simpler. 

We invite you to read Barney Davey’s blog, and think about ways that YOU might incorporate these three words into your life this year. Goodness. Richness. Simplify.