For all the advancements and benefits of the modern digital workflow, there still is nothing that can beat the simplicity, complexity, satisfaction, and all-round beauty of an old-school printing press. There just isn’t. It has style. It has a unique feeling. It has an edginess. A visceral connection to the past that cannot be experienced in any other way. Print. It is now, and it always will be, awesome.
In my youth, one of my early jobs was as a grease monkey. I clambered around inside the huge printing presses seen in black and white movies. The ones where newspaper headlines swirled in. Presses that were 20 feet high and 80 feet long. The Komoris and Heidelbergs. The four colour presses weighing more than 100 tons. My job was to clean them. It was hot, dirty work. I hated it. And I loved it. I still sweat grease and paraffin and ink in my dreams.
I gravitated from grease monkey to gopher by volunteering to do the daily sandwich runs. A job nobody wanted to do, and one that saved the workforce having to spend their entire lunchtime queuing: I simply phoned it in. Ordered for 40. 4 bacon, 6 fried egg, 7 BELT… Ketchup, brown sauce, salt & pepper, fries. I ran a float. It was all cash then. Took some organizing.
I moved from here into storekeeping. Managing equipment. Signing gear out and back in. We built a cage to my specs, I lived in it with all the tools. Became the gatekeeper. Nobody but me had access. That ruffled a few feathers, but I take responsiblity seriously. Drills. Skates. Lifting gear. Screws, nuts, bolts. Nothing got in or out without a signature. I made sure it all came back. Eliminated thousands of UK pounds of ‘shrinkage’. So much so, they gave me a team and moved me into my own office. Four short years after volunteering to do that sandwich run I became purchasing manager. Everything from toilet roll to new fleet cars went through my desk.
I negotiated prices. Ran the accounts. Managed fleet vehicles. I got stuff done. Along with my gophers, a couple of drivers that went and got what we needed. Though I would often go and get, just to get out of the office and when things were too time or financially sensitive to delegate. I do recall making the airport run in a record breaking 30 minutes, as well a trip to Manchester airport to deliver clients. Chauffering them at excessive speed to make their plane, driving calmly along in the company Porsche. That was fun. I returned from the airport carrying a bearers bond for $750,000. Good as cash anywhere. And that was back in the 80’s. Drove home with it tucked in my pocket while listening to Elton John on the amazing vehicle stereo. Porsches are cool. Ah, print. It has a special place in my heart to this day. I make custom prints as a work of love. I put my heart into what I produce. From that day to this. Print is a labour of love.
