Harvest Productions Digital Prepress

Harvest Productions Digital Prepress II
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

The digital reproduction of fine art is not for everyone. It takes a skill that takes patience and precision. No where is there a more impressive setup than Harvest Productions in Yorba Linda, CA. having literally dozens of printing devices from the famed IRIS to the Roland Gliclee Maker to the Vutek Press Vu Grand Format, Harvest has it all. Their main goal is to reproduce artwork exactly like the artist original by calling in the artists to proof the match between inkjet and original in a color managed environment. Harvest is not new to color management and go back to the Colorblind software days of the early 90′s. It is always an immense pleasure and honor to work with the brainiacs of Harvest and Bulldog Inks. This recent visit I spent time with James and Derek of Bulldog and we spent two days looking into the finer aspects of Profile Maker Pro, GMB’s flagship profile making software. James and Derek are great and it also helps that we share music and have similar tastes. Thanks James for introducing me to DJ Danger Mouse, I always heard he was genius and Derek, look out for the next album and World Tour by Early Man, it is sure to be a show not to miss.

Allegra Print and Imaging – Billings Montana

Allegra Print and Imaging
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Allegra is on board and sees the immediate benefits of running a color managed workflow. With tools like GMB Profile Maker 5.5 an i1 and a budget for training Allegra is well on their way to being one of the best printers in their part of the world. What impresses me most about Allegra is their commitment to making this technology work and sometimes that is half the battle. In my short two days in beautiful Montana we were able to calibrate and profile their pre-press displays and profiled thier Ryobi Sheetfed Press as well as Designjet 5500 as a inkjet proofer. The results were very good the first run and the proof was withing delta tolerances as a “match”. Thanks to Al, Suri in pre-press and to Mark in the press room and a special thanks to owner Brain McGovern who as an owner I rarely see so much enthusiasm in impletenting a color managed workflow. I am impressed and wish you continued success.

PULSE Advertising

PULSE Advertising
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

PULSE Advertising is a premiere agency focusing totally on the film industry. They are also COLORCRITICAL. Color is so important to their success, they have made the investment in color management hardware and software in order to satisfy the needs of their art directors. The only thing stopping PULSE was where to find training and technical implemention. This is where I come in. I worked with the team at PULSE for two full days building profiles for their displays and their output for a seamless workflow and screen to print match. With an entire team spread across the studio, the print viewing conditions varied everywhere except for a uniform balanced lighting source near the large format printers. After the implementation and training the results were instantaneous. In fact the staff was so pleased, I got an email from Lori Dunlop, PULSE Production Manager, “…all we’ve heard today is art directors saying that they LOVE their color. and, it shaves so much time off of what we in production need to do just to get a print ready…kudos to you!”

Thanks Lori for working with me, you are a pleasure to work with. Thanks Scott for having the vision to get this right, and finally thanks to Ginny for being so on top of your operations. It is a pleasure to do business with all of you.

SCR Designs – Colorado

Spectrolino Spectroscan XY Scanning Spectrophotometer
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

In todays digital printing, weather the inks are water based or solvent based, the importance of color management is one of the most important aspects of your workflow. Shane Reynolds of SCR Design does not cut corners on anything. He is a steadfast perfectionist. He invested in all the right tools, including the new Gretag Macbeth iO automated table for the i1 Spectrophotometer. Running the ever so incredible Onyx Production House 6.5 RIP and printing to a Mutoh Tucan LT Ultra and Ultima Cutter, Shane is totally equipped to attack the market with the digital output. My involvement with Shane includedteaching him everything I could in two days since his brain was a pure spongeand wanted to know the little details in getting the best color possible off his solvent printer. I taught the basics, which Shane if you need a reminder:

Media Optimization -
Head Height
Distance Adjust
Heater Settings
Dot Gain Banding Check

Calibrations-
Dark Ink Restrictions
Linearization
Advanced Greyscale
Total Ink Limit

Characterizations
ICC Profile via i1 XT and IO

Shane, it was great to visit your “shop” and I hope you are a big success. Send me an email anytime you have a question!

Linderoth and Associates Architecture – Phoenix

Linderoth 3D Rendering
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

Color management is very import in architecture and especially important for Linderoth and Associates, a full service architectural firm focusing on impact housing in Arizona, California, and Nevada. COLORCRITICAL helped Linderoth this week bet a better control on their printing through a customized ICC workflow to their wide format printing devices. Establishing mixtures of RGB to simulate paint swatches is no easy task but with spectrophotometry the job can be much easier. Thanks Dean for making my visit pleasant and I will fly over for a day anytime.

Daniel J. Cox of Natural Exposures – Bozeman, Montana.

Daniel J Cox of Natural Exposures
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

I had the pleasure this last week to working with celebrated photographer Dan Cox of Natural Exposures. Although Dan was on a shoot in Africa I worked with his very knowledgable internal staff setting up a comlete color managed workflow. Printing to a hp Designjet 130nr and an hp Photosmart 8750, Natural Exposures hopes to get the absolute best quality in printing. I along with Kimberly Brown-Azzerello of hp implemented and audited a workflow of custom ICC conversions and soft-proofing. Bozeman Montana is absolutely beautiful and thanks to Beth and her team of smart and capable interns for making my stay so pleasant.

Color Control Freak Seminar

Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

I will be speaking on tour again starting in January. This seminar will be geared toward creatives. Please join me for a day of learning and fun in a nearby city. Please mention the code CRITICAL if you decide to sign up. I am so excited for the seminar tour to begin. This information is needed in the design community and I promise you will learn something and begin to have total confidence in your ability to control colors.

Seminar Overview

The GIA and GretagMacbeth, in cooperation with Quark, Adobe, Pantone, HP, Eizo, nik and HOW magazine, are offering a digital color seminar for graphic designers, art directors and marketing professionals. If you take your color seriously, we can put you in control of your favorites apps, the latest tools and current best practices in color control for design.

Attendees gain street-ready skills that they can put to use immediately, like using the full power of the new Quark XPress 7 and Adobe Creative Suite 2 to specify color, accurately preview colors on-screen and ensure that designs are reproduced correctly. We’ll demonstrate the best use of affordable technologies designed for designers, including monitor calibrators, profiling software, proofing printers, color standards, RIP workflows and color sharing applications.

Registration

The 9am-4pm seminar costs $299 per attendee and includes lunch, a monitor calibration system, eLearning DVD, and the Designer’s Color Toolkit. Visit the seminar website for venue details and online registration or call toll-free 888.439.4403 to speak with seminar coordinators and register by phone. For printable info, download the seminar PDF.

Cincinnati – Jan 19
Portland – Jan 24
Boston – Jan 24
San Francisco – Jan 26
New York – Jan 26
Dallas – Jan 31
Philadelphia – Jan 31
Denver – Feb 2
Toronto – Feb 2
Kansas City – Feb 7
Charlotte – Feb 7
Minneapolis – Feb 9
Washington DC – Feb 9
Chicago – Feb 14
Orlando – Feb 14
Detroit – Feb 16
Atlanta – Feb 16
Seattle – Feb 21
Los Angeles – Feb 23
Nashville – Feb 28

Harvest Productions / Bulldog Products

Harvest Productions / Bulldog Inks
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

This week was a challenge. I worked at Harvest Productions and Bulldog Products in Yorba Linda, CA. The challenge was to build a profile for thier Bulldog Orange Dot Glossy Canvas on their new Vutek UltraVu II 3360EC True Solvent 120″ Printer. We ran into an issue where my GMB i1 Spectrophotometer read density from output through Onyx Media Manager’s Linearization Utility in a manner which produced very strange and unpredictable readings. With a little research and a few phone calls to GMB, Paul Hultgren of GMB helped me to realize with glossy canvas you most certainly need to use the Spectrolino/Spectroscan with a Polarizing filter to account for the reflectivity of glossy canvas. Sure enough this worked and I was able to produce linear output as well as a precision ICC profile. I also profiled their Mimaki JV3 Solvent Printer so that it produces a proof of what will be printed on the same material on the Vutek. I also built a custom profile for ther Roland FJ540 on Red Dot Canvas and Pet Glossy Film. Harvest and Bulldog are incredible, they take color seriously and I have the pleasure to work with a professional partnership. Thanks Harvest and Bulldog especially James for the music, Derek for the stories, and Chris for being a patient Production Manager. I will see you again in December!

Apple Certification

Apple Certification
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

I have been certified by Apple as a Color Management Pro as well as certified as a Color Management Trainer. The process entailed a three day course and test taught by Michael Oh of TechSuperPowers.com a training organization for Apple. In my certification class was Mark Gundlach, color expert of GIA/GMB. We were tested and critiqued on our presentation performance as well as knowledge.

Nissan Design International – San Diego

Nissan Design International – San Diego
Originally uploaded by colorcritical.

This week I am working with the CG/Visualization team at Nissan Design International in San Diego. Nissan is critical about color and have used the latest in ICC technology to achieve consistent reuslts across their print systems. Nissan has another Design Center in Farmington Hills Michigan which ColorCritical will also implement a color managed workflow. Thanks Nissan for making my vist so pleasant, especially to Franklin and Don.