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| Creative Color Lithographers | ||
| Zenon Christodoulou, president | ||
| New York Metro/Northern New Jersey | ||
The New York metro/northern New Jersey print region is perhaps one of the most competitive markets in the nation. Commercial printers are a dime a dozen, competing for millions of dollars worth of quick turnaround, high-quality work. To make your mark and keep your business secure, printers need to acquire steady relationships with their clients and maintain their reputations. One such printer is Creative Color Lithographers, a 35-year-old 17-employee commercial offset shop located in a 16,000 square foot building in the northern New Jersey suburb of Garwood. The shop is known for its high-quality reputation and ability to handle print jobs all under its own roof. Its press line-up features high-quality Heidelberg equipment: a 40-inch five-color, a 40-inch two-color, a 28-inch one-color, a 25-inch one-color, and a small GTO one-color press. In addition, the firm performs all of its own pre-press and bindery operations. "We pride ourselves on having a variety of presses to fulfill our client’s demands," says Zenon Christodoulou, Creative Color’s president. "Our high-quality reputation and excellent service has spread via word-of-mouth." However, one small ability was lacking at Creative Color—two-color printing. While the printer could offer high-quality multi-color process work, whenever a client presented a short-run two-color job, Creative Color faced a dilemma: put the job on a larger press or turn the job away. That is until Christodoulou heard about a new entry into the market: a Townsend T-51 Swing-Away head that fits a Heidelberg GTO 52 press. "Our local dealer told us about it," recalls Christodoulou. "I had been thinking about buying a two-color press but the cost didn’t justify it. When I heard about this, I thought it might make a perfect fit." |
sIndeed it did. In June, Creative Color opened its doors to the Townsend T-51 Swing-Away to retrofit on their Heidelberg GTO 52. "For the type of work it prints, it is a perfect match for our GTO," says Christodoulou. "It has really opened up a little niche for us. We can now print stationary, small circulars and invitations quickly and efficiently. Now we don’t have to send our customers somewhere else. We can serve their needs." Christodoulou likes the flexibility of making all T-51 image register moves—vertical, horizontal and twist—while printing to obtain register. "Since both colors are printed from the same blanket, precise register is achieved," he says. "The productivity is amazing. It’s perfect. The two-color jobs are as good as any large press." Since Creative Color’s operators are used to larger presses, it did take time to get used to setting up the two-color press. His operators learned how to skew the T-51 plate while the press is still running, giving them less downtime and faster makereadies. "It was a bit tricky learning how to run the press," says Christodoulou, "but we quickly got the press up-to-speed." Recently, Creative Color produced a typical job on the Heidelberg GTO with the Townsend T-head. A client needed 4,000 four-color greeting cards. "The cover image was the world and the blue and green colors had to trap where the continents and oceans met," says Christodoulou. "The press produced precise register and our clients were very happy with their greeting cards." Today, Christodoulou can truly say his shop is full-service. While still turning out the multi-color process jobs for their high-quality clientele, Creative Color has also carved its own niche with small, two-color quick turnaround jobs thanks to an inexpensive but high-quality product that retrofitted to its existing press. |
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