by JimRaffel on February 1, 2011
Sometimes I have a shortage of ideas and struggle to decide what to write about, like this morning. More often, I have more than enough ideas and it’s just a matter of getting in the writing flow and cranking out the posts. Those are the times when I double and triple up on writing and get a few posts done ahead of the game (insert editor’s smile here). It all comes down to the ideas so you need to capture them when they come.
Ideas have no schedule
Ideas are typically a function of the work you are doing. Either that or the observations you are making as you go through your daily life. For example, right now as I add team members to support the growth of ColorMetrix I am thinking about fixed and variable costs. I just captured that idea by creating a blank post in ecto and you can expect to see a post about it later this week.
You can make “ideation” happen. I know some don’t agree with this but by choosing to write about ideas I am coming up with a bunch of them. Some are related to the Richard Branson book, “Business Stripped Bare,” that I am reading right now. Some more ideas are coming up about a meeting I will have with my newest team member next week. The trick is to capture the ideas when they happen. The ideas, you see, have no schedule and will come when they darn well feel like it.
“Ideation” environments
Yes, I did contradict myself in the prevision paragraph. That’s my point – ideas are flighty little devils. You can plan for them by creating “ideation” environments. Today, I’m sitting in a business class seat with my ear buds in listening to XM 20 on 20. It’s me, the keyboard, the Richard Branson book and a cup of coffee. No inflight wi-fi for now I have ideas to think up and writing to do.
On the flip side, I was at a conference last week and captured a bunch of good post ideas. As I sat in the sessions, I kept both my phone and notebook handy. Some of the ideas rest in the pages of notes I took or the little reminders I captured on my phone (including pictures I took to remind me to write about something).
See what I’ve done here? By writing about ideas for you, I have reminded myself of where all my good ones are hiding. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a few more posts to go write. And remember, be prepared to catch those ideas whenever and wherever they occur because they live and work on the Anywhen time continuum.
Photo Credit
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by JimRaffel on June 8, 2009
Recently I was reading the 2009 PRIMIR/NPES “Sustainable Print in a Dynamic Global Market: What Going Green Means,” Executive Synopsis and it reminded me that back in February 2007 I tackled this topic in #68: Sustainable Green Printing. Among other conclusions the PRIMIR study agreed with my #68 post that sustainability is good business. So, knowing that a lot of my readers are looking for ways to make more money with less business these days here are a five tips to utilize color process control in a sustainability initiative that if properly run will result in a more profitable company.
1. Hard Copy Proofing – Fewer proofs in the trash equates to the use of less media, ink and electricity. Electricity you ask? Yes, even electricity. I am sure there are sustainability consultants that have quantified this part of the equation. Ongoing measurement and review of color quality will uncover workflow and mechanical problems before any or a large quantity of bad proofs are produced.
2. Virtual Proofs – Verifying and monitoring the display panel color fidelity insures that the device is used right up until it is no longer capable of displaying color accurately for proofing purposes. The device can then re-purposed limiting and delaying disposal of hazardous materials.
3. Plating – Gary Briney at Hennegan successfully uses ColorMetrix software to monitor and control printing plate production and saves thousands of dollars each year in raw materials and the electricity to produce “bad” plates. The PRIMIR report also makes reference to a company in Washington State saving $5,000 to $7,000 by recycling printing plates. So, even when a “bad” plate is made this company (and many I am sure) makes sure the metal and hazardous materials are properly recycled and disposed of.
4. Pressroom – With paper making up 26% of landfills the pressroom is an obvious area that any sustainability initiative must focus upon. Fortunately, the cost of paper, shorter cut-off presses and initiatives like the War On Waste begun in the 70′s have combined to make most pressrooms in this country fairly efficient from a paper waste point of view. Evaluation of color process control records will provide information necessary to continuously reduce makeready time and to identify when the press is not running at optimum levels and in its sweet spot.
5. Cross-media Control - Late last year I wrote about the fidelity of brand colors across the various mediums and substrates utilized in today’s POP displays. Imagine the environmental impact of a critical brand color not properly matching on multiple pieces of an in-store POP display. With proper color verification techniques the need to scrap and reproduce individual components of the entire display is virtually eliminated.
If you are not sure how to start a color verification and process control program to support your sustainability initiative take some time and review the achieves of JimRaffel.com.
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