2022 ACUP+ Award Winners

Congratulations to the Print Shop Pro^® users who recently won Production Awards at the 2022 ACUP+ Educational Conference in Vancouver, Washington.

Kellogg Community College won platinum for the Digital Production—Small Shop, Multiple Page category and California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) won two awards: platinum for Digital Production—Small Shop, Multiple Piece and gold for the Operation/Shop Self-Promotion category.

We talked to June Lewis, Director of Print and Document Services at Kellogg Community College and Laura Lockett, CSUS Director of Print and Mail (both of whom are Print Shop Pro^® [PSP] power users) about their awards and how PSP assisted in the planning and management of their award-winning projects.

PSP: What were the projects that won the award(s)?

June: Our platinum award for Digital Production—Small Shop, Multiple Page was for a quarterly magazine called BruIN, specifically the December issue which included our College’s Annual Report. This piece is generated from content provided by our marketing department and our foundation office. Our designers created the cover based on the content within the magazine. This piece was unique because it featured photos of large format projects produced and installed by the Print and Document Services staff. The run was for 4,675 copies of the 20-page issue produced on a Canon Image press C810 and finished on a BLM 500 Booklet Maker, the insertion of a donation envelope was held in by a glue dot. The envelope insertion and the bulk mail processing were completed by an outside vendor.

Laura: The platinum award for Digital Production—Small Shop Multiple Piece was an A6 sized fundraising mailer that had several inserts and envelopes and was VDP; the gold award for Operation/Shop Self-Promotion was a three-panel spiral bound at-a-glance calendar. The mailer was printed inhouse with the mailing and bulk mail processing completed by an outside vendor.  The calendar was entirely produced by the CSUS Print and Mail staff. On the back of the calendar, we included a How To Submit work online through PSP, so it was not only a promotional piece for Print and Mail it was also a push to encourage our customers to submit their work through PSP Webdesk and to visit our PSP Storefront.

PSP: What are you most proud of for each project?

June: We were able to hit and maintain perfect registration of crossovers throughout the magazine.

Laura: The mailer project was produced during COVID and was very complex.  It had a lot of moving parts and many players, so managing that project to the end was satisfying.  The at-a-glance calendar was fun because my team brainstormed on what to include in the calendar such as fun facts for days of the month and promoting products that CSUS Print and Mail produces seasonally (i.e. resumes and letterhead in the Spring). For the calendar every member of my staff had a part in producing it, and every staff member at the University received a copy so it was a very personal project for CSUS Print and Mail.

PSP: How did PSP assist you in managing these projects?

June: The Projects feature in PSP helped me coordinate the plethora of graphic design and print orders for the envelope and magazine portions of the project, which ensured I had all assets required to meet our target mailing date.

Laura: PSP accurately captures all production costs and data so we can invoice for chargebacks and use reports to track production status for all of our print and mailing jobs.  We also used the Project management feature in PSP for complex jobs like the fundraising mailer that had multiple pieces and eight different customers. The ability to clone orders and projects in PSP manager is also a huge help. We also sell the at-a-glance calendars for staff who want more via our PSP Storefront.

PSP: Any advice to in-plants on how to plan and produce award winning projects?

June: The PSP projects feature is a real asset if you have any multi-piece projects and need to ensure everything comes together to meet a deadline.

Laura: It’s never too early to have planning meetings with customers, managing their expectations and getting them to understand how the print process works. Have regular meetings with your staff not just for production but for brainstorming on how to produce unique and value-added print products for your customers or for self-promotion. Use all aspects of PSP, from reports to the Dashboard in order to manage complex projects.

Have questions or want more information on how Print Shop Pro^® can transform your in-plant into an award winning operation? Please call us today 888.673.8424 or visit us at printshoppro.com