Big Picture - August 2019 - 28

Print BUYING
AN INSIDE LOOK
Q&A with Kraig Kessel, Kraido.
INTE RV IE W BY A DR IE NNE PA LME R
How are the signage and graphics programs for some of the
top brands evolving, and why? What can you, as a print service
provider, do to better serve the needs of these major clients
and prospects? Learn straight from the brand owner as we chat
with Kraig Kessel, the decision-maker responsible for signage
and graphics at Kraido, which creates branded environments.
Here you'll garner invaluable insight into how you can better
serve your top clients - and win more lucrative accounts.

BIG PICTURE

August 2019

Right, the gold
graphic surrounding
Wells Fargo ATMs
features complicated
gradations in
various shades
of yellow.

For Wells Fargo
temporary
construction
window graphics,
matching gradations is top of mind.
"When we have
these printed, we
have swatches for
each color in the
gradation and we
require the printers
to use spectrophotometers to take
readings to ensure
that they are within
an acceptable
Delta E range,"
Kessel explains.

CAN YOU SHARE SOME INSIGHT INTO YOUR
WIDE-FORMAT BACKGROUND?
We do a ton of work for Wells Fargo and Chevron, and we
learned we had to do independent research on wide-format
digital printing to find the best print providers for the assets
we were developing, rather than relying on the current PSPs
we used and being reliant on the equipment they had. We
learned the existing shops may not have had the best equipment and technology to service what we needed, so we
conducted independent research on print technology and then
identified PSPs who had this equipment. This was a huge
learning moment for us!
Another key learning experience for us, as we started
looking at the assets we needed to have printed, was not to
rely on the print equipment that our vendor pool of PSPs had
in-house, but to align the print technology with what we were
trying to do. This was critical. For instance, if we need
something printed with image/white/image (or color/white/
color), with a certain resolution and no banding, we need to
look at printers that can accomplish this. The programs we
work on are not one-off, custom assignments (usually). The
majority of our projects are very large-scale programs with
multiple locations (hundreds, if not thousands, of sites). We
work with very big national and multinational brands.
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN
A PRINT PROVIDER?
1. We want someone who can be consultative, problem
solve, and provide input - not just do the job at hand.
2. We want someone who has specific types of print
equipment to handle what we need (i.e., color/white/color
with certain resolution).
3. Someone who can provide test print samples and is
willing to work with us to fine-tune the print to get it right.
4. A reasonable and competitive pricing model is always
important, as is the ability to meet aggressive timelines.
5. Because we do large national programs, we need
printers that can cover the entire country and can print from
various parts of the country; otherwise, we source multiple
print providers that can handle items regionally.

Big Picture - August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Picture - August 2019