This article was written by Posterboy Printing’s Daniel Edwards

Printers with a lot of experience and knowledge about the medium are probably wondering why they need to read the book or learn the Six Principles? There is nothing new in there for them.

Allow me to digress.

A friend of mine is a world class swim coach. He worked with Ian Thorpes coach back in the day. For every lap swum, they would collect a huge number of data points. I asked him which data point was the most important. He said, ankle flexion.

He told me that if a swimmers ankle isn’t able to flex beyond a certain angle, they will never be world class. Everything a swimmer could put on the table, was swept away by that single measurement at the peak elite level of the sport. Apparently Thorpie’s ankle flexion measurement was off the chart.

The Six Principles are like the ankle mobility in swimmers. They are six pivotal assessment points that can prove the difference between mediocre print executions and great ones. So there is nothing new there, except the way they have been organised. I haven’t reinvented print, I’m just the guy who figured out that ankle flexion is the key metric.

The human mind is great at storing knowledge. The problem isn’t storage, it’s access. A memory will sit dormant until something reminds us, and it comes back as though it only happened yesterday. Who hasn’t sat with friends and said “Remember that time” followed by laughter and shared memories. Our memories work best with external triggers.

Many printers are sitting on a mountain of value about the print medium. But they don’t know how or when to remember and share that expertise. What the Six Principles do is clearly define categories through which jobs can be assessed. Providing the external memory triggers to help printers access existing knowledge.

Sometimes the suggestion is obvious, but often, it isn’t. A job might look fine at first glance, but using the principles to methodically assess the job will peel back the layers of your knowledge base and something will pop out. They will help you to access your mountain of knowledge about the print medium, and give you the opportunity to share it with your customer so both can benefit.

The Future

This print industry has survived the great disruption that was the Internet. Changed undoubtedly (RIP letterheads), but still going. To thrive, we need to evolve. Our greatest challenge will be answering the question, is print still relevant? Newspapers have largely shifted online, Bunnings recently announced that it would stop printing catalogues. But print will persevere.

Print will always be relevant because of many reasons that can be summed up in two words.

Print works.

To increase the total number of print jobs, all print needs to be good. Because the best advertising for the print medium won’t be presentations from the RMC. It will be great examples of print that people encounter in their own live. If every piece of print is a hugely successful communication, more people will want to do print.

I hope everyone takes up this idea of adding value by offering expert advice, and as a result, all print quality goes up. I’d like to see more printers working with their customers to create great examples of the medium. The rising tide will lift all boats. If we all do better at helping our customers produce highly effective print, then we will all do better.

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