Bringing some of your production, prepress, and photography processes inhouse can save you time and, in the long run, money. But that’s only if you have the short-term funds, the human resources, and the workflow procedures necessary to handle the additional functions.
The feasibility of bringing production functions inhouse “depends on the volume of work and how steady it is,” says Jean O. Giesmann, director of creative services for Madison, VA-based Plow & Hearth. If you produce a catalog only once a year, for instance, investing in a color-proofing system and training staff to run it might not pay off.
That’s one reason Beverly, MA-based women’s apparel mailer Appleseed’s hasn’t brought photography — let alone more complex functions such as prepress — inhouse, says director of catalog production Maura Lyons. “Because we are shooting fashion and because we don’t have the consistent volume to make it work, we still go outside for photography.” Appleseed’s produces eight editions of its main book plus 12 sale books a year — or 1,100 pages and 1,700 scanned images.
But for Plow & Hearth, which produces 40 catalog editions a year, building its own photo studio three years ago has paid off. Though Giesmann won’t share specifics, she says that the studio paid for itself within a year.
“I looked at what I was spending outside and priced out the cost of building a studio and procuring the equipment,” Giesmann explains. By no longer having to ship merchandise to photographers and by reducing the travel costs of its art directors, the home products and gifts cataloger quickly saw a return on its investment.
Medfield, MA-based multititle mailer Potpourri Collection has had an inhouse photo studio for nearly 25 years. “Clearly it is less expensive to do it inhouse,” assuming you have the volume of photography to justify it, says president Jack Rosenfeld. Typically, he says, you pay a staff photographer less than you would pay a freelance photographer.
But Rosenfeld warns of at least one danger of relying exclusively on staff photographers and art directors for your book: Catalog creative can get stale. That’s why the gifts and crafts marketer will use outside photographers or creative directors for an occasional photo or cover.
In addition, since 1994 Potpourri has been doing all of its scanning and color separations inhouse — about 5,000 scans and separations a year. Rosenfeld estimates that this process saves the company several hundred thousand dollars annually while shaving two to four weeks off each production cycle. But it’s hard to quantify the time savings, Rosenfeld adds, because handling those functions inhouse “also increases our flexibility and allows us to perform rush jobs on last-minute items and still meet our printing date.”
Controlling your assets
Inhouse digital asset management (DAM) is also gaining popularity. “Our color separator used to handle all of our asset management, but we are in the process of bringing it inhouse,” Giesmann says. Doing so, she says, will give employees from multiple departments, including the Web team and merchandisers, greater access to content and more control. The cataloger aims to have its inhouse DAM system fully implemented by late spring.
Potpourri Collection brought DAM inhouse approximately three years ago using off-the-shelf software. “It is relatively inexpensive and does the job,” says Rosenfeld, but it is not as fancy as the software used by outside service providers. “It houses our images and copy, and it makes it easy for all of our teams to access the information, so it works for us,” he says.
If you want the most up-to-date technology, however, outsourcing may be a better choice. C.J. Oliverson, production manager for Ventura, CA-based Patagonia, notes that DAM providers constantly update their software and make improvements that the outoor apparel manufacturer/marketer would not have the resources to match inhouse. Patagonia handles its design, layout, and product photography inhouse but uses a prepress house for color separations and DAM. Oliverson believes the savings of bringing such functions inhouse wouldn’t justify the costs to update equipment and maintain the staff to run it.
Facility management, an arrangement in which employees of the prepress services provider set up shop at the catalog client’s operations, is another option. Chicago-based printer R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., for instance, has 19 facility management arrangements worldwide, with two to 13 employees assigned to each client’s location, says Mary Lee Schneider, president of premedia technology.
“You have customers and employees housed together managing the workflow between the customer location and the prepress and printing facilities,” Schneider explains. “The purpose is to save time and streamline the workflow.”
Step by step
Groton, MA-based New England Business Service (NEBS) used facility management as a jumping-off point for bringing prepress completely inhouse. After switching to computer-to-plate production in 1998, the office and warehouse products cataloger examined its prepress workflow, which was being outsourced. At that time the company, which produced 15 quarterly catalogs totaling 3,000 pages a year, was spending $850,000-$1 million a year on color separations alone. So in 1999 NEBS switched to the facility management arrangement, which reduced its prepress costs to $300,00-$400,000.
NEBS manager of premedia production services Mike Apfelberg calls the arrangement “virtual facility management,” since the cataloger had only one representative from the provider and one proofer on site. “NEBS set up a T1 line, but the RIP [raster image processor] file was created off site, though we were proofing from our site,” Apfelberg says. (A RIP file has been processed to a specific file format and is embedded with a bitmap or raster of data such as fonts, images, and logos just before the printing process)
When its contract with the prepress provider expired in June 2002, NEBS decided that its employees understood the process and equipment well enough to handle the job inhouse. Apfelberg chose a desktop color separations (DCS) workflow rather than a portable document format (PDF) workflow. “DCS is more stable than PDF, and the final format is the closest match to the final plate,” he opines. For page processing, NEBS uses ArtFlow software from Bristol, PA-based Artwork Systems. “This system takes in postscript anything from TIFs to PDFs to postscript and generates the DCS file,” Apfelberg says.
NEBS also bought a midrange Epson color proofing system with a Dupont/BEST RIP, and a Gretag spectophotometer for color management. “We had our printer proof a test file, and we read the test file on the Gretag and built a color profile based on that, so our machine is calibrated with our printer,” Apfelberg says. “In other words, we can now produce proofs using the Epson, which closely approximates what our commercial printers would make for proofs to take to press.”
Factoring in the salaries for the two employees NEBS had to hire and the $75,000 it cost to buy the equipment, prepress now costs NEBS approximately $200,000 a year. The equipment investment will be paid off within a year, Apfelberg estimates. In terms of time, the prepress process has been reduced from three to four days to one day for batches of 40 pages.
Still, Apfelberg cautions catalogers that bringing prepress functions inhouse is a challenge. “You need a staff that is technologically savvy as well as willing to learn,” he says. At the bare minimum “you must understand file formats such as PDF and DCS as well as color management and page processing issues.”
The Dos and Don’ts of Digital Photography
For certain, more catalogers are using digital photography as the technology continues improving. Of the participants in the 2002 Catalog Age Benchmark Report on Production, Print, and Paper (October 2002 issue), 87% used digital photography in some capacity, up from 66% two years earlier.
“Everyone is starting to shift toward digital photography because the clarity is getting much better,” says Sandra Cooper, vice president of creative services at New York-based catalog marketing/consulting firm Marke Communications.
But catalogers aiming to “go digital” have many things to consider. The following pointers can help you make the most of digital photography.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
The options and prices for digital photography equipment vary widely. For example, Chardon, OH-based woodworking products cataloger Eagle America spent $5,000 on a Nikon DI digital camera in 1999; marketing and creative director J.R. Weber says that one of his competitors spent nearly $40,000 on a camera. So you have to consider the functions that you need and your budget. Some of the important things to look for, says Weber, are resolution, tonal range, and the variety of available lenses.
DON’T EXPECT TO GIVE UP FILM ALTOGETHER
Improvements in digital have made it an option for most marketers to use on some level to achieve consistent and accurate color. But there are some instances in which film photography still beats digital.
For example, Pleasant Co., best known for its high-end American Girl line of dolls, has taken up several photo studios on their offers to demonstrate digital photos. But the cataloger has not been satisfied with the translation of the flesh tones on the dolls and the models. “We think that digital is the future of photography, but we will wait until it advances to fit our needs,” says Tom Kazunas, production director for the Middleton, WI-based cataloger.
Some experts say that wood tones are even more difficult than flesh tones to accurately capture via digital photography. So Eagle America has a tough time capturing the color and texture of its wood props. “I have experienced difficulty with getting the right shade of the color of wood and also once in a while when I have a hand in the shot. I’ll bring in film for that,” says Weber. Other times, “we apply ‘curves’ in PhotoShop to color-correct and fix things such as dot gain,” Weber notes. The curves enable users to tweak colors and tones.
DO EXPECT TO SAVE ON YOUR PHOTO BUDGET
Digital photography saves time and money by eliminating the cost of film and traditional color separations, as well as the need to send out photos for scanning. Once catalogers have made the investment and endured the learning curve, Mark Pearson, executive vice president of Chicago-based catalog marketing agency Ambrosi, estimates that digital can shave 10%-15% off a photography budget. You can save “$30 to $125 per shot depending on whether it’s a tabletop or fashion image,” he says.
But be prepared to shift some of the savings to the front end of the process, Pearson adds. For one, you will have to convert digital photos from RGM (red/green/magenta) to CMYK (cyan/magenta/yellow/black) for optimal color quality. You can either batch-convert your photos in PhotoShop or convert the photos during the shoot.
Location shoots further complicate the process. “Computers are not fond of hot temperatures or sand from the beach. [You must] set up your work station out of the elements in a mobile home or a hotel room and allow time during the shoot to run over to the work station,” says Pearson.
DON’T NEGLECT TECHNOLOGY UPDATES
Be prepared to replace equipment every three to four years to keep up with technology, says Eagle America’s Weber. You also want to plan your spending within that time frame to ensure that your equipment gives you a return on investment.
Last year, four years after its initial investment in a digital camera and accessories, reading accessories catalog Levenger bought more equipment, says vice president/creative director Lee Passarella. The Delray Beach, FL-based cataloger isn’t complaining about buying more gear, though: Levenger saw a return on its initial investment within the first year — and that’s with using digital photography for only 25% of its photos. Passarella expects the new equipment to pay for itself within a year as well, especially as the cataloger will now shoot 90% of its photos digitally.
DO TAKE IT SLOW
During Levenger’s first year of using digital photography, Passarella says, there was a three-month learning curve, as photographers adapted to the new equipment and computers. “We took both digital and film shots so that we could compare the two, ensuring that the quality was not compromised,” says Passarella.
Pleasant Co. still shoots most of its American Girl and AG Mini’s catalogs with film, but it is easing into digital photography. “We shoot some small photos with a digital camera and some product shots such as doll clothing that we silhouette on page,” Kazunas says.
— SF