across the pond

Welcome to 2010

2010-01-11T14:28:00.000-08:00

Last year (2009) was the best year ever for Planet ink USA.

9 trips to China and Korea for QC and press Ok's. This is great news for us because it means that business was good.
This is the first year of working in Korea printing books. The experience has been nothing short of fabulous. Every book project including an annual report came out better than expected, under projected cost and delivered on time. Can't ask for more.
The food in Korea is wonderful, or at least it suits my taste buds.
The area I stay i is south of Seoul called Bundang is a quiet area with a huge park "Central Park" with great jogging trails.
I call it the Palo Alto of Seoul.

One great book that we did "Alaska Highway Exployer by David Olmstead. 760 pages of the road to the top
11 years in the making, breathtaking photography. We did case bound, leather bound and soft bound versions.

We have just found a way to make digital banners as long as 100ft, printed on vinyl at about 1/3 the cost of doing banners here. You will see more of this later on

Also we did an number of interesting projects in China as well. More on the manufacturing side which I love to do.
We added Jenny Feng to our payroll as well. Jenny lives in Shanghai and has a degree in Chemical Engineering.
jenny@planetinkusa.com
Jenny worked for us part time for the last few years and we learned that we could not live without here eye on quality and ability to find the best supplier for the job.

One of the fun projects we did were accessories for Harley Davidson. Shin guards and very cleaver black leather card and key holders. Our client is David Meze www.mezash.com.
Also we continued on making VRC's for Bob Earl. bobearlracing.com.

From printing books we have ventured into printing full bleed images on melamine plates. We found a factory outside Shanghai that is very very good and they use a melamine made in Thailand. The quality is fabulous.

Great Books about China

2008-11-14T15:48:00.000-08:00

If anyone wants to learn about the real China I suggest 3 books

River Town by Peter Hessler

Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler

Factory Girls by Leslie Chang

I have read and re read anything I can find on China. Most of what I read, in the newspapers and in books is not the China I work in. These 3 books nail it!
Easy fun books to read.

Summer in China 2008 (Best year yet)

2008-11-14T13:12:00.000-08:00

I do apologize to any that really reads my blogs or is waiting for the next one. Well here it is at long last

This year has been the busiest yet in the history of Planet Ink.

I have made 6 trips to China to do press Ok's We did another Concorso Italiano book which came out really well as usual.

We also produced all the photo albums for Adesso. www.Adessoalbums.com. These are wonderfully made photo albums that are greatl for weddings or any social event. The old albums were based on Polaroid photos but now the newer albums will work with your mobile phone and a very small digital printer. Check it out.

The best book we did all year was "Cities Gensler" for Gensler Publications. This book showcases some of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Most impressive are the buildings in Dubai. One standout is the newest building to be built in Shanghai. It will be the second tallest building in the world. Ground breaking is this month. The book is 9 x 12 hard cover 360 page 6 colors FM screening. WOW! If you want a book drop me a note and I will send one to you.
Check out www.Gensler.com

Another standout book this year was a book for the Mormon Church " Exploring the Lands" 960 page book. Very interesting read.

Being an avid gear head I had the opportunity to print a hard cover book " Weekends of Glory" by Martin Rudow. www.rspubs.com. Anyone interested in vintage sports cars, this is a must read. Fabulous original photography of the golden years of motor sports.

We produced a series of books "Todays Mama" This is a wonderful idea. One of those why didn't I think of that.
These books reference guides for mothers and families in the county that you live in.
www.bayareamama.com or www.utahmama.com.

Most of the printing we did this year was in Beijing. I spent close to 6 weeks doing press Ok's. I started to feel like a local.
The weather was very good for the most part, rain in the evening and as the Olympics got closer the weather seemed to get better. Last year it was hot and smoggy all summer. One questions the truth in cloud seeding. But as the Olympics got closer the crowds of people in and around Beijing got smaller.
Apple has opened its first store in China. I went to the opening in 90 degree heat only to witness a 2 hour wait to get in.
All this for a free t shirt. I found an open bar with cold beer instead.

This next year is looking good. Our trusted printers are all in place and doing well so we don't see any problems for 2009.

There are current problems with factories in South China. Over 100,000 will shutter by the end of Chinese New Year.
Over 67,000 have closed so far this year. Most of these are involved in toy and textile production. The printing companies we use are in northern China, Shanghai and Beijing and are doing well. Also we are printing books again in S Korea. Korea is becoming more competitive as the US dollar weakens and the Chinese RMB gets stronger.

We are paying a lot of attention to market movements and we will not get caught flat footed. Hopefully we can start printing more in Thailand again. 5 years ago we printed the bulk of our work in Thailand. Great food, great golf....nothing like doing press Ok's during the week and going to great beaches on the weekend. Everyday was a holiday so it seemed. Great printing as well.

China is very fluid at the moment but we see our suppliers as a very stable lot and I look forward to going back soon.

Van

Press checks

2008-02-18T17:46:00.000-08:00

For 26 years I have been doing press checks. After doing this for so long I have gotten to be very good at it.
I know what to look for and how to get the job looking better than it ever intended to be

Now I am offering to do press checks in asia for customers that do not want to travel or deal with factories in a
strange country.

My fees are $500 per day plus airfare (coach)

offshorepresscheck.com (working on a website)

winter in China

2008-02-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

I have not been keeping up on my blog and I apologize, many have asked me to keep it up so I will try and do so.

Since the last August blog I have been back and forth to China 4 times. This includes Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
All for printing and my favorite project which is called the VRC. (Virtual Racing Chassis). This is a racing seat on an adjustable frame that allows the user to play racing video games. This is the most real experience, closest to real racing as you can get. And a whole lot cheaper. bobearlracing.com Check it out

Just last week in Shanghai doing final QC on the VRC, getting the container loaded was one of the coldest winters I have encountered. What most, well those who have not been to China in the winter, understand is the lack of heat.
In the factories there is not a lick of warm air. At 30 degrees (F) the windows and doors remain open. Know one every complains. Even in the local restaurants you can see your breath while you drink tea or warm beer, poking at a fish that no one seems to know what it is only that it is local. As you look at the polluted rivers and streams, well you just can't give it much thought.
The other day we had to find a quick way to photo copy 85 additional shipping labels. We drove from Pudong (factory site) to downtown Shanghai to met up with a source of label stock that we could use for photocopies. In Shanghai if you want to buy a musical instrument you always go to the area that sells muscial intruments, might be blocks and blocks, all different merchants. Same with nuts and bolts etc. This time we were in an area that only sold office supplies. Our friend was waiting for us when we drove up, she jumped into our car with a ream of paper. Off we went to the office supply section. Not far away we parked and went into this small store where the sell pens, note books the usual stuff. In the corner they had a small copying machine. The interesting part of this story is outside at now 6pm it must be below freezing. A little snow on the ground piled up on the crubs, enough that when you opened the door in our VW Jetta it would hit the snow bank.
The office supply store has all of its windows and large front door wide open. Open for business, just like in the summer.
All the stores are this way. It is so cold I could see the white vapor from my nose! All the shop people are dressed in layers of wool, but I had never seen a copying maching put out steam. From the heat of the bulbs enough steam rose to fill our little corner of the shop. I honestly think it was colder inside than out. We quickly made our copies, said our thanks and jumped into the warmth of the VW. Meanwhile outside the din of traffic, street food, bikes goes on.
Life in the winter in Shanghai. Just think what it is like in the northern cities.

More later

van

2007 Concorso was wonderful

2007-08-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

Each year Planet ink produces the program for the Concoso Italiano.
This could be the largest gathering of exciting cars in one place in the world.
It happens on a Friday at Black Horse Golf Course in beautiful Monterey California.

This one weekend in Monterey is car lovers heaven. There are multiple events including the equally famous Pebble Beach
Concours d' Elegance. They call this weekend "Extravaganza of Excellence"
From historic racing at Laguna Seca with some of the worlds most famous drivers and cars to all weekend long auctions.

For the past 6 years we have produced the Concorso Italiano program, which is a 176 page book with a gatefold cover.
This book is a challenge because of the timing.
We don't get the art work until late June. We proof and print and put the book on the water by mid July. The book is shipped by boat to LA then delivered to Monterey about a week prior to the event. Nothing can go wrong. If we miss the delivery date by one day.....well, its only a one day event! You can guess.

As an extra service to the orgainizers of the event, we make sure that everyone that attends gets their copy.
We staff a booth at the event where we meet and greet the attendees. Personally, we wouldn't miss this event for the world.
The weather was wonderful and we meet the nicest people. If you love cars, or just like good food and watching people this event is tops.

We have a few books left over, if you would like one drop us a line

2007-08-14T10:50:00.000-07:00