Page 10 - Print 21 magazine Jul-Aug 2021

Leading Article
Come together over print
Getting together with like-minded professionals is not only a long-established printing industry tradition, it’s also good for the wellbeing of all concerned. The collegiate response of printers to market challenges is not about preserving special privileges or indeed price fixing; it’s about carrying on the craft tradition of mutual respect and sharing of knowledge. We’ll all be poorer if it disappears.
Iwent out to the Carnarvon Golf Club in Sydney’s west in May for a technical briefing on wide format inkjet from the NSW branch of the LIA. For those
unfamiliar with the title, and there are
a growing number, LIA stands for the Lithographic Institute of Australia. I suspect an even larger number of professionals in the industry won’t know what lithographic means, or be able to describe lithography
as a printing process.
The speed of digital transformation in printing processes has introduced a type of industry amnesia, wiping decades, even centuries, of knowledge and memory of how printing came about. It wasn’t always about downloading a digital file before pressing a button.
Apprenticeships have fallen by the wayside. Good small offset printers are
as rare as hen’s teeth. The role of offset printers driving large A1 offset presses is transformed. It’s a skilled job, but it’s nothing like it was only 20 years ago. The presses of today are hugely productive and run forever, a process that Heidelberg promotes as its ‘Push to stop’ printing paradigm. Presumably the savage dog of legend that comes with
a modern press will allow the operators to touch that ‘stop’ button.
I don’t mean to imply that digital press operators are comparatively unskilled. A good operator makes all the difference to
the operation of a press. But the average digital driver is not the product of a four-five year apprenticeship, or versed in different methods of printing – think offset, flexo, gravure and, yes, lithography. While they may be very good at their job, they are not tradespeople in the traditional sense.
In all this turmoil there are values that withstand the test of time and the changing of the guard. One of them is the benefit of meeting with industry peers, your fellow operators and business owners. You can learn a lot from talking with your competitors,
and pick up plenty of hints from the person operating a similar machine in another part of the country.
Which brings me back around to where
all this started, at the LIA in Concord. The Association is unique in that its members are individuals, not companies. It’s a technical organisation, focused on the nuts and bolts of printing, informing members of new developments.
The 20-ish people at the LIA meeting were there to hear from Andy McCourt about
the history and prospects of wide format inkjet. Following a site tour of Mimaki’s
showrooms, John Bryson presented on what lies ahead for that brand. It was all good, valuable information, but the audience came almost entirely from the supply side of the industry bar a few media types and long- term stalwart Warwick Roden with family. By my reckoning he was the sole printer there, and Warwick’s long retired.
The LIA exists because of the tireless work of enthusiasts such as Angus Scott, but the dedicated few can’t be the only supporters. It’s up to the broader industry to recognise and support this association and others. I feel sure the appetite is there; you only have to look at the turnout for events such as the Women in Print breakfast to see the demand for interaction.
Employers need to encourage digital operators to join industry associations that recognise the value of professional accreditation. Company owners should come along to learn from and meet others. Suppliers should engage industry associations in their broader promotions.
Having more lively and dynamic industry associations will pay real dividends for all concerned.
Press to ‘stop’.
Print21 is a Yaffa Media
publication, Copyright
2020. Print21 is the
official publication of the Print & Visual Communication Association (PVCA).
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10 Print21 JULY/AUGUST 2021
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