HBO’s Press Kit Challenge
HBO came to us with a beautifully creative design for one of their press kits. As a new vendor we were excited about getting a job where our capabilities would shine. They were on a tight deadline with no room for Murphy to rear his head.
On the surface, the job was straightforward. A capacity folder with Velcro tabs to be printed, mounted to B flute, die scored and hand assembled. The unique piece of the project was the client’s choice of stock. They had decided to print on a holographic foil stock to insure their logo would pop and the final product would shimmer.
The files came in well prepared and clean, press time was scheduled and the client showed up for what we expected to be a standard approval…a few tweaks here and there and a sign off. Special curves were even built into the creation of the plates in anticipation of the complexity of the foil substrate.
The press okay was anything but standard.
After a dozen pulls on the press, the client remained very unhappy with the sheet. The foil stock soaked up the ink like a sponge and no matter how much we pushed the press, there was no contrast, no richness, no pop!
HBO’s Print Production Manager, explained what she was looking for to Steve, our pressroom foreman and together with Rob Adler, Prestone’s President and Peter, our prepress manager, they evaluated the problem, discussed options and went back to the original file to adjust the artwork.
The HBO Print Manager waited while we manipulated the file, output another set of plates and headed back on press. A few pulls later, we came back with a sheet that she thought was gorgeous…solid black, rich yellow…exactly what she wanted.
Steve explained, “neither the image on the screen nor the proofs represented what the image would look like printed on the holographic foil stock. The client was looking to get a rich sheen off their logo and it was not translating.”
Peter went back to be beginning manipulating the original file to be over saturated and incredibly muddy…it looked awful on the screen. The adjustments were perfect and it printed beautifully on the stock. We were able to fix and run without lifting the job off press and causing further costs and delays to the client.
We rallied together and came up with a solution. It was all hands on deck!! Everyone took care of the client and knew what HBO was looking for!