Monday, November 21, 2005
An Interview with Jim Raffel
I met Jim Raffel at the 2001 Technical Association of the Graphic Arts (TAGA) Annual Technical Conference (Which took place in sunny San Diego). I was a freshman at UW-Stout attending my first printing conference. Jim was one of the attendees that tried to make sure the student chapter members got the most out of attending the conference.
I got to know Jim better after he visited the UW-Stout campus a few times to give guest lectures on color process control for the Reproduction and Measurement Control course. This was back when ColorMetrix was their company name and the name of their flagship product.
Nowadays, Jim and I pass instant message back and forth frequently. Sometimes I'm looking for an opinion, others to comment on one of his Golden Nuggets or to pass along the occasional jab at his pansy AIM icon.
When I started my blog, I had envisioned interviewing people that I felt are doing good work in the graphic communications industry. This is the first installment of the interview series.
Interview
Adam: What are your educational experiences? What degree(s) do you hold.
Jim Raffel: I hold a BS in Printing Management from RIT and an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management.
Adam: What made you interested in the graphic communications industry?
Jim Raffel: A high school 'shop' class in graphic arts.
Adam: What was your first job in the industry?
Jim Raffel: Quality Assurance Manager
Adam: You're the CEO of ColorMetrix Technologies, LLC. What does your company do? What products and services do you offer?
Jim Raffel: ColorMetrix Technologies, LLC is the leading provider of color process control software for print certification and remote color diagnostics. We offer both stand-alone PC-based software products, and cross-platform internet-based enterprise solutions.
Adam: What sectors of the graphic communications industry do your products primarily serve?
Jim Raffel: Our largest market today is pre-press for proof certification. We do however, have a good deal of success in the pressroom. This success crosses process boundaries, but we would be found primarily in commercial offset and flexo packaging segments.
Adam: Many industries use certificates of analysis to provide quality control data for a particular batch of product. Do you think print buyers will start to demand certificates of analysis for printed work?
Jim Raffel: Yes, but the process will be slow.
Adam: What are your thoughts on the current state of the proofing sector?
Jim Raffel: In a period of moderate growth.
Adam: What does the future have in store for proofing?
Jim Raffel: One of our sectors (packaging) will continue to grow and consumers demand better and more innovative packaging. I see soft-proofing growing but not replacing hard proofing for some time to come. I feel many intermediate proofs will be soft proofs, and this is good as it will shorten cycle times for design. For some time to come, however, I believe print buyers (other than those with very tight deadlines) will request a hard or contract proof.
Adam: In October, Time Inc. started using soft-proofing for its weekly titles Time, People, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly and plans to have all titles transitioned over to the new soft-proofing workflow by quarter 2 of 2006. What are your thoughts on this?
Jim Raffel: I believe this trend will continue with weekly publications. Soft proofing works, I just do not see the core commercial printers / designers / ad agencies making this shift nearly as quickly as tight deadline weekly publications. Also, soft proofing needs independent third party verification just as much as hard proofing does.
Adam: Why is process control an important aspect of ICC-based color management?
Jim Raffel: Short answer: it is very hard to hit a moving target. In order for ICC-based color management to work, one must know that the device being managed is in control, and operating at a known state which is achievable and repeatable over time.
Adam: In your interactions with printers, how often is process control overlooked in the color management process?
Jim Raffel: It’s the same as process control has always been in our industry unfortunately which is about 90% of the time. The top 10% of printers seem to be where our recurring business comes from year in and year out. I would venture to guess that this is the 10% of our industry that is most profitable year in and year out as well.
Adam: Last July you started blogging your email newsletter. Has this been an effective marketing tool for you product and service offerings?
Jim Raffel: Yes, beyond my highest expectations. It is all about giving the knowledge and wisdom for free. It is about building trust that you are purchasing a product with people behind it who really understand the problems you are trying to solve.
Adam: With the success you've had with blogging, do you think print providers would benefit from blogging? That is, do think blogging could be used effectively to market print services?
Jim Raffel: It really depends. If you read my e-mail/blog it is generally truly informative without being overtly sales oriented. It would be about providing meaningful information with no expectation of a return. That is a difficult concept for many to grasp.
Adam: Will you be attending the PIA/GATF Color Management Conference?
Jim Raffel: Yes, ColorMetrix will be a sponsor again this year, as we have every year this conference has been held.
Jim Raffel can be contacted at:
ColorMetrix Technologies, LLC
http://www.ColorMetrix.com
http://www.JimRaffel.com
Phone: 262-820-1131
Email: raffelj [at] colormetrix [dot] com
Posted in: Interviews
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