Doing the Impossible: Why We Take on Jobs Other Printers Turn Down

How do you make an impression on Congress and the Department of Defense?

When the Dayton Development Coalition needed to look its best for a meeting with Washington leaders, they came to Oregon for help. The economic development group wanted a printed book to share its work. The book’s plastic cover needed a die cut out in the shape of Ohio. And it needed to line up perfectly with an image of the state on the first page.

Impossible? Not for Oregon. We made it work…It was a very tight deadline, since the information was time sensitive. So before the book was printed, we die cut the outline of Ohio on an over-sized sheet of frosted plastic, so that when the book was printed we could match up the position of the state by trimming 4 sides of the plastic, hence making it the cover . The book was a hit at May’s fly-in event.

The next month, the Dayton Art Institute asked for help with the invitation to its annual Art Ball. Inspiration for the event was John Safer’s polished steel sculpture Pathway—so DAI asked for a full-color invite on a silver metallic stock.

The price for the metallic stock was out of this world—so we got creative. We took regular gloss cover stock, printed it with solid metallic silver ink, let it dry, and then printed full color on top. It was different than any project we’d ever done before—and it turned out awesome. We kept the Art Institute under budget—and gave them a true work of art to send to Ball invitees.

Going above and beyond

As those of us in the industry know, a print job is rarely just feeding a file to a press and hitting “print.” Great printing requires a designer’s eye, an engineer’s mind—and sometimes, a stuntman’s daring.

At Oregon, we take that philosophy to heart. We’ve earned something of a reputation for accepting off-the-wall print jobs that other print shops turn down. That might be because we’re just crazy enough to say “yes.” But mostly, it’s just part of our culture.

Jobs like DDC’s booklet or DAI’s invite mean we have to spend time with our clients to figure out their needs. Then we apply our expertise and ingenuity—and a pinch of luck. If a job simply isn’t possible within a client’s budget, we’ll let them know. And we’ll do our best to find a solution everyone can agree on.

We’re happy to help our clients carry out their printing and marketing visions—no matter how “out there” they might be. In fact, we embrace the weirdness and the challenge—after all, we’re a little out there too.

Got a printing job other shops can’t handle? Call Oregon, and we’ll help you find a solution.