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| My pursuit of a great printing story took me to downtown Philly right before Thanksgiving |
So Much Potential
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| The C941dn with Christine Shanks, Professor of Graphic Design, and Carl Taylor, OKI Data America’s Vice President of Marketing for North America |
The specific OKI
printer involved in the collaboration, the graphic-arts-oriented C941dn, is out
of my normal range of home and office (and more recently mobile) printing. The
application area, again, graphic arts, is also beyond the majority of my most
direct industry experience. The other parts of the equation, however, were
absolutely compelling to me, as both a story for my readers and a situation I
personally wanted to tap into. And something that IS on my regular beat and
that gives me plenty of latitude as far as exploration is the future of
printing, so this collaborative effort was of high interest. The direct
involvement of college-age students promised to offer great insight into “the
next generation” and its views on print. Throw a few pieces more on the
practical side – the fact I am a frequent visitor to Philadelphia and
surrounding environs, and as evidenced by my part-time professor role of the
last few years, I really enjoy being around students - it seemed like a natural
to request a visit to the Art Institute of Philadelphia and to see the printer
(and its users) in action. OKI Data and its representatives were more than
accommodating, and before I knew it, they had set me up for a pre-Thanksgiving
visit. I am excited to report a few of my findings here.
Observing Products in the Field – A Great Idea!
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| Yours truly with students (and their designs employing the white toner) - from left to right - Parker
May, John Dzwonar, Erin McConche, Joe Kolodi, and Johanna Mannervik. |
As a long-time
participant in the tech industry and as a part-time marketing professor for a
number of years now, field testing of products is generally of great interest
to me. Having been involved personally on many occasions, I was aware of the
value and insight that can be gained, even with implementation challenges and
the risk of hearing news that is not necessarily what was hoped for. The
release described the arrangement somewhat idealistically as can be expected,
as follows: “The two organizations will work
collaboratively throughout the course of this [three year] engagement to
maximize the experience for all involved. This will include regular feedback
from The Art Institute of Philadelphia’s staff and students on their experience
with the C941dn, as well as ideas for expanding the device’s capabilities.” Just the idea
of getting “up close and personal” with users, finding out their likes and
dislikes about the product in question, and really getting into their heads is
a hallmark of good marketing and customer understanding.
My Visit – Extreme Enthusiasm and the White Toner is ‘Blowing up’!
I was very impressed by
the enthusiasm of both the students and professors for the C941dn from OKI Data,
which they had been exposed to since August. The five students and one
professor who joined me for a group session brought numerous examples of their
work. As can be seen in my photographs, they all brought examples of their work
using the machine’s “white toner” capabilities. This, of course, provides much
more flexibility in printing on dark-colored stock, and invites a lot of
experimentation. In their professor’s words, “It's the white toner that's just
blowing up,” or, as a baby boomer like me would say, “The white toner
capability of the C941dn has led to the students exhibiting a great deal of
creativity and enthusiasm”.
One of the other
features of the printer (see this
article for more details), the clear toner, which offers the ability to put
a shiny surface on top of an otherwise conventional print job, seems next on
the list for the students to try. And process-wise, the C941dn’s presence in
their classroom as a means to test-run pages prior to sending to their in-house
service bureau was unanimously popular as a step- and time-saver. And just the
easy access and openness to experiment (credit to OKI Data and the Art
Institute of Philadelphia) has clearly made the collaboration a big success in
just the first months of its three-year commitment.
The students’
enthusiasm for print generally and the C941dn specifically was very high, to
the point they looked at me almost quizzically when I described my interest in
the thought that some millennials were “over” paper. We did discuss the place
for hard copy and the place for electronic communication, with many relating
experiences with invitations, cards, and the like, which really only worked
with physical print. (The professor estimated the split in their design curriculum
is about 50/50 between hard copy and electronic.) And as far as something
approaching production, output from the C941dn, in many varied forms, was part
of the Art Institute of Philadelphia’s recent “Sketchbook Show.”
Opportunity Knocks
From my brief visit, I
believe this has been and will continue to be a very successful collaboration
and that at least for the graphic-arts world, OKI Data has a huge market opportunity
with its robust C941dn (and no doubt models to follow), with the white and
clear toner features as real differentiators. (I’ve posted a look at white toner
in a guest blog at Actionable Intelligence – add link.) Back to the field
testing, though, I owe great thanks to the Art Institute of Philadelphia’s
administration, faculty and students, as well as OKI Data Americas, for the tremendous
access they offered me.
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