When I saw in various media that a printer in Brooklyn, NY, produced the inaugural invitations for incoming President Barack Obama, I had to pick up the phone and call the firm's president. I knew it would be as close as I was going to get to the momentous occasion.

Precise Continental (www.precisecorp.com) has the honor of having printed these prestigious invitations. They specialize in engraving, embossing, thermography and foil-stamping. I spoke with company president Jim Donnelly about how it came to pass that he got The Job.

"We first got a call from the Inaugural Committee's PR firm. We were told they needed a Union engraver for these invitations."

How did the firm single out Precise Continental? Why, the head of the PR firm happened to be the son of a client of theirs in DC. Talk about the power of referrals.

"Once we responded and actually spoke to the Committee, it turned out that they needed a printer who was FSC certified. To my knowledge, we are the only union engraver in the U.S. who is also FSC-certified."

The printer got the authorization for the job on December 12th. They needed to deliver 1 million engraved invitations on January 2nd. They moved into high gear. The Inaugural Committee spec'd the paper, and they insisted it had to be 100% post consumer waste. They chose Neenah Classic Crest Papers Recycled 100 Natural White. Neenah made the paper for the job over the weekend and delivered it on December 16th.

There was no new design for this job. Precise Continental was given samples of invitations from the past four inaugurations and asked to match the look.

The invitations were engraved in black and gold. Donnelly explained how there were actually three passes on the engraving presses (that's 3 million impressions): one for the black, one for the gold, and because the gold seal had to be burnished, a third pass to raise the gold seal and burnish it (I call it "raise and shine"). The printer used 12 of his 15 engraving presses, running from 4 am till 10 pm at night, for a total of 2400 hours.

I presumed that the printer used some special QC procedure, but I was told that all of their engraved work is hand inspected, so this didn’t pose any QC issues. It was not a technically challenging job.

There were no visits to the Brooklyn printer by Committee members, no press-side check or other client involvement. Believe it or not, the proof they sent was a PDF - just like you or I would get.

Frank Polizzi was the engraver, and I imagine he'll be telling stories about this job to his family for many years to come. Precise Continental managed the entire project, including envelope production and the printing of a 2-C insert that went with the invitation.

Although this very special "Customer-in-Chief" has not sent along any feedback to the Brooklyn printer, many of the printer's customers have been in touch. "Our customers are just ecstatic," said Donnelley. "Every customer wants to connect with a winner."

Some will think that these invitations are not green enough, that the President-elect should have sent e-vites. But I love fine printing. If ever an event merited engraved invitations, this was it.

Plus, in the midst of a terrible economy, as well as a widespread slowdown in the use of print, this job came at just the right time for an American printer and its employees. It was a great morale booster for everyone in the company. Donnelly told me that every employee will receive a framed copy of the invitation.

Memories are made of…print.

©2009 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You're free to forward this email to friends and colleagues: please do! However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

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