13 - LVS - The Next Generation of Dscoop & Print

In this conversation, hear from the next generation of #dscoop and #print about challenges they face, how they found the print industry, and what is next for them as they close in on graduation. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Yeah, because this is y'all's second year.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

Third.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Third. Third. I'll be back.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

The first one was Indy. Yep. So we've been here a few times.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

And that's good.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

You know, so the company that you work for, are they sending you? Are we inviting you to come or to We were invited to come. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

So that worked out really nicely. My company does actually send people in here though. So I do have a couple familiar faces around, which is really nice. So hopefully, maybe possibly they continue to keep sending it.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Let's hope so. You know, because you do. Okay, question. Yep. So when you're here, do you take things back to the staff?

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

And tell them what you learned and share it with them and everything.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Well, they always want to know. So it's it's very much we want to talk about it, but they also want to hear it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

And that's good. Because I know the there was one year, I don't know, I think I bought 10 of my employees, you know, and and they and it was in Chicago, they learned a lot. Oh, sure. And they said, Larry, I didn't know that all this was available. And I said, Well, that's what I've been trying to tell you. I said, if you go to the DScoop website, well, then you've got even more information that you can you can pull from. So it's just uh an education you possibly give them.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

Very much so.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Totally. Now the young ladies that are with you today, are they at the same school that you all okay?

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Yep, and this is also their third D SKU. We were us five were the first students from Ferris to attend D SKU. Um we went because we were on the executive board of our club and we wanted to cut out feelers, see if this is something it'd be worth bringing more students to in the future, and it absolutely was. So last year we brought an extra three students. Three. And then this year we have even more. Every year our group has grown larger. It's wonderful. Yeah, so we have we this will be our third year. We have some second-time attendee students and first time.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

So look, these are great. Well, you know, see, they're younger than you, is that right?

SPEAKER_02 2:29

These these three are our everybody else here with us is younger.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

So they're fixing to graduate.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Okay. You've graduated.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

I have.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

You're going to graduate in May. Now will they graduate in May? They will graduate with me. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

It's fantastic. So do they have a job lined down?

SPEAKER_02 2:48

I don't think any of us have jobs lined up. I think we're all looking. We've got all gotten some offers here and there, but nothing set in stone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

What kind of offer?

SPEAKER_02 2:57

I mean, dude, like uh, like uh, we're like people are reaching out, they just want to talk. They want there's no we're specifically looking for this or that. We just want you. So it's been very touch and go. We're just a couple of us have applied to like trainee programs.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

So there's been a couple of those too.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Well, fantastic. Well that's good. You know, now's the time to start looking. You know, I know my daughter when she graduated from college, uh uh Cisco Foobs had offered her a job. And she said, Dad, I don't know if I want to work through there. I said, that's a job. You know, go to go to work, learn a few things. So she was there a short time. She wasn't there because that's that's tough business, you know. So she was there probably for 18 months, I guess. And then she got into the medical industry and pharmaceutical sales. And she's this she was probably 26, I guess she's 54 now, and uh she's done very well in pharmaceutical voices.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Very well. So I'm just just real pleased with her voice. That's one thing about doing and and doing well, she's got Houston Medical Center as prepared for big owl. And Houston Medical Center is huge. Yeah, and everything that comes out of there. So you never know. You know where uh where all it's gonna get you.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

No, you don't. There's always so many different opportunities, especially like this industry is so versatile. Like you never know where you could wind up, no.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

I was talking to the kids a while ago, and two of them are uh they're majoring in uh packaging design. And uh, let's see what these guys will do.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

They're taking a pick.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

They've been here early. I think they've been great.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

They're having a party. They're having fun.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Oh, they're yeah, oh yeah, they're all that fun stuff. Two more days of that.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

And then we got the party.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

A D party party.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Everybody be lit out of that time. Oh, yeah. I was trying to describe to Aubrey what the party's like.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Oh. That's hard. No. It's first year. Oh, you're in for a treat. They're fine. You're in for a treat.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

We used to have the same band that came out of Chicago, and I don't know who they have now.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

I don't think they even had a band last year. No, they had a DJ. DJ DJs.

SPEAKER_03 5:50

That's true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yeah. But it was uh it was good. All right, girls, come here.

SPEAKER_03 5:56

You're being summoned. Yeah, in room, make room, make room.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Oh well.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

We got everybody here. Well, fantastic. Okay, introduce yourself again. We're gonna start with you.

SPEAKER_04 6:12

Hi, so my name is Faith Robinson. I'm a senior at Ferris State University, and I'm studying graphics.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

And you're going to graduate in May.

unknown 6:18

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 6:19

That's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

I'm Evelyn. I'm studying the same thing, also graduating in May.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Good, good.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

I'm Maggie Lewis. I am also a senior at Ferris. I am also graduating in May out of the Print Fair.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Fantastic. Okay, well, tell me about what have you. I was just talking to you. Um have you been looking for opportunities out there when you graduate?

SPEAKER_03 6:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Yes, how do you look for them? Um it's a lot of networking and connection.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Networking's the key. I'm telling you, it really is. I mentor a lot of uh young adults and and everything, and uh I tell them all the time network, network, network, network. Because a lot of time it's it's who you know not watching up.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Someone can just, you know, slide you in there, you know, it's always, always good. Well, I mean, so you said you're in design, is that right?

SPEAKER_04 7:08

Well, kinda yes and no. Our program is more of production focus with also a business angle to it. So we spend our first two years learning all the different aspects of print production kind of file setup through all the different production information methods. And then our last two years we've learned like lead manufacturing, marketing, management, estimating, estimating, production planning, you can business-oriented aspects of the printing business.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Pretty thorough.

SPEAKER_04 7:31

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

That's true, that's very, very good. I know uh Joe Davis, I don't know if you know that name or not, but he's the one that started uh consolidated graphics. He he bought the print shop, and I'm trying to think of what the name of it was there in Houston, and then from there he started venturing out and buying more print shops, and he he had the best training program of anybody I've ever known.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

And how he laid it out, you know, and and and just everybody was constantly trying to steal him his employees. Because they were so well trained. Right. You know, they could just take them, they could put them into the shop, and and they didn't have to go through all that expense and everything. So it's uh it it's it's a good business if you know the business. Yep. Uh you know, because it and it takes a while to really understand it. Of course, where I came from was in the very beginning. Of course, this is 51 years ago, where it was all analog. You didn't have all this digital stuff. You know, I mean, uh I don't know if y'all know what uh Ruby Lith is. You know what Ruby Lith is? Opaque pen? Well because we would have to have we had plates, you know, and then we would shoot film, and then you'd take the film and then you would strip it up, you know, cut everything out, and then you take it and put it on the light table, and then you take your opaque pen, and then you take it, and then we'd get all the dust marks out of it and cover it all up and everything, and then you'd take that, and then you'd put it on the plate, and you'd put it on a plate burner, and then you'd flip it over, and then you'd mut that image in there, you know, and then you had the plate. God forbid if you make a mistake. And then you had to start back over. And and but that's the world that we were in. And then came um the they they developed machines that we could just take the plate and put it in a plate burner, and it would digitally print the image on the plate. We thought, oh my god, we've arrived, you know, on uh on the technology. And we did that. We had Kodak at the time, and and we had their their plates that we ran. And then, you know, we bought the indigo. I was the first printer in Texas to buy an indigo. This is when it was indigo, it wasn't HP. That was like in 1999, I think. And all we had to do is take a file and send the file to the press and we print the side we got. I'm believing. And now we're y'all at the uh y'all were at the session. Yeah, yeah. And now they're talking about continuous print. Just log and run. It goes and runs and runs and runs and runs and runs. So that's yeah, that's where you're gonna make money. But print is very capital intensive. I mean, it was ever I bought, I remember I bought the eight-color 40-inch perfector from Heidelberg. This was in 2000, and I paid uh three and a half million for it. I still have that press. Well, I don't. Somebody bought me and they have it. And they have it, and it still runs. You know, and it boy, it runs it runs great, you know. So it's just amazing how how things have changed. So y'all y'all are gonna learn a lot here.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

You formed well and our with our degree too, and like a lot of us did tech centers before we even went to college, like back in high school where we first learned about print. That's really how most of us ended up at Ferris studying print. And so by the time we graduate, we already have five, six years of experience in print. I know, it's been super helpful, especially with applying for jobs and whatever, because if you're hiring somebody our age, we have so much more experience.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Oh, you're way ahead of the game.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

So many people out there, and people don't always understand them. No. Because they all want they want the experience, they want the experience, and they're like, they look at someone our age and they're like, you don't have that. And it's like actually kind of do.

unknown 11:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:44

And not only do we have it, but we can adapt it to whatever anywhere else cover it.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

So uh here comes a million dollar question. So do they have you in any kind of sales training programs?

SPEAKER_02 11:57

You can choose to choose to do that. You have to have either a concentration or a miner. And so you did the sales. None of our core classes are sales related. We do a lot with marketing. Um, but yeah, you there you can get a sales certificate, you can take four sales classes. There are ways you can get that experience. But a lot of our students get sales experience doing internships.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

So, because we're required one to graduate, but most of us do them every summer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Sales is the key. You gotta get that in there for a little revenue. And y you know, you gotta learn how the customer thinks. And that's the most successful salesman that I've seen, is they have learned what the customer is needing, they're thinking, you know, and be able to relate and be able to handle those things. So and salesmen are a pain in the butt.

unknown 12:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

They are. You know, they're coming in and you know. I mean, I managed a bunch of them, you know, for sure. And I am one. Yeah. Ladies, I am tickled to death that y'all are here. I am, I really am. You know, it's nice to see some young blood coming in to the uh as I'm transitioning out. You know, the young ones are y'all are smart. Very, very smart girls, you sure we are. But if you need anything, feel free to go to my website, you'll see the email, and ask me a question, and I promise you I will respond.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

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