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The following is an interview with Norman Beange, President of Specialties Graphic Finishers Ltd. Click here to contact Specialties Graphics.
TW: I've heard that Specialties is only interested in the unusual jobs - is that true?
NB: We only do unusual jobs! Whether it's an unusual size for tag-stringing, PMC die-cutting up to 9"x14", pin-hole perforating, perfect binding oblong up to 15", miniature perfect binding on thin books, in-line trim as small as 2 1/2", saddle stitching as small as 1 1/2" square up to oblong 14 1/2". As long as it's unusual we can usually do it.
TW: What about the really difficult stuff, like pop-ups? What other kinds of unique specialty work do you do?
NB: Yes, we do pop-ups. Our newest innovations are miniature tag-stringing, in-line folding and die-cutting, "chipping," which are paper swatches as small as 3/4" glued onto a backer as large as 14" x 26". Things like flocking, laser cutting, multiple location ink-jetting are technologies that we can bring to the table as well.
TW: Do you have a team that helps people engineer their project correctly?
NB: We spend a lot of energy and resources working with designers on the idea stage of a project. Usually they don't know things like coloured acco-fasteners, Chicago screws, spinners, metal corners and eyelets are available in a few day notice an array of colours. We "powder-coat paint" all of these products in Toronto. Most designers aren't aware that processes such as pin-hole perforation, duplexing, die-cutting of 150pt board, side sewing in multiple colours, etc. are available within days. We also have two full time engineers that can build machines from scratch or substantially re-engineer standard machines to mechanize difficult processes.
TW: You're located in Canada - how's business? Have you been affected by the global economic downturn?
NB: Even though we're located in Canada we still pull work from as far away as Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Missouri. It's not uncommon to hear from some customers only once every 2 years for a quote, but its often something that they cannot get done locally.
TW: Got any tips or resources for designers?
NB: Yes — I encourage you go to our web site and click on the "Information Center" tab. There is a lot of good information posted, including our quarterly publication, "finishing touch", articles, a dictionary, and much, much more.
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