Click here to listen to full podcast
James Myers is the Executive Vice President at Art & Negative Graphics, Inc., a position he has held with distinction since his return to the company in April 2000. James embarked on his career at Art & Negative in 1986, drawn by the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies in photo scanning, color manipulation, image retouching, and electronic publishing systems. His early work in these areas laid a strong foundation for his expertise in the visual arts and digital imaging.
Before resuming his role at Art & Negative, James broadened his professional horizons by working in management for two large commercial printing companies. This experience enriched his skill set, particularly in sales and marketing, and provided him with valuable insights into the commercial printing industry. In 1997, James leveraged his extensive experience and industry knowledge to found Lighthouse Design, LLC, a creative studio that offered a comprehensive range of creative services. Leading this venture allowed him to collaborate closely with talented creatives, further enhancing his creativity and deepening his understanding of the visual arts.
Upon his return to Art & Negative Graphics, Inc., James was tasked with the exciting challenge of expanding the company’s reach into new areas of direct marketing. Under his leadership, the company has seen significant growth and innovation, reinforcing its reputation as a leader in the industry. James’s journey reflects a commitment to continuous learning and adaptation, qualities that have driven his successful career and his impactful contributions to Art & Negative Graphics, Inc.
Art & Negative Graphics, Inc. is a MBE/WBE woman-owned printing, signage, and fulfillment company founded in 1981 by Thomas and Adrienne Myers. Specializing in healthcare, higher education, state governments, home builders, and Fortune 500 companies, the company excels in workflow automation, custom online ordering portals, print production, direct mail, fulfillment, signage, and creative services. With over 40 years of industry experience, Art & Negative Graphics, Inc. continues to provide innovative solutions tailored to their diverse client base.
Chris Santomassimo: Welcome back to the Think Factory Podcast. I’m your host Chris Santomassimo from OGC Solutions and we power the Think Factory podcast. And I’m excited to introduce a friend of the podcast. This is Jim Myers from Art Negative Graphics, where he’s the Executive Vice President, and they’re down in Lanham, Maryland. So welcome to the podcast, Jim.
Jim Myers: Chris, appreciate it.
Chris Santomassimo: So it’s our pleasure to have you. So you and I met one of the recent, you know, industry shows. I would love to just tell people that. Listen to the podcast, what’s exciting and aren’t negative, the history. I know you guys are a family business or have you got multiple, multiple family members work in the business? But just to talk a little bit about the company and what you think is interesting out there.
Jim Myers: Yeah. So Art Negative, as you can tell from the name, we started the business back in 1981. My parents started the business and we just we made negatives from our boards back in the day as to how it was done. And but we, you know, evolved over the years to do commercial printing mailing, you know, that’s why format signage and so forth. So, yeah, so it’s been a very interesting journey, you know, evolving all the time, but we just never changed a name. It was an old sales rep from Xerox. She said, Well, one good thing is you can remember your name because it’s kind of kind of outdated, pretty much. But yeah, exactly. Like, well, you know, it stays in someone’s brain for a while and that’s a good thing. So. But anyways, yeah. So we just went trucking along and you know, mainly focusing on direct mail now and signage, especially internal signage, that kind of thing.
Chris Santomassimo: I’ve said it has to be at least a dozen times on one of these podcast interviews about how exciting the direct mail business is, at least for me, because that that is one of the segments of print that really brings together the traditional side of print, so to speak, in terms of putting ink on paper. But the omni channel communications and all of the the technology that goes into variable data printing and actually putting pieces in the mail effectively to me is where we’re all sort of comes together in one place.
Jim Myers: Yeah, well, I think we saw a huge spike after COVID. It just seemed like everybody wanted to do direct mail politics. People just were exhausted by emails and digital media. And so it was also the challenge of getting paper was a challenge. But when we saw it, you know, really take off. We went ahead and just invested a ton of money into it. We purchased we partnered up with screen. They used to be our free press provider back in the eighties and nineties. So but we had lost communications with them because we were, you know, basically we’re a horrible shop for a long time. And then when we started to get into inkjet, the quality that they had was pretty amazing. So we kind of drank the Kool-Aid and move in that direction. So we bought a screen roll to roll press inkjet for color, and then we have another one on order. That’s coming in. August is the new 560 HD. So super excited. We’ll be the first ones in the United States to happen and install because we’re set up as a beta beta site for them.
Chris Santomassimo: So what did what is the the new unit do that that’s different or better than the prior one?
Comments are closed