COMMERCIAL PRINTER
"We make decisions on what printing equipment we buy based on one thing: Quality. We take the same approach when we're shopping for computers."
Frank Woods, owner of Woods Lithographics in Phoenix, Arizona isn't interested in getting the job done. He's interested in getting the job done perfectly. Most people think of printing as a craft, but to Frank Woods and the company's 100 employees it seems to be more of an art form--each job imbued with their personal commitment to the excellence of every detail. "What we do is comparable in complexity to what Silicon Graphics(R) systems have been used for in other industries; for example, morphing in film and video. In many ways, graphics is not all that different. So, we're very excited to now be in a position where we can use Silicon Studio from Silicon Graphics, and we expect a lot from it."
Woods, his wife Barbara, and two employees, started the company in 1978 in a 3000 square foot building. Today the operation runs 24 hours a day in a fully air-conditioned 65,000 square foot facility, and is widely considered to be one of the finest color printing companies in the United States.
It also may be one of the tidiest printing plants in the world. Nowhere in the vast press room outfitted with 8 Heidelberg presses of varying capabilities is there so much as a misplaced scrap of paper or a smudge of ink. "And early each week," Frank Woods says proudly, "we clean, service and wax our presses. That's just part of our regular maintenance."