I do not know a great deal about print. 

I have degrees in film, art, and business, but no formal education in print technologies. Print was a second career for me. I started out as a portrait and commercial photographer. My photographs were printed but the handoff to the publication was the end of my involvement.   

 Stumbling into print is the best description. I used a computer for invoicing, an Apple Macintosh. It was the early days of personal computers. A client saw my computer and said I was a computer expert. His creative agency hired me to “computerize” the creative design production and ‘digitize’ their stock photo library. My skills were still based in technology, and not in print.   

 Eventually I gained knowledge that led me to understand what worked for digital and what was needed for print. 

I ran a high-end retouching and prepress studio. High end meaning the images had high market value to the client. We would receive files that had over a hundred layers, multiple filters to achieve the artistic visual effect, and were commonly over one terabyte in size: one image, a movie poster. I watched the finishing artist build incredibly complex files. 

 I had no idea how he made the decisions to build what he did.   

 My prepress technicians had to create a printable version. I watched them flatten, layer by layer; each requiring unique approaches to maintain what the original artist and the finisher created. 

 I had no idea how they determined what needed to be done.

I would stand on press and watch it being engineered for printing. Determining the ink order, touch plates, double hits and so on. 

 I had no idea how those decisions were determined.   

 I know a lot about print. 

I know so much that I know how much I do not know about print.   

 This fact makes me curious about print, more curious than anyone you will ever meet.