Leapfrog 🐸

In the days just after college, I held a job in a print shop. I did not do any traditional printing myself, however I worked the (then new and fancy) color “Fiery” toner-based laser printer and a “Lino” machine, a contraption which produced the film used in ink-based offset lithography printing process. The Lino was was the link between a layout on the computer and a printing plate which is physically mounted in the press to put the image on the paper. This was an early use of the computer in the printing process, long before we all communicated digitally, device to device. You can say email, pop up ads, and blogs replace much of the printed materials I helped to produce in that job.

Years later, I learned of the ramifications of what I did in that job for others. By producing these Linos, I was replacing several steps in an even older system: the layout person who created “camera ready art”, the camera person who shot film, another person who taped the film onto a sheet called a mask ("stripper"), and the person "burning" the metal plate for the press. This was all done before the pressman was involved. All of these tasks were performed by people, not machines, and often these were solid union jobs. I saved the customer money by replacing this whole team of people. At the time I was not particularly aware of this team having exiting, except in the abstract. I was just concerned with applying my new skills to my job. It was years later, in talking to the old timers who has seen more of the arc of change, that I began to better understand.

Today we don’t communicate all that much with pieces of printed paper. We write email. We develop e-blasts. We text. We blog or podcast. We curate our social network. That old job of mine, producing Linos (or more likely, plates) still exists in some form, as we all still get junk mail.

I was told in college that one must take a “continuous education” approach to their career. I think to those folks who learned and maybe invested in processes that quickly change or disappear. The market is fast moving any always happy to drop the need for certain tasks in favor of the next.