Reprographic Arts' new location.
By Ed Avis
It seems strange in this day of airplanes and fast cars, but the expansion of a rail line prompted APDSP member Reprographic Arts to move to a new location. The company, located in Michigan City, Indiana, had to find new digs when the South Shore Railroad decided to add another track and bought Reprographic Arts’ building.
“That was one of the main reasons we decided to move,” says Kevin Brown, the company’s president. “Also, we couldn’t walk around the shop anymore with all the machines in there.”
The move to the new, larger location is a solid sign that Reprographic Arts, founded in 1970 by Brown’s father, Fred Brown, is thriving as it nears a half-century in business.
Started with Dietzgen
Fred Brown, a World War II veteran and Purdue University graduate, spent the first decade of his career in reprographics as national sales manager for Dietzgen. He then went to work for Huey Reprographics in Chicago, until Fanning & Howey Architects in Michigan City asked him to start an in-house reprographics department. It was essentially the first FM, and it led to the founding of Reprographic Arts.
By the mid-1990s the company had moved to shop in downtown Michigan City, where
The previous location.
it thrived until the Recession of 2008 hit. The senior Brown died that same year, and Kevin Brown took over as president.
“We went from having 100 sets sitting in the lobby ready to ship out, to having to figure out something else to do, just like everybody else,” the younger Brown says.
That “something else” was screen-printed T-shirts and digitally printed signs and banners. Those new lines pulled the company through the Recession, and today the firm’s business is approximately evenly divided among reprographics, signs/banners, and T-shirts.
“We have a full-time T-shirt designer and a full-time banner designer,” Brown says. The
T-shirts being screen printed.
company creates T-shirts for schools, churches, family reunions, and other such groups.
Reprographic Arts also was an early adopter of online planrooms.
“When ARC started with their online planroom, one of our customers said, ‘What are you going to do?’” Brown says.
In response, Brown commissioned a designer to create an online planroom they could use. That design became ReproConnect, and Reprographic Arts continues to use ReproConnect today.
“We were the first user,” Brown says. “I wish I had bought into that company. I remind them of that whenever I need a favor.”
Looking Ahead
Brown says the company is moving ahead with the help of the Canon Business Builder program. They bought an Océ Arizona flatbed printer, and after Canon helped them learn how to operate the new machine, they spent time helping the company understand what other print products they could create with the machine and how to market them.
“They stay with you for a year, and make quarterly visits,” Brown says. “We’re trying to take things to the next level.”
Making Room
When the South Shore Railroad, which connects South Bend and other northern Indiana towns to Chicago, bought Reprographic Arts’ shop, it created an opportunity for them to move into a space more suited to their size. Brown says the company’s seven employees barely had room to maneuver in the old location.
“Our new location was a former printing company, the owner retired,” Brown says, adding that the new location is 1.6 miles from the old one. “The building was in shambles. We did a new roof, and changed the electricity, plumbing, and air system. But it was worth it for the space. Our prior office had 3,000 square feet, and this one has 5,000.”
Reprographic Arts is holding an open house on Wednesday, April 4 from 4 to 6 p.m. to celebrate their new home.