---

All of my life I've wanted to be an artist. If I had a nickel for every time my teachers wrote “John needs to stop wasting time drawing in class!” on my report cards, I wouldn't even need a job. Even when I was turned off by the huge egos and the ridiculous pretensions, my creative desires never died. They may have been sleeping, out to lunch or sometimes in a coma, but they weren't dead.

After spending the last eleven years in commercial prepress, bringing the creations of others to life, I am finding it difficult to ignore these desires. I must admit that all of my motives are not that idealistic. The customer's ability to create quality, press ready PDFs coupled with a rapid increase in raw processing power allows one person to be as productive as five were just six years ago. With the increasing automation in the commercial printing industry, I can't help but feel that the days of the “Prepress Operator” as skilled labor are numbered. In the future, I think the focus on skilled labor in the graphic arts will shift from “content distribution” to “content creation” and I am looking for an opportunity to hone these skills.

Someone once told me "Learning is not compulsory, but neither is survival." Does your company present that opportunity? Let's talk.