Art & Negative Graphics was founded in Maryland in 1981 by Adrienne and Tom Myers as a pre-press business making film negatives from art boards – hence, the company name. Today, Adrienne remains President of this woman-owned business, running it alongside two of her four sons, Jim Myers (EVP) and Jason Wilburn (COO).
As film migrated more towards computer-to-plate, Art & Negative decided to enter the printing space in 2001. They acquired a 30,000 square foot building and purchased printing and bindery equipment from Heidelberg. As the business grew, Art & Negative expanded to 60,000 square feet of space, adding mailing services, which is its primary business today, and employing about 50 team members.
Jim explains, “About four years ago, we decided to get into digital printing with a Screen Truepress JET 520HD, and we are in the process of acquiring our second inkjet press, a Screen Truepress JET 560HDX. Since we had been a sheetfed operation, and the Truepresses are roll-fed, we needed to make investments in our bindery to handle the roll output.” He notes that their ultimate goal is to transition nearly all of their offset printing capabilities to inkjet.
Art & Negative had some experience with Standard Finishing, installing a Horizon BQ-270 Perfect Binder several years ago that is still operating today. This experience, coupled with Screen’s partnership with Standard, led them in the direction of Hunkeler for their roll-fed finishing.
Brothers Jim and Jason started evaluating Hunkeler equipment during a virtual demonstration…