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.

“Their technical support is excellent, and they have been great to work with…”

Jim Myers

Executive Vice President, Art & Negative Graphics

Brothers Jim and Jason started evaluating Hunkeler equipment during a virtual demonstration hosted by Standard at Standard’s National Demonstration Center in 2020. More recently, Jim had the opportunity to visit the showroom in person. “It was very informative,” he says. “I learned a lot about the equipment we were looking to purchase, but there was also some equipment that caught my eye, including a nice die-cutting solution, which wasn’t on our radar.”

Shortly after, Art & Negative purchased two Hunkeler lines to finish their roll-fed output. They started with the Hunkeler Roll-to-Cut/Stack Solution which they use to produce direct mailers. They then added a Roll-to-Booklet Solution which consists of a Hunkeler UW8 Unwinder and CS8 Cutter that feed into the Horizon StitchLiner Mark V Saddlestitcher. They use this system primarily for producing calendars as well as personalized health care open enrollment packets which are verified via barcode reader for accuracy and quality assurance.

“Because our work is so diverse, we didn’t want to have any inline finishing that might tie us up, so our configurations are all offline,” Jim says. “This allows us to take the printed rolls from the Truepress to the appropriate finishing line, depending on the application being produced.”

In addition to the configuration flexibility, Jim notes the advantages of the equipment itself. “The Roll-to-Cut/Stack line has really streamlined our mailing operation,” he says. “Before, for a postcard, for example, we would print them offset, go to the cutter, and then to inkjet addressing. The beauty of the new configuration is that we can now do variable data on press, move the rolls to the Hunkeler line, where we cut it, stack it, tray it, and it’s all sorted and ready to go. I believe this has reduced our turn time for these mailers by at least 50%. And we have plenty of bindery capacity to serve the new Truepress as well when it is installed in the summer of 2024!”

Jim concludes by mentioning that Art & Negative just purchased a new Hunkeler/Horizon Roll-to-Fold line to round out their roll-fed business and increase their productivity even more in the mail space. “We had a competitive cut/fold/stack solution in house for a time, but it did not live up to the vendor’s promises,” he explains. “We have had much better support and service from Standard Finishing with the Hunkeler/Horizon lines. The installation was seamless, the training went well, and we were up and running in no time. We haven’t had any issues at all which is why we continue to partner with them. Their technical support is excellent, and they have been great to work with, available to us on an as-needed basis.”