Award-winning Web

When Chevy rolled out a new compact car last model year, the GM brand turned to ad agency Campbell-Ewald for some marketing impact. As over-sized, print brochures became part of the campaign mix, the Michigan agency called on $135-million, New Jersey printer Sandy Alexander to execute the game plan. (A similar brochure was produced for the Silverado pick-up truck line.)

The eight-color jobs look like they were printed sheetfed—and if you didn't know the print run (500,500 each), you might swear they were. “Running on an 8-color web with inline UV may not be typical, but it's emblematic of the high quality demanded by the automotive industry,” says Chip Stine, senior sales VP at Sandy Alexander, which is one of about a half-dozen printers nationwide who produce such pieces for the Big Three and Toyota.

The 32-page Cobalt piece (above, right) features CMYK plus four PMS colors supplied by Ink Systems: 302 blue, 391 olive green, 138 orange and a bump of 485 red. Gorgeous photographic bleeds fill spreads in precisely bound cross-overs. (Saddlestitching was done by American Bindery Depot, Edison, NJ.) Close-up shots of options appear in vibrant detail—from supple leather to gleaming chrome, highlighted with UV coatings and spot varnish. Headline typography is reversed-out white, demonstrating accurate trapping and registration. Rich tones and sharp contrast highlight the car's exterior and interior color choices, including intricate seat fabrics sans moiree, thanks to Paragon screening from Artwork Systems. “It's our standard 200-line screen now,” says prepress VP Howie Swerdloff, “and it's just terrific.” Color data is fed to the pressroom using Artwork's Nexus workflow, to which the printer migrated 18 months ago. Plates were imaged on Kodak Trendsetters.

Sandy Alexander was one of six sites chosen last year for press runs to help develop the new GRACoL “G7” specifications for commercial color printing. As a committee within IDEAlliance, the General Requirements and Applications for Commercial Offset Lithography (GRACoL) focuses on gray balance and print appearance.

Because it won a 2005 Benny in the web category of the PIA Premier Print Awards, one might assume that the covers were not printed on one of Sandy Alexander's three Speedmaster sheetfed presses, and this is indeed the case. Featuring six colors (four-color process plus PMS 302 and a bump of 485), they were run on the printer's 8-color MAN Roland Rotoman web with a 239/16´´ cutoff and inline UV—one of three Rotomans (the other two are 6-color versions) in the 150,000-sq.ft., ISO 9001- and 14001-certified plant.

Covers were UV coated inline and spot-gloss varnished over 80-lb. Sappi Strobe Silk cov-er stock. The 28 body pages (100-lb. Strobe Silk text) were spot-UV coated. The 11¼×10´´ piece has two gatefolds—one full text page and a 5½´´ panel as part of the inside back cover.