(insights from a BURN intern: By Kathleen Euston)
If you read my last entry, you know I quickly discovered that agency interns are often asked to do things slightly outside of their comfort zones, i.e. role playing an astronaut or running down Oak Street chasing the ice cream man (Jeff has a hankering for bomb pops, though it makes his lips awkwardly red the rest of the day).
Last Wednesday, however, I was given the opportunity to do something right up my alley (or so I thought). I got to visit xpedex, the Kansas equivalent of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
Fact: Paper companies are not all alike. (Neither are bears. And, of course, brown bears are best.)
Xpedx specializes in literally THOUSANDS of varieties of paper. I never thought paper was so important to the execution of marketing concepts. When the big shots at BURN sit down to dream up a mailer, brochure or business card for a client, they have literally millions of options, capabilities and decisions to consider. They must decide what best fits the clients needs. Who would have thought you actually have to think in this business?!
Question: should you use a smooth, uncoated piece of paper or an earthy fiber-based paper? Should the piece be printed on a linen surface or a cast coated paper? And what sort of printer and ink should be used with what paper? Did you know the opacity and transparency of the paper determines the weight of the ink added? These are some of the many questions you must consider. (And they are, in fact, the only questions I memorized in an attempt to convince Sarah that I paid attention in paper class.)
Before attending Paper 101, I thought all paper was the same. During the five-hour seminar, I was given an insider’s look into the complexities of papermaking, properties, categories, printing and even how the papers are bonded to one another.
I’m so glad I attended this seminar, because now I have a deeper appreciation for everything that happens on “The Office.” Michael Scott and his compadres at Dunder Mifflin are literally geniuses!
I wonder what kind of paper Schrute Bucks are printed on?
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