Yes, it’s Oscar season, and though the Academy has missed the boat on this one, we have NOT!

Roland customers are out there on YouTube and we are here to applaud the effort. In our first ever Academy Awards of sorts, we’d like to showcase the Roland community as you have never seen it – with the cameras rolling.

Some of our top YouTube picks are from the last year. Others have stood the test of time. All are Oscar worthy performances featuring – you guessed it – Roland customers and products.

So grab the popcorn, turn up the volume, and enjoy these creative masterpieces!

Best Comedy Actor in a Starring Role

World’s Most Interesting Dental Technician

Campy, yet sophisticated and full-on tongue in cheek, this video you’ve just got to see. From Stonehenge to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Roland DWX-50 customer Shaun Keating is“The Most Interesting Dental Technician in the World.”  Tune in to watch Shaun drink from the Fountain of Youth, dive from a helicopter to catch a record sized marlin with his bare hands and paint a Mona Lisa portrait daily – all with perfectly milled dental prosthetics in hand. What the video doesn’t show is that Shaun also “kicks it” on his Roland drum kit – better than Travis Barker.  Never in the history of dentistry has one man accomplished so much.

Best Soundtrack in a Tutorial

Changing a VersaCAMM Cutting Strip

This one really took me by surprise, with its catchy guitar music and rather industrial subject matter. Quite honestly, changing your VersaCAMM cutter strip has never felt so much like being in a beer garden or art festival. And even without a voiceover, I’ve got the process down pat! It just goes to show that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Best Blockbuster Cameo

DarthVaderMask prototyping with Roland MDX-20

May the force be with you!  Sandwiched between the star-studded interviews and outtakes in this Star Wars tribute lies a compelling – if messy – B-roll action sequence featuring none other than the MDX-20. Take a walk on the dark side to see first hand how Roland technology helped create Darth Vadar’s iconic mask.

Best Special Effects

rG Half Pipe Wrap

It would never occur to me to put a skateboarding ramp in my office, but then, I am over 40! Check out this fast-paced production featuring young entrepreneurial artists, all the action of skateboarding, clever subtitles in bubbles, floating project prototypes and Roland-printed graphics.  Gamut Media not only wraps the soccer-themed ramp before your very eyes, but shows just how the design concept came to life with the boys from Related Grey.  As my 15-year-old son would say, “Sick!”

Best Foreign Film

Roland VersaCAMM SP-540i

With a certain international flair, this short piece is packed with interesting beauty shots of the VersaCAMM. What is more interesting, though, is the way the movements of the printer are perfectly timed to the piano concerto in the background. Exquisite!

By Martin T. Charles, SagaBoy Productions
Roland Featured Guest Blogger

For the past twenty years, I have worked in Hollywood on films, in TV and behind the scenes. In many respects I do what most Roland printing shops do – I create works of art that are dimensional and often sizeable. Your work is rooted in reality – while mine is meant to simulate it.

My job as a designer is to go deep into creativity and try to solve a problem. I never think of the end result as something I already know and I never know how I will complete the graphic, though I know the result I’m looking for, until it is completed.

Here is a brief story on how I get into a project. My dear friend, Victor Kempster, a designer that works with Tom Hanks, and I work together a lot. And when we are forming our concepts, I find myself thinking about not necessarily the project at hand, but about something that parallels.

We talk about cars or art or coffee or wine. It’s important to free your mind of preconceived ideas and put them to rest. Then you develop your design. Victor sometimes goes on for an hour plus with an explanation of his vision. I listen. I take a percentage of those ideas, absorb them and edit them. Tangents are good. We come up with great ideas when we are off on a tangent.

Sometimes, I am asked, “What do you have from previous projects that we could use?” And I think, “Why would I want to recycle anything that I’ve done before? Where is the challenge there?” Creativity is born when ideas are new, fresh and evolving.

Now you have to be efficient in Hollywood, but efficiency is not the objective – creativity is. So, I refuse to recreate. I do have to step up to some tight deadlines, though. It is not unusual for me to be up all night printing and it is not unusual for a production assistant to be standing in front of the printer as the graphic rolls off because it is needed on the set – immediately.

For a movie, the average production times are getting smaller now in terms of what they give me for prep time. Three and a half months is the norm. Michael Mann films take about six to eight months to prep. And projects change as you go along. Schedules change, production locations change. Regardless, the production team will crunch the prep time as close as possible to the actual film date. They have to because film production is so costly.

So, the ability to adapt is key in Hollywood, not only to scheduling demands, but also to different creative approaches. Designer Richard Hoover from HBO’s “The Newsroom” is completely different from Victor Kempster. When I went to see Richard, he had models and drawings, including a two-story wall of graphics. It was clear what he wanted in his mind. For me, I had to build it fresh in my own mind. As the conversation progressed, the design objectives became clearer. Always, though, it is about communication. Great design communicates broadly and well.

Baron Storey was my professor at the Pratt Institute back in the 1980s. He once said to me that I needed to find my own language. That seed was planted back then and is still with me today. Other words of wisdom have come from Michael Mann. He says that on any given day there are many different directors making movies in Hollywood. He expects those working with him to always have that same passion.

Every creative process has moments when you are completely blocked. So you must find a way to go around it. My advice is to close the doors for a minute and take a walk. Every design solution is a problem you are solving. My solution could be completely different from another’s. And the final project may never be what I intended it to be in the beginning.

But the finished work will be excellent. It has to be. As creative professionals, that is what keeps us going.

With more than 50 feature films to his credit, Martin T, Charles is one of the movie industry’s top graphic designers. Using his Roland VersaCAMM VS and SOLJET printer/cutters, he has set the stage for block busters such as “Miami Vice,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “Leatherheads,” “Public Enemies,” “Frost Nixon” and “Love and Other Drugs.” He is currently working with Alan Sorkin’s very talented cast and crew to prep HBO’s “The Newsroom” for its second season. Off the set, Martin enjoys fast cars, fine wines, deep sea fishing and spending time with his wife and their three beautiful children.

What a year! I hope all of you had a happy holiday season and are refreshed for the new year. As we wrap up all the last details and put 2012 in the rearview mirror, it’s important to acknowledge all the hard work that went into it as we gear up for 2013. To our employees, dealers, vendor partners and international GlobalOne friends: Thank you all for contributing and helping us perform as a team. We’re better, together. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Here’s a great video that typifies our great relationship with our dealers & customers.

We’re forecasting growth this year, and with the help of the new Pro 4, lowered prices on VS-series printers, and our outstanding dealer sales network – I think we’re poised for great things this year. New product launches will also help, but I can’t talk about those just yet. Stay tuned and you’ll be sure to hear from our great marketing team if we have any news about new products. My hope is the economy is in a growth mode now that the politics have settled down a bit, and that will help all of us.

On a personal note, I’m excited to dive into my new role as president. The incredible support, words of encouragement and expressions of excitement from so many of the Roland team, industry folks, and friends have been inspiring. I’m following in the footsteps of giants like Dave, and Bob before him. I certainly appreciate their confidence and continued support, along with our senior management team.
I am optimistic that our best years lie ahead, and that together we’ll do incredible work, launch great new products, serve our customers even better, and add a little more magic to what we have here at DGA.

Thanks for reading,
Rick

Working with Roland customers is the best. And here in public relations, we get the unique opportunity to work with many of you on a daily basis. Your creativity is inspiring. Your technical expertise – amazing. Your passion for Roland – now that is where you rock the P.R. world.

Welcome to what we are calling our “2012 Roland P.R. Hall of Fame,” a tribute to everyone who has helped us chase headlines and win awards during the last year. Your outstanding work – and willingness to “put it out there” – deserve a round of applause. So, here we go, with a snapshot of some of this year’s media darlings.

Barbara Carroz of BACA-DG – Our Very Own Cover Girl

Barbara Carroz of Venezuela’s BACA-DG has really gone the extra mile. Not only did she enter our Creative Awards competition with her gorgeous “Alma Mia” fine art exhibit graphics (designed by Coral Hernandez Finol), she took the Latin American regional title and traveled with Roland to Japan in April to celebrate our 30th anniversary with us. Then she went on to win the Digital Output Application of the Year awards, and became the August issue cover story. Outstanding, Barbara!

Shaun Keating of Keating Dental Arts – A Powerful Nod from the Expert

Keating Dental Arts owner Shaun Keating is as close as it gets to being a dental industry rock star. The self proclaimed “most interesting dental technician in the world,” (a title he defends in a hilarious website video at www.keatingdentalarts.com,) operates a large state-of-the-art dental laboratory that serves restorative dentists and partner labs both nationally and globally. A blogger, thought leader and award-winning expert, Shaun’s review of our DWX-50 for Dental Lab Products’ August issue had phenomenal cache. Shaun, you are “the most interesting dental technician in the world!”

Phillip Dominguez of Identity, Inc. – A Big Splash on the Small Screen

What better way to get exposure than to put the VersaCAMM VS on TV? That is exactly what our friends at Identity, Inc. and Acrylic Tank Manufacturing (ATM) are doing. Deep inside their Animal Planet studios, brothers-in-law Wayde King and Brett Raymer of ATM construct exotic custom aquariums for the rich and famous. These water-filled wonderlands are both wrapped and engraved by Phillip Dominguez of Identity, Inc. using Roland technology – on TV for the hosts’ popular show, “Tanked.” Check your local listings to catch all the action and look for an Identity, Inc. “Tanked” Digital Output web exclusive set to appear online in February. Sensational, Phillip, Wayde and Brett!

Phillip Yu and John Kim of Gamut Media – The Ultimate L.A. Story

What is more “L.A.” than a trendy new restaurant, partly owned by a real-life Los Angeles Laker? Absolutely nothing! So, when Gamut Media got the branding contract for “Saladish,” owners Phillip Yu and John Kim jumped at the chance. From menus and table tents to window graphics and wall wraps, this project turned four walls into a sheer Garden of Eden. So striking were the Saladish graphics that the boys from Gamut Media took first place in our North American Creative Awards competition and then went on to win a Golden Image award at SGIA. Numerous press release write-ups in the trades have placed them squarely at the top of their field. And, like BACA-DG, they were there in Japan for our 30th anniversary event and also came to Vegas for SGIA where they were interviewed by the media. Way to go, Phil and John!

Bob Iuliano of Adirondack Dental Ceramics – Bringing in the WOW! Factor

While an official case study is still in the works, behind the scenes Adirondack Dental Ceramics owner Bob Iuliano single-handedly catapulted our DWX-50 onto the Journal of Dental Technology’s (JDT) 2012 Top Ten list. Bob’s award entry gave high praise to the revolutionary dental mill, leaving the judges speechless and securing one of just 10 spots on JDT’s “WOW! Product of the Year” list. As a “WOW” product, the DWX-50 enjoyed a splashy full-page feature in the October issue, and has been in high demand ever since. Fantastic, Bob!

Martin T. Charles of SagaBoy Productions – A Hollywood Legend

Where do I start when it comes to Martin Charles? One of the industry’s most sought after stories, he and his Roland printers have produced film graphics for every major movie star and director you can think of – from Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp to George Clooney, Michael Mann, Julia Roberts and Ron Howard. His stories have lit up the covers and pages of virtually every trade magazine you read with beautiful images, articulate quotes and some of the most interesting digital printing applications around. His latest project, HBO’s “The Newsroom,” was publicized throughout the sign and entertainment industries and generated a great, in-depth personal profile of Martin for Signs of the Times. Martin, you are a legend in your own time!

Want to see your story in the press? Send us some photos of your best work! I can be reached at lweller@rolanddga.com, and my colleague, Marc Malkin, is at mmalkin@rolanddga.com. Hope to hear from you.

Roland Wins Top Workplace!

The Orange County Register conducts a “Top Workplace” survey, and today published the winners. After surveying over 22,000 Orange County employees and hundreds of companies, Roland was named a “Top Workplace” in Orange County, in the small company category. This is the 4^th time we’ve earned this distinction in the last 5 years. (We didn’t participate in 2009 – Sort of had our hands full with a troubled economy…)

I can’t say enough about the employees here at Roland. Passionate. Fun. Hard-working. Creative. Engaged. Smart. Committed. Dedicated. They “bleed Roland blue.”

I’m incredibly proud of them, our work here, and their continued commitment to making this a great place to work. I honestly love coming to work everyday.

What a great gift before Christmas!

Congratulations to all our employees, please take a bow! (Go ahead and take tomorrow off too.)

Thanks for reading,

Rick

TopWorkplaceprogram

As a busy working mom, I know just how hectic this time of year can be. The cooking. The decorating. Getting ready for family gatherings.

Then there are the gifts. You want them to be special, to have that personal touch. And while we can’t solve all your holiday challenges here at Roland, we can help you there!

Welcome to the first ever Roland Holiday Gift Guide, featuring customized gift items that you can purchase – all produced using Roland technologies. A great chance for you to share a little holiday magic with family and friends, these unique gifts and accessories showcase the amazing creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of Roland businesses everywhere.

We invite you to read on for our top holiday picks – and to join in the fun! If your Roland business offers unique personalized items for purchase, please send a photo, write-up and website address to lweller@rolanddga.com. We will add you to the guide.

Custom Handbags – Gina Alexander
Who could resist these? Printed on a Hi-Fi Express sublimation printer, award-winning Gina Alexander handbags feature your own photos to remind you of the people, places and things you love. Get one for yourself as well. Visit www.ginaalexander.com to order.

Personalized Labels – Kidecals
Need a great stocking stuffer? How about personalized labels your kids can stick on their most precious belongings? Produced using a VersaCAMM, these labels will help your little ones keep track of their things. Shop online at www.kidecals.com.

Urban Chic Metallic T-Shirts – The T-Shirt Makers
Let’s face it. You can never have too many T-shirts. Produced using a VersaStudio BN-20, these custom tees feature stylish metallic effects for the ultimate fashion statement. Call (213) 999-2548 or visit http://thetshirtmakers.com for complete details on how to order.

Unique Garden Ornaments – Build A Birdhouse
Keep the song birds singing all year long with a colorful custom birdhouse. Choose from more than 700 designs, including metallic options, all wrapped using Build A Birdhouse’s VersaCAMM VS. A great conversation piece for any backyard. Visit www.buildabirdhouse.ca to order.

Jewels for that Special Someone – Styles Jewelers
Nothing says “I Love You” like a fabulous piece of jewelry. Imagine her reaction when she unwraps this beautiful, exotic necklace, produced using Roland 3D technology. Going to Houston? Shop in person. Otherwise, browse online at www.stylesjewelers.com.

Party Favors – Favors & Flowers
Having a holiday get together or winter wedding? Spoil your guests with elegant favors customized with VersaStudio BN-20 technology. Whether you are talking boxed mints, champagne bottles or gift baskets, your personalized favors will sport shimmering metallic effects to delight your guests. Go to www.favorsandflowers.com to order.

During a recent salmon fishing trip to Sekiu, Washington, I was reminded how similar fishing and searching for buyers can be.

You can be sitting in the middle of a fog bank, bobbing around on a large ocean, cold and wet, when the fish aren’t biting and no clue as to where they are. It’s times like this you can start to doubt your bait, your location and everything else about what you’re doing.

Confidence comes with experience, studying the fish reports, knowing the tides, depth of the water and weather conditions, and listening to other anglers on the radio. But mostly, you just have to believe in yourself and that you’re doing everything right, including following the basics.

The first rule of selling should be the same for fishing: “You can’t catch fish if your bait’s not in the water,” is one of the oldest rules in the book.

For many small businesses, “bait” can take on several different forms of marketing. Many of our customers say the best advertising is a vehicle wrap. In fact, statistics say a wrap is among the cheapest forms of advertising available for reaching potential customers.

An even more cost-effective tool is referrals. The real estate agents in my area always leave a flyer on my doorstep when they’ve listed or sold a home in the neighborhood. Likewise, when you’ve hung a prominent sign or banner at a customer’s site or wrapped their commercial vehicle, it makes sense to hand out your business card at surrounding businesses and leave a few with the customer in case someone asks who did the work.

The most cost-effective marketing of all is your place of business. In addition to window signs and building signage, your lobby should display prominent examples of your work. Can you imagine MacDonald’s not having photos of their food on their menu boards? And when you order, they always ask, “You want fries with that?”

Your goal is to get someone ordering a banner to see that you also sell decals, decorated t-shirts, POP displays, etc. In addition to being reliable, one of the great things about Roland printers is their versatility. For ideas on how to expand your product offerings, check out our online Gallery.

Your web site should represent the work you do and be kept fresh. The search engines and customers will find you if you do it right. Roland offers a fast and convenient way to build a custom online store in minutes through our partnership with Keen.

Back to the fishing analogy: You may not catch your limit every day, but keeping your bait fresh and in the water will go a long way toward finding buyers.

Pro 4 Lightbox

We just wrapped up our big fall show – SGIA – for color, UV, cutter & engraving products. And with the recent introduction of the new Pro4 XR-640 at the center, it looked like it would be a good show. Turns out, it was. With record attendance over 22,000, the show was packed. Not just at the Roland booth, but the whole show seemed to be buzzing with energy. It was as good a show as I’ve seen in some time, and many exhibitors I spoke with at the show echoed the same sentiment. 18%+ of attendees were international. What’s more, some 38% of all attendees were there for the 1st time. What a great first impression they must have had!

I had three key take-aways from the show:

1.)   XR-640. The XR was a clear hit. Both users & editors loved the new machine. It had big shoes to fill in it’s predecessor, the Pro III XC-540, and won on all fronts of being better, faster & cheaper. (Normally, you can only pick two.) PS: the XR just won “Best of 2012″
at Viscom in Frankfurt.

Eric demoing the new XR to the crowd

2.)   VS-Series. Lowering pricing on the VS-series generated quite a bit of buzz. We’ve just made the core products more affordable than ever. It’s never been a better time to upgrade your existing Roland (or other) equipment to the latest VersaCAMM series. And if you’re not doing metallic printing yet, you should be. Customers have been able to charge 20%+ more on a per sq.ft. basis.

3.)   Positive outlook. Attendees were positive. The show was busy. People are opening their wallets. When we attend a show, the Roland booth is almost always busy. Sometimes the other booths aren’t. This isn’t good for our overall business and usually belies a problem with the economy. At this show, it was electric. People were not waiting to see who will win the election, or were not waiting to see how the economy will end up. They’re acting, and acting now. For our business overall, this is great news, and bodes well for all of us in the sign & graphics business.

If you haven’t had a chance to get to our RolandDGA channel on YouTube.com, check it out. We recapped the show after Day #1, and you’ll have a good chance of seeing someone you know up on the small screen.

I’m already looking forward to a big ISA International Sign Expo in the spring,  which is already getting some buzz and looks on target to be a great show. See you out there!

Thanks for reading,

Rick

Roland team at SGIA 2012

We’ve got Pro 4 on the brain these days. It’s hard to think about anything else. We’re eating “4″ cookies and “4-ranges” here at the office, tweaking Pro 4 web pages, printing Pro 4 samples, and taking orders as fast as we can among other things.

So what is the big deal about the Pro 4 anyway? Most people react first to the print quality which has improved dramatically thanks to the new print heads and the addition of light black ink. This light black ink, by the way, is my favorite feature. The photographic quality and flesh tones it can recreate are stunning. The machine debuted at the CONSAC show in Canada last week and the message we got back was: “The image quality was awesome, even for those not easily impressed.”

(The following paragraph was added 9/25 per a request from a Facebook fan wanting more nitty gritty on the XR.) There is a new 720 x 720 print mode on the white and metallic inks that has increased the print speed significantly. The actual speed has not been finalized yet but preliminary testing shows it to be almost twice as fast. The white opacity has been improved and preliminary test results thus far show a substantial increase. We will know the exact percentage and speed soon and will post publicly at that time. Some of you have asked about dry time and at this time dry time looks to be around the same as its predecessor. For that reason, we highly recommend using the optional dryer unit  to ensure that the ink is dry before it hits the take up reel. The dryer option works great for Mt,  white and even CMYKLcLmLk production workflow no matter what speed.

2-year “Gold Edition” warranty: includes parts, labor & 2 free schedule service visits

Print quality, speed, color gamut… these are all features we expect in a new printer. But how about a few others… like a killer warranty (the best Roland has ever offered), a new wiper system (to take care of those print heads), improvements to the presets menu (making your daily life a little easier) and even a new fixation screw on the sliding core holder of the take up reel. (Only existing Pro III owners will understand and appreciate that last one.)

All in all we have a new machine that we’re pretty proud of and excited to show off. Come see it for yourself at Graph Expo in Chicago or  SGIA in Las Vegas next month.

If you’re in the sign industry, and spending any time on the webby-web, you might have seen some of our teasers about a new “4”-like machine. Well, it’s finally here. The original “Pro” line started in 2002, and has been a part of our flagship of printer/cutters ever since. 10-years later, we’re on the 4^th edition. It seems like it’s been a lot longer, and in most technology-circles, that’s a lifetime.

Welcome Roland SOLJET Pro 4!

Here’s the post on our Restyling page:

Facebook

It’s worth noting that the new XR comes with an industry-first 2-year trouble-free warranty – much like the “BMW Ultimate Service” program where parts & labor are included, along with 2 scheduled preventitive maintanence visits are also part of the program. I don’t know of another printer company doing this. Boom.

2-year “Gold Edition” warranty: includes parts, labor & 2 free scheduled service visits

But as the day’s been passing by, the buzz is palpable. Lots of Facebook posts, and I especially like this one:

Tyrell Tech’s post. Gotta love it.

And tracking the mentions on twitter using Twilert has us at 70 mentions until the 2pm notice. I’ll be checking all week to see how it perpetuates throughout the web.

Twilert – Day #1 of XR-640 launch and over 70 mentions (with a 2pm cutoff!)

I particularly like this one: RT @SignGeeks: Sod the iPhone 5 launch – Roland have a new printer out today!!! The Soljet Pro 4!

This is fun. I love it when we launch new products.

Thanks for reading,

Rick