I grew up surrounded in the printing and graphic design world. As a child my father owned a small printing company and then started up and worked for a number of different graphic design and marketing companies. Later in life I spent 7 years working for one of Vancouver's larger binderies. I started off working on the production floor learning first hand how to run all of the different machines. I moved on to running their foil stamping and die cutting departments and later took over managing production and the floor.
My experiences on the floor gave me a deeper understanding as to how different materials react and act when used in different ways and allowed me to explore and discover the boundaries and how they can be pushed.
While running the floor and production I was constantly working with Designer, Printers, Sales and other trades to coordinate and manage projects. So I understand the pressures placed on designers and printers to not only meet deadlines but to satisfy their clients.
In recent years I have stayed active in the industry working on side projects and working with smaller binderies. During this time I started discovering that a lot of designers are limited in their designs as a result of a lack of understanding of what is truly possible.
Design is only limited by your imagination. The execution of your design is limited by the knowledge and experience of the people you hand your vision over to make into reality.