BROOKLYN PARK, MN–Meet Dan Trizulny, color theorist extraordinaire and senior account director, SGS & Co. He’s passionate about printing and has been for 50+ years.

His charge to fellow members of the Flexographic Technical Association: “Let’s get busy on recruiting and communicating how awesome this industry is!”

Why?  “My concern is seeing our aging workforce and not seeing a lot of interest in being a plate maker, prepress operator or printing press operator. We’ll be losing a lot of experience and knowledge which will be difficult to replace.”

He admits, “I always get asked. ‘When are you going to retire?’ Truth be told, I’m having too much fun and enjoy working with both my clients and coworkers. I’m always learning something new at every FORUM INFOFLEX that I attend.”

In fact, Trizulny recalls, “My first FTA Annual Forum was 2003 in Salt Lake City. I’ve been hooked on attending, learning and networking within an awesome organization that is continually helping me stay informed on plate and imaging technologies, as well as updated print standards as they are always being refined.”

“I have been very fortunate to have been in the printing industry for 51 years now. Seeing all the advancement in the industry, is a real thrill. I’ve been working primarily with flexographic packaging printers for the past 20+ years. It’s a very recession-proof industry. I love seeing all the advancements in workflow automation, screening options, plate technologies for different applications and the ever more automated and intuitive, smart printing presses.”

Peer to Peer
Talking directly to peers, Dan says, “If there is one key area to focus on, it is communication. We need to talk about incoming work orders and the details on how the jobs will be printed. Yes, we have developed awesome workflow tools, plate and screening technologies; but if we don’t communicate all the details on incoming work orders, we may not get the desired results. Your final output is only as good as your input.”

Where does this perspective come from? “After my years in production and production management I decided to take the step into a sales role in 1990 and haven’t looked back since. It’s been a big benefit to have the production background in sales–I’m no order taker! I identify as a troubleshooter. My specialty: preplanning jobs.”

“It was in the early 2000s when we started working with flexo printers and seeing many changes. Flexo is a totally different process from my offset experience—I’m forever dealing with dot gains, contaminating colors, registration issues and establishing press conditions per printer. Factoring in the different press technologies, inks, sticky back, anilox, doctor blades, substrates, plate materials, screening options, and learning a totally new printing process—what a ride! It’s really been fun!”

Robust Resumè
“My flexo journey started in October 1974 when I was fortunate to be offered an apprenticeship where I was able to work in all areas of prepress–offset plate making, proofing (Cromalins,  Color Keys, Step & Repeat.)” Like so many others, I got my start as a ‘stripper!’”.

“I was lucky to get promoted into the color department making in-direct color separations using pan masking film in a darkroom. Building an A & B mask; then creating the cyan, magenta, yellow and black continuous tone separations, using different colored filters to create each color.”

“Once those separations were complete, we then would put them on the color camera and create the screened separations, setting the camera to the size of the image per the keyline and having to use flat screens and angling them per the color angle and desired line screen.

One memorable moment, “I was the first operator on the Hell Color Scanner, which totally changed the workflow for color separations. I have to say, I really understand color theory and it’s all thanks to making the separations in those early days.”

Dan maintains, “Today it’s all digital images. Most don’t even realize color scanners were used.” Reflecting on a long resume, he says, “In 1986, I moved into management, supervising the prepress department within a high end offset printer. After a couple of years managing that department, I had the opportunity to work for Colorbrite Inc, a mid-sized prepress company in Minneapolis. Working long hours managing the color department, electronic press department (Scitex) in those days plus the manual stripping, proofing and plate departments, was a real learning experience. I stored all that knowledge away and have been drawing on it ever since that day when flexo came calling and changed my life and career—all for the better.”

Engage in conversation with Dan at upcoming FTA events. He’ll be there and he definitely has a lot to share.