Friday, January 12, 2007, 02:33 AM - General
Today was a banner day at Clever bros models.Its the first day that our new printer came on line.
When we first started out, we were just selling a couple of kits a week and we printed them on plain old inkjet printers. First one then two. Then a large format printer and bulk ink system. We were dedicated to the idea that we would control the quality and inspect every kit and texture, we were not going to mass produce so we could constantly update and make things better as we went. The model works for us and we still don't make kits till we sell them. There have been changes. We now sell through a growing network of stores, sometimes we need to deliver hundreds of texture sheets in just a couple of days. We searched for a digital printing company who could meet our needs. Any one who knows me knows that I do a lot of research, I'm a careful shopper. Well, none of the commercial printers were willing to do what we needed doing. They could do it but they didn't want to make the effort. We did what we had to do. Thank god my bro trusts me cause I spent most of the company's money and bought the very same digital printer that the commercial shops had.
So what's so special and why do you care. Unlike a lot of the printers I looked at, this one actually does a better job than the inkjets. Inkjets are known for the quality of their images. Much higher resolution than commercial offset printing. Our printer is twice the resolution of our inkjet's, 1200 dpi. It's about 50 times faster. The printing comes out completely matt and totally water proof. We haven't had time to test light fastness but I suspect it will be pretty good. The inks are a fused powder which is quite different from the dye pigments we used before, so the color sits on top of the paper and doesn't soak in. I think this makes for a sharper image though probably more susceptible to abrasion.
All in all, I couldn't be much happier with how it enhances our product. And that what it's about. Every time I ship a package out, I can feel good that the kit or textures are top quality and a good value. Doing that makes taking risk a lot easier.
That's all for now.
Thom
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Wednesday, November 29, 2006, 02:01 AM - General
I think this would make a great model. I was actually aboard her when i was about 8 years old. they gave away tiny loaves of bread. silver cup bakery was the sponsor of the rocky jones scifi tv show.
What fun
Thom
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Saturday, November 25, 2006, 05:46 PM - General
I know I haven't written lately, but we are just swamped. we have never had to buy materials by the case loads before but that's what we're doing now. We are also beginning to design for a couple of toy companies. Getting the N scale ready and trying to get the web page revamped. I think there might be too much on the plate but we'll get it cleaned up real nice.
Oh yeah... happy birthday to me !!!! I'm working.
Thom
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Wednesday, November 1, 2006, 05:47 PM - General
No real news, I just wanted to let everyone know we're still here. It's amd house here. I'm meeting with a new printer who offers some services we have been searching for. Really exciting if we can meet on a price. We are also in the midst of changing all product ID numbers to work better with our new distributors so we can expect some confusion in the next couple of weeks and we have sold quite a bit of N scale textures so that library is growing quickly.
So many people need to be contacted to cement the relationships started at the show last week and of course we want to be ready for train fest. As of now, I have nothing to sell there. We are sold out and printing like mad. as soon as we print it - someone goes and buys it. I'm not complaining. We'll make more. I am excited to get back to finishing some new designs though.
Thom
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Monday, October 23, 2006, 12:07 AM - General
Finally we can put the expo behind us. I have lots of orders to fill and even more follow ups and contacts to deal with. We met some truly helpful folks. We learned a lot about dealing with our future distribution partners and making the products fit their needs and ours. We met wonderful people and famlies from South Africa to Australia. Good people who are eager to help us as we grow.
We have a lot of work to do.
As we approach our second anniversary as Clever brothers / Clever models,I have to reflect how fortunate we have been. How all the good folks who have purchased and enjoyed our kits in our first two years. All the helpful feed back, all the incredibly kind letters. I know there have been times when we have been slow to update the web and a few times that it took a few days too long to get kits in the mail. Afraid we will still be slow from time to time but it will be because we are working to make it easier to get our products and keep turning out even better kits.
next stop...Train fest. where we will be hanging out with John Kosima and his amazing Gypsy trolly.
See ya there.
Thom
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