What a nightmare!

Apparently, there is a lot of commonality in the nightmares that people remember. Fun fact: the most common themes vary by geographic region. Psychology Today reported on a rigorous study done in 2014, while Morning Life published one this year based on an analysis of dream-related Google search terms by region. Certainly not as scientific, but pretty interesting.

According to the graphic below, Europeans are pretty freaked out about snakes and North Americans are worried about their teeth. Europeans already think Americans are obsessed with their teeth so this doesn’t help that stereotype!

If you are in the printing industry, there are some common themes for the things that keep you up at night too. Not snakes or teeth, but labor, production costs, equipment downtime, and meeting your service level agreements.

I recently spoke to Mike Beatty at Graphcom about the toner equipment that was giving him nightmares and the inkjet decision that lets him sleep like a baby. He told me that with toner he would worry about completing jobs of 300,000 sheets and with inkjet they can handle jobs of more than twice that size and the only adrenaline hit comes from the added profit.

Sometimes it’s not equipment, staff or even clients driving the nightmares for printing companies. Regulators like to create their own special circles of hell for us. Check out Kelly Lawrence ’s discussion of the Unintended Consequences of Regulation. It includes mention of  New York’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation that includes a ban on the use of carbon black which is central to black printing inks. While that legislation has missed the deadline for a final vote this year, it could come roaring back to life in 2025 like those horror story characters that are supposed to be dead but aren’t. (Zombie regulations?) 

Here's a bit of video that’s not a horror movie. I interviewed the gang that put together JetPak, the first direct-to-corrugated inkjet press to hit the market 25 years ago along with the first web-2-pack solution called Package Genie. Leading the discussion is our own inkjet genie, Mary Schilling . She made packaging dreams a reality. Still does!

Sweet dreams.

Elizabeth