In a recent post, we looked at how outsourcing is effecting North America and Europe’s print businesses. Today we look briefly at how many are able to outsource the designing and prepress preparation of print-ads, to India in this case.

Graphic Designing | Graphic Design Outsourcing | Pre Press Outsourcing

Print-ads have surely seen a decline, yet print is far from dead. Graphic design is more than just layout and that is why I am assuming “western” designers will not be out of jobs anytime soon, especially with the cultural and language barriers associated with true brand and content management. Layout design is not Pre-press. Couple that with an explosion of new media channels, with of course Internet leading the charge, but mobile and eReaders or tablet computers coming on strong as well and this is perhaps a brand of outsourcing that is not only based on price, yet perhaps also demand. Comments? Please give your feedback below! Would love to hear it.

Printers face threats not only from a bad economy
but also misguided political policy.

Last week I wrote about how jobs are flying out the door to China and other far-east print-shops, for print-work which will be used locally in North America or Europe. This was posted in a piece titled, “Print is not dead. Neither is outsourcing. China.” Now I want to expand on that (But reading some of the comments on the Linkedin link within that post are well worth the clicking.), especially with regards to this whole “green movement” which is going on.

First, let me make it clear, I love God’s creation and especially nature. We certainly have responsibilities not to pollute and cause intentional harm to our ecosystems. Thus, perhaps it is fair pushing the green thing on printers, to have them use less dangerous chemicals and inks in their commercial print shops. But why the double-standard when it comes to outsourcing and the environment or the green movement?

The host government aside in these outsourcing nations, how does our US government (Any “western” gov.’t really.) allow print outsourcing to go on at all; especially in light of these environmental effects? On that note, we read:  Read more... (512 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

With president Obama just leaving China, this post may be seen as timely; Adopt a printer in China or other far-east markets. That is my idea for the day. Just as many small towns and cities will have sister, partner cities in other parts of the world, so should print-shops. Why?

Print is not dead. Neither is outsourcing.

We read here on this reply to a Chinese print representative looking for work with American printers:

“Many companies are taking their large print orders to Chinese printing companies in the hopes of saving money. I know of three sales reps in my area alone that are representing chinese printing companies.Their pricing is half to one third of mine on larger projects. They have a high degree of success bringing work to their Chinese employers.

But as always with a lower price, comes a cost…” (Read full source post for full details)
Source: PrintPlanet on Linkedin.com

And that cost can be partly be overcome by setting up real, perhaps even legal, partnerships. If you just shop for the cheapest print, you’ll be switching every job or monthly. Why not form a true partnership?  Read more... (567 words, 2 images, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Here is an interesting one to ponder, from someone in our industry who has been asking questions about this recent economic down-turn. The blogger over at AdTex Advertising wrote a long post about his frustrations in the manufacturing sector in America and in particular printing, as they are of course very familiar with print coming from the trade. He noted:

“The frustration with this situation recently hit the fan with my print partner, Mike. I believe the final straw was flipping to the backside of an American Automobile Manufacturer’s car brochure where he discovered “Printed in South Korea” in the small print. Mike works for a great, family-owned, 121-year old Visual Communications (read “printing”) company based in the same state as the “Big Three” auto manufacturers.”
SOURCE: http://adtexadvertising.com/blog/

It is kind of ironic, one has to admit. What will we outsource next, a printing job to print our United States dollar?
Outsourcing would have its limit, you would think…