A Story of Entrepreneurial Growth

In 2007, Dina and Keith Kessler purchased a design and print agency with 10 employees and a modest printing operation. This purchase benchmarked the beginning of Kessler Creative. Today, their company has grown to more than 60 employees, serves thousands of customers throughout the United States and has recently been recognized by Florida Governor; Rick Scott as one of the top marketing companies in the state.

Just as the printing industry has rapidly evolved in recent years, so has Kessler Creative. The agency was quick to adopt and build upon its business with digital print technologies while continuing the use of traditional offset printing presses. Both methods offer unique advantages to various jobs allowing the agency to allocate the most efficient processes to specific jobs.

Traditional offset printing is produced on a printing press using printing plates and wet ink. While this type of printing involves more setup time and the final product must dry before finishing can take place, jobs often take longer to produce. At the same time, however, offset printing traditionally produces the highest quality available on the widest variety of stocks and offers the highest degree of control over color. Further, offset printing is the most economical choice when producing large numbers of prints of a few originals.

Digital printing is output directly from electronic files. It’s the quickest way to produce short runs, especially when there are several originals, i.e.: variable data projects. The quality level of digital printing today has become extremely close to offset printing. Although digital printing works well on most stocks, there are still some papers and jobs where offset printing simply works better. As well, there are also some stocks and jobs where digital printing will perform as well as, or even better than offset printing.

The growth of digital printing and shifts in customer demand toward shorter runs and enhanced use of variable information have and continue to create a lot of opportunity for Kessler Creative. Since 2012, the company has seen more than 100% growth, attributed to adopting new technology and services offerings. Change has and continues to create an opportunity for the agency who has based their success on a willingness to step up and satisfy more customer needs.

2019 New Year – New Opportunities

Already owning and managing an impressive fleet of digital and offset presses, the time came for Kessler Creative to decide: either continue down a path of limited growth with limitations on personalized direct mail capabilities or take a calculated risk to add a state-of-the-art inkjet press with the latest in print capabilities and technologies. In September 2018, Kessler Creative decided it was time to reap the rewards of inkjet with the installation of an Océ VarioPrint i300. The addition of inkjet technology will set up Kessler Creative to bring the last of its outsourced work in-house and offer its customers the full-color personalization they need in a competitive price range, cost-effectively with an extremely quick turnaround.

This new year will begin a new benchmark for Kessler Creative. The agency is currently installing the i300 and will soon begin the training processes involved with running and selling enhanced inkjet services. With speeds up to 294 letter images per minute and more than 8,820 duplex letter sheets per-hour, the agency will target heavy production volumes of 5-8 million pages per month and will be able to support a large variety of paper sizes up to 13.9″ x 19.7″.

The i300 digital press consolidates sheetfed black & white, highlight color and full-color digital workflows into one production system which will allow Kessler Creative to take on more jobs, manage shorter runs, handle more detailed variable data projects with more diverse media options. Inkjet printing uses water-based pigment inks, providing an ability to print on a wide range of media, including offset uncoated, offset coated, inkjet treated and inkjet coated papers with sustainable, eco-friendly printing – no hazardous compounds or elements.

Overall, the transition will set a solid foundation for future growth, innovation and enhanced customer service for Kessler Creative allowing continued success as a premier direct mail and print services provider. Dina Kessler says: “Our entire team is excited about their work and feels pride for their end-product. In all, adding inkjet and upgrading our capabilities, increasing the breadth of work we can take on, will make big difference in Kessler Creative’s output, morale and customer service”.