This is the third ad our [in-house] team produced for Interior Design Magazine.  I really like this one, which drops later in the month.  The image is a new release from our artist M. Drake. His work sells extremely well.  He’s also prolific; it seems every time I pass through Prepress, they’re proofing something new from him. I can’t think of a better image for a summertime advertisement than a depiction of an amusement park. Hopefully it will grab the attention of their readers and subscribers, too!

We reproduced Drake’s Merrymaking series on a couple of different media for our walls.

On birchwood [taken with my iPhone]

On aluminum [taken with my iPhone]

About New Era

 

New Era is proud to offer our entire collection as fine art on birchwood.  This amazing presentation is available on every image we sell at New Era HD.

Of all our styles, fine art on birchwood recreates the look of an original best. We shot this short [and very cool] video to better acquaint you with fine art on brichwood. Your clients need to know about this new substrate. It offers an incredibly durable and über-high end look for very little money.

When this new medium made it through the first trials of product development, we were like, “Whoa! That looks like an original.” The look is nearly indistinguishable from that of an original.

We are excited about this new fine art presentation to say the least. Specify with confidence! 

 

About New Era

 

 

This month has been about going back to our roots. Eleven years ago [when we just started], I learned a valuable lesson in fine art reproduction: You are only as good as your scanner. If you start with a bad digital capture, you end with a poor reproduction. If we were going to be a serious art company, we had to have the best scanner in the world. Took us about five years to grow to the point where we could justify the cost, but today it’s paid for itself several times over.

60,000 square feet later and [and well into seven figures spent acquiring the best in print technology], the Cruse Scanner is still my favorite machine here at New Era Portfolio.  Its endeavor and the work of our Prepress department, plus our talented artists allow us to reproduce fine art on our amazing fleet of HP large format printers.

I also like this new video production studio we installed recently.

 

About New Era

 

Prepress is really the epicenter of New Era Portfolio.   When I’m showing visitors the facility, this is my favorite part of the tour. We make art. This is what we do. Because we create images on any surface, we’re considered art professionals, who do an excellent job of disguising ourselves as specialty manufacturers.  After all the POs we’ve been awarded, projects completed, and technology reinvested, when it’s all said and done, we’re an art company. This is where it started eleven years ago, the hook on which we hang our hat.

The above are new works from M. Drake, Darvin Jones and Benjamin Arnot.  Elise and her team are proofing the originals against the soon-to-be-released limited editions. I love walking into this department.

About New Era

There are challenges to our website’s translation of the various media we offer.  Fine art on any surface is beautiful installed, but how would our clients know that? Over eleven years our clients would know firsthand New Era Portfolio is synonymous with impeccable quality. We’ve earned their trust and worked hard so “Brand New Era” means the top echelon for fine art and imagery.  Instead, how would prospective clients know? Are we asking prospects to take a leap of faith when our website pitches alternative media for their projects?  Of course, our sample program alleviates this problem to some extent.  BUT here’s the fundamental issue. Why shouldn’t our artwork look spectacular on the site? We’re an art and image company! Why shouldn’t our imagery look fantastic like this Rolex does on their website?

We are in the early phase of partnering up with a company that understands our dilemma and we think they may have the solution.  Above is one work from Sara Abbott, Shadow Branch Burst II, presented on aluminum, framed paper, canvas gallery wrap, mirror, acrylic, birchwood, and HP Greenguard® certified wallcovering is printing behind me.  We are sending them one of everything, so they can evaluate these various substrates. We set the bar really high, and we’re eager to move to phase two.

 

About New Era

 

We recently added a small video studio to our facility. Today we’re shooting the different media we offer.  Short, small snippets [around 45-seconds] to showcase what we call our rigid substrates: aluminum, acrylic, birchwood.

We might take for granted our designer-clients are familiar with these new offerings, so a little tab to click, which will play these short videos on the product pages of our site, will hopefully help. This is our first pass. What do you think?

Acrylic is what Candice is shooting next.

We are excited to move forward with HP Wallcovering, available on our entire collection.  The demand for this product is high and the market seems infinite.  When we moved solely to HP print technology in 2009, we knew the partnership was good, but we’re still surprised just how good.  Working with Grand Format Latex Printers has proven time and time again to be the right move for New Era Portfolio and our trials on this new PVC-Free wallcovering are yielding remarkable results.

We selected a few images to render as wall murals in our offices, a mix of stock photography and our exclusive images. There’s much to like about this new medium.

 

Specs:

·         FSC® certified paper from well-managed forests

·         Made of 10% recycled base paper from post-consumer waste

When printed with HP Latex Inks, the prints produced:

·         Are odorless

·         Greenguard® certified

·         Meet AgBB criteria for health-related evaluation of VOC emissions of indoor building products.

·         Mold and mildew resistant

·         Are flame-resistant with Class A approved fire certification

·         Achieve up to 20 years indoor display permanence, away from direct sun

The substrate is also easy to install and remove.  From production through implementation, it’s the easiest wallcovering we’ve ever worked with and have full confidence the interior design community is going to love it. Plus, it’s truly green. How cool is that?

The product is in-house, but not yet on the webite.  Please do not hesitate to email Denise Sumrall at dsumrall@newerahd.com for more information, or ring her for a quote on any of our fine wallcovering options at 888.445.3236 x218.

I shot all the pictures with my iPhone just now and even picked out one of the murals myself, Venice, for the new Business Development Office. Looks pretty good!

 

We have rebuilt our Bus. Dev. department this quarter.  Part of effectively managing a sales force is giving them the right tools and having the right marketing behind the team.  So, in addition to our sponsorship of ASID, we also will commit to a year-long engagement in Interior Design Magazine.  Our marketing team is working on mock-ups for the inaugural full page advertisement.  How do we explain our capabilities to the design world at large on one clean page?  Here is one ad that didn’t make the cut.

I like it, but does it really “speak” to you?  The team alternated taglines for this image such as IS YOUR ART PAST ITS EXPIRATION DATE? Speaking to the fact that art for hospitality projects should be fresh, new and current.

Another tagline was ARTWORK THAT NOURISHES. Speaking to an overall aesthetic [philosophy] that artwork feeds, builds, enriches.

Then this one above, TRANSCEND HOMOGENIZATION, which speaks how we are different among art companies out there.  We’re not like anyone else. The different colors of the milk gallons speak of our capabilities to alter any image we sell to fit the needs of the property, printed on any surface: mural, paper, aluminum, canvas, acrylic, mirror, and so forth. The containers also look like they’re filled with ink, emblematic of New Era Portfolio's role as the premier fine art printer and specialty manufacturer of image-based products.

In the end, I think this is fun concept to play around with, but one we need to move past.  When you look at it, you don’t necessarily think ART COMPANY, like the way you know Koehler sells faucets when you see one of their ads.

Back to the drawing board. It’s a struggle, but anything worth it should be. Moreover, I like this type of endeavor, which fosters teamwork and creative collaboration. Nice work guys.     

 

 

About New Era

 

This morning I addressed the 2700 attendees of HP’s Dscoop6 conference.  The fact of the matter is I am not sure why the folks at HP have asked me to speak.  Maybe it’s because we’ve purchased over $2M in equipment over the past 18 months, or maybe it’s because we have this pretty cool niche business: fine art reproduction and imaging with a  very high volume large format print shop, plus a team of artisans fulfilling the orders.  I don’t really care what the reason is because I love working with HP, and I don’t mind telling people.

Tomorrow I’ll sit on a panel discussing workflow automation, a much smaller crowd [thankfully].  My contribution to the panel is explaining  what we feel is very important: color management and color consistency.   I look forward to talking about our approach and the efforts our team goes through to make each order impeccable from the beginning. I’m glad we’re here.  It’s a great community to be a part of and we’re happy to contribute.   

What is Dscoop?

Founded in 2005, Dscoop (the Digital Solutions Cooperative) is an independent global community of graphic arts business owners and technical professionals who use HP Indigo and Scitex equipment and related solutions. Dscoop is focused on educating and connecting its members with each other and with HP to improve members’ business growth, efficiency and profitability. Dscoop is all about community: interacting with peers, exchanging experiences, sharing and learning best practices. The annual conference is our most important gathering, where members can build partnerships, alliances and relationships that impact their business for years to come.

 

 

About New Era

Posted in Austin, Texas on behalf of CEO Joseph Garcia in Florida. Looks like a ton of fun boss!

 

 

 

 

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve released more new limited editions than previously in six months.  While you won’t find us championing the recession’s end, we find ourselves growing at a rapid rate.  Our position in each of our markets has strengthened considerably, and we’ve felt the need to open the floodgate [again] as far as new releases go.  I’m pleased to say we have added a new artist to the family Matt Messinger.  His first 14 works are very promising.  Please visit our New Editions page to also view the latest works from M. Drake, Tatara, and Hohenberger. I like the fresh direction of their work, too. 

We also have new substrates in the works.  Soon you’ll be able to order our entire line on beautiful birch wood and on PVC-free [mural] wallcovering.  More than any substrate we have ever offered in the past, the birch wood presentation is the most representative of an original work of art. The combination of ink layering and the wood’s texture yields beautiful results.  Our new wallcovering in conjunction with our eco-friendly latex inks meets the GREENGUARD indoor air quality certification requirements. We are enthusiastic to offer these innovations very soon.

New Era Portfolio joined the Wallcoverings Association [WA], and Nick and I will be attending the annual meeting in Florida in less than a week.  We are excited to be involved with the WA and look forward to expanding our reach in this arena.  In addition to photography and vector illustrations, the subject matter of wallcoverings will now include composed, textural works of fine art, like only New Era Portfolio can deliver.  Our research and trials are now complete, and we hit the ground running this first quarter of 2011.

Finally, I am proud to announce the launch of our new corporate branding site http://www.neweraportfolio.com. This is our one stop “everything you wanted to know about New Era Portfolio.” Discover who we are, what our capabilities are, where we started, and how we serve our clients like no other fine art source and specialty manufacturer in the world.  If you’ve ever contemplated how or why you should work with New Era Portfolio, I think this site will give you the comprehensive answer. I am personally inviting you to click around the site.

 

 

 

About New Era