Offset Printing

Coeur Noir “Casts A Wider Net” with Printmaster QM 46-2 from Heidelberg

Monday 10. August 2009 - Coeur Noir, Inc., a boutique specialty printer doing business in Brooklyn, NY for the past seven years, has taken the outsourcing bull by the horns and installed a Heidelberg Printmaster QM 46 2-color press. The purchase enables the company to perform short-run (500-5,000), high-quality, mostly spot-color work without going outside to find a trade printer willing to take on such jobs at a reasonable price.

“We definitely prefer having the ability to control both the quality of the work and the turnaround times,” said the company’s co-founder, Konstantin Grab. “Having the QM 46 makes it possible for us to cast a wider net in terms of the services we offer our customers—and the quality of the printing is on a par with the high standards we set for ourselves and our customers expect us to meet.”

Originally established as a letterpress shop, Coeur Noir has steadily expanded the scope of its services to include all kinds of specialty printing processes including foil stamping and engraving, and the company’s reputation already is such that it is able to promote itself solely through word-of-mouth. In contemplating the purchase of an offset press, therefore, Coeur Noir was not about to take any chances. “It was the quality of the equipment that drew us to Heidelberg, and it’s always been the quality of our work that keeps our customers coming back,” Grab said. The company currently is working its way through a starter kit of Saphira consumables provided when it installed the new press.

Elsewhere in its 2,000-square-foot shop, Coeur Noir operates a variety of letterpresses, including a 1965 Heidelberg “red-ball” Windmill. The company employs a permanent staff of three, including Grab himself, and serves a loyal clientele based primarily in the New York City area.