Power of Partnerships

If you read “A Well Groomed Brand, American Crew Celebrates 25 Years”, in the Fall 2019 issue of Paper Matters magazine. You are aware of just how important the relationship is between American Crew founder David Raccuglia and TODA co-founder Marcos Chavez. That relationship between the three groups, print, paper and design, has allowed TODA the ability to design a brand for American Crew that has spanned the company’s 25 year history.

They celebrated the anniversary with a custom coffee-table book designed by TODA, filled with David Raccuglia’s beautiful photography and printed by Active Printing. This collaboration between American Crew, TODA and Active Printing inspired an exceptional printed piece. Here’s a peek into the process and how the 25^th anniversary book came to fruition.

On Board from the Beginning

George Hayes, CEO of Active Printing in Cicero IL has been printing for American Crew and TODA from the beginning.  Active Printing has worked very closely with Raccuglia and Chavez to bring the American Crew brand to life. George and Active President Jeremy Hayes are big fans of Cougar® paper and use it whenever they can. Cougar has served as a staple for the American Crew books over the years. It was the perfect choice to show off the intricate detail and rich blacks of David Raccuglia’s beautiful photography in this particular book.

A Trust Earned

Through their years of working together, Active Printing has made the visions of American Crew and TODA become a reality through print. Because of that, each project for American Crew starts with a conversation between Marcos and George. In the case of this book, TODA designed it to have pages of rich, dark black pages along with pages of detailed, high-contrast images. Hayes decided to run the pages with two hits of black ink. To show TODA how that would look, they replicated the two hits of black on their Indigo digital press and used the digital print as a color proof. The biggest challenge, according to Hayes was keeping the black ink strong and rich on the page while holding the highlights in the photos. “It’s all about the hair,” according to Hayes.

Mission Accomplished

The partnership between David Raccuglia’s exquisite photography, Marcos Chavez’s bold design and the fine craftsmanship of George Hayes’ printing is a book with pages that are filled with high contrast, deep detail and beautiful imagery. A flawless example of great design being brought to life through the collaboration of print, paper and design.

From the Gallery:  American Crew 25th Anniversary Coffee Table Book