Case Study: Museum Store Products Inc.

Creating true works of art in-house with a new Ricoh production printer.

About Museum Store Products Inc.

Wood Huntley created a magnet for his friend to sell at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1978. From there, the business expanded to a photography studio in Brooklyn, which eventually became a print shop in New Jersey. For decades, Museum Store Products has replicated famous works of art on promotional and retail items for a wide range of prestigious museums and cultural sites, including the Smithsonian, The Guggenheim, the 9/11 Memorial and The National Gallery of Art.

"It became clear that to grow our business, we needed to bring production, including printing, in-house."
Wood Huntley
Owner
Museum Store Products Inc.

Challenge

Museum Store Products produced promotional print products for a wide range of customers, including some of the most recognized museums in North America. This meant that the company had to satisfy the discerning eye of museum curators.

Accurate color is critical when recreating masterpieces. Unfortunately, the company's existing digital color printers weren't up to the task. Color varied slightly from one job to the next. In addition, the company was limited in the types of substrates it could use. For example, it could only print postcards on thin paper stocks, one side at a time.

Solution

The RICOH Pro C7100SX offers exceptional color accuracy and versatile media options to meet the unique needs and lofty expectations of even the most discerning museum curators.

The RICOH Pro C7100SX is designed specifically to reproduce colors with near-offset quality on a wider range of substrates, including postcards, oversized prints, envelopes and textured papers. It offers a fifth color station and throughput up to 80 color pages per minute (ppm) at up to 1200 x 4800 dpi resolution, which allows Museum Store Products to expand its product line significantly. Now, the company can produce consistent prints on heavy and coated paper, even in duplex mode, and churn through more projects quickly and economically.

With faster and more accurate color matching, the reproduced images look exactly like the artist originals. Plus, the image can be transferred to a wider range of promotional and retail items, including keypads, coasters, calendars and more without compromising color or image clarity. When paired with a Duplo paper cutter, the Pro C7100SX can produce more than 5,000 postcards on a single day with ease.

The company has added new revenue streams with the fifth color station. They use it to produce unique items, including logos and packaging, with clear or white toner and highlight specific works of art at traveling shows or special exhibits.

Result

With the versatile Pro C7100SX, Museum Store Products has expanded its portfolio and new revenue streams.

"We have increased our revenue year after year by upgrading to this digital press," said Wood Huntley, Owner, Museum Store Products. "Being able to produce things we couldn't do before, like postcards at good margins with the amazing color quality and the fast turnaround our clients need, has made a world of difference for us."

The new device provides exceptional color consistency, which minimizes tedious color matching and reduces production costs. Toner adhesion can adapt to various paper stocks, even gloss-coated paper, so brightness, clarity and toner density is adjusted automatically for optimal accuracy.

Huntley is excited to work with Ricoh in expanding the business even more."We are in the process of expanding into membership and development projects for various museums," said Huntley.

Huntley notes that museum curators and retail workers are astounded by the color consistency and image quality. Plus, Museum Store Products has won two important industry awards -- the Museum Store Association Service Award and the Museum Store Association Vendor of the Year Award.

Download PDF