Production Department: The Real Workers

Producers, writers and art directors all come and go, but a production department is vital in an agency and here certain stability reigns. Such a department has the job of transforming creative department layouts and copy into the finished article: a newspaper or magazine advertisement, poster, brochure, leaflet, show card, label or whatever. This must be achieved as well as possible and for the best price. It follows, then, that an extensive knowledge of reproduction printing, make up and materials is all-important if you work in production and progress. SQ is a sound financial sense. If this sounds a tall order, it is. The impact of electronics has revolutionized the printing business which continues to develop new technology in every branch of the trade-photo-typesetting and printing. A good production person must keep up with every development and ideally acquaint the art directors with every one as well. To read of the confrontations between newspaper owners and their staff, or rather the unions which represent them, you might think that this technology was a recent phenomenon. This is far from the case. Printers and typesetting houses have been embracing new methods for the last 15 years or so and now rely entirely upon them. Such companies are highly competitive and welcome the colossal saving of time and money new methods represent. So, of course, do you if you are a production person. Your job, however, is made more difficult by the sheer number of the companies from which to choose. One veteran production man says 'There is always, somewhere, the right company for every job-the company with the right mix of machines.' It is your function to choose that company, and to get the right results for the right price. Sometimes you invite two or three companies to quote, so your negotiating skill is important.

Such service companies want your agency's business and lavish lunches and gifts are par for the course. But as specialization increases, such practices are dying out and the production chief who gives all his business to one or two companies is viewed with frank suspicion. Good working relationships with suppliers are, however, very important. A production person never knows when he will be asking a supplier to pull out all the stops and finish a job in a matter of hours.

Good relations with creative people are also essential, for you may have to advise the art director that the transparency he has chosen won't reproduce too well. You will certainly have to show him and his writer every stage of the job so that they have the opportunity to make colour corrections and spot spelling mistakes.



Progress control

The progress of any piece of work from layout to final block ready for reproduction is monitored by the progress or traffic department with a special eye on timing. The progress department or section is responsible for the final appearance of the advertisement in the right size, in the right publication, on the right day.

The managing director of a big British agency, when he heard his colleagues saying that an agency stands or falls by its creative department used to reply, 'No-it stands or falls by its progress control department.' An over-simplification perhaps, but there isn't much doubt that a blank space in the newspaper isn't going to do an agency much good. An unromantic but essential role is the progress chaser's lot.

Agencies vary in the way such matters-are organized. The progress department is sometimes part of the production department and sometimes a separate entity. Some agencies regulate the work in progress by issuing requisitions or job sheets (there are dozens of different names for such items) which include data and precise timings for every stage of the job. The progress person should be aware when the creative team is dragging its feet or the account group is asking for the impossible. Appropriate action must take place at once-you are dealing with realities, not wish-fulfillment, so you should be able to be sympathetic but firm. In addition, you will need good relations with the media for you'll often find yourself ringing a newspaper asking for a couple of hours' grace.

Progress can provide an interesting job for the right person with the opportunity to rise. A progress background can teach you a lot about what really happens if you're aiming to be an account executive.