ARC

Architecture and design geeks, relax: this is your place. As Jenny C. says in her review, they understand how important details as minute as pixels are to us. I come to ARC even if all I need is a letter-​sized, black & white, résumé printed, and I would go to them for presentation posters without a second thought.

There’s a strange phenomena in the architecture world involving the anxiety of printing and plotting drawings. Somewhere between CMYK meeting RGB and dpi meeting canvas size, the painstaking process of plotting photoshop and indesign files is enough to turn any mild mannered designer into what I can only describe as a pseudo bride-​zilla monster.
Add in the stress of it being a 50 — 80 square foot thesis presentation poster and multiply it by about 20 students, the horror is enough to send most running in the opposite direction. Far, far away from the mob of incoherent babble about line-​weight and opacity levels.
Enter Ford Graphics, who not only stepped up to the plate to help my classmates and I out, but made sure our work looked as professional as any design firm in town. They put together a package for us that included test printing, plotting, mounting our posters on foamcore, and delivering them to school before our final reviews.
Everything was done with the grace and professionalism one looks for when working with a company. Fast turn around and prompt replies when panicked questions were called in only added to my overall impression of the place. Tucked away deep in NW Portland, they can be a bit of a challenge to find, but well worth the search.
Because for architects, the reality is that simple pieces of paper are a big deal… they hold the images of our imagination. And true shops like Ford know you can’t deny that reality… or the CMYK color model it employs.