4/25/02 Back Cover of Santa Barbara Independent

Promoting our new classes, we started our "got knowledge?" campaign with a full page ad on one of the Independent's seasonal glossy issues.

Before the publication hit the streets we were fielding about 5 calls per hour and 30 emails per day. Classes are being added daily and all are quite excited.

4/7/02 iMac, Do You?™

Sometimes it's nice to be us. When it comes to getting computers first, we typically find a way to edge out the competition. Five brand new G4 700mhz iMacs w/CD Burners and 386 mb RAM grace our self service counter and class staging area.

Available for access to the latest in software apps and the internet, high-end digital printing in both color and B&W for nearly half that of the competition running with lesser systems.

4/1/02 Classes Are Decided Upon

Grayphics hasn't taught classes since the first half of the 90's, back in the day that we were an Authroized Aldus Training Center. After years of considering the option of reinsituting instruction, we find ourselves overwhelmed with interest.

Both potential instructors and students alike have come out ot the woodwork to voice their positive outlooks on the idea. Our decision to limit class size to 5 hands-on training was received with a resounding "wow!" Unlike the universities and colleges that have 25+ students per class, our new class space focuses on an intimate 5:1 ratio, allowing for better interaction with instructors and better retention by students.

Adobe Photoshop, Pagemaker, Illustrator and InDesign will be the core courses, along with Quark, Freehand and Dreamweaver. Other courses, such as Flash, Cold Fusion, iMovie, iTunes, iTools, Microsoft Word & Powerpoint, Basic Internet, Migrating to OSX, and Basic Mac Skills (both OS9 and OSX) will round out our offerings.

The teaching methodology will vary from course to course; some in standard beginning to advance form and others in a more modular - pick the elements you want to learn pattern. Prices will vary as well.

---

3/11/02 Good Thing They Have Wheels

Trying to keep up with all the new machines rolling through the door has been both fun and challenging. Our knowledge and confidence with large format systems allowed us to get running in a day, what took professional engineers nearly three days the last time we installed a big system.

Twelve color process printing gives us the widest color gamut in the Tri-Counties. New print head technology gives us 2400 optical resolution and the ability to adjust for varying media thicknesses. More info and prices are available.

3/7/02 CLC5000 Delivered!

It has arrived... Quality High Speed Digital printing is now in Santa Barbara! With the new CLC 5000, Grayphics can offer 2-sided 12 x 18 inch, full color prints on up to 145lb index stock, with a three hour turnaround! No drying needed, ready to go, ready to use. At 3000 impressions per hour, and with dual 1.7 gig processors, PostScript Level 3, even the most complicated long jobs are turned around same day. More info and prices are available.

3/7/02 IR5000 Arrived As Well!

It's a 2400 dpi, booklet making, cardstock printing, 50 page per minute scanning, stapling, coallating, powerhouse. At 3000 impressions per hour, this workhorse of a digital copier/printer can keep up with the big boys. Need that document scanned to .pdf format? No problem - it does that too and more! Details.

Grayphics has firmed it's decision to purchase new equipment to go with it's new space. Three new digital printers, the CLC5000 for color print runs, IR5000 for high speed b&w printing and copying and the Colorspan Giclee 6212 for large format 12-color process printing.

10/31/01 A Different Fear During Holloween

Anthrax. More bomb threats. War. Not news you'd normally find on Grayphics' website, but unfortunately this stuff has been running our lives for some time now.

Holloween was strange. People gathering in clusters talking. Not going from house to house, but standing around saying how good it is to see people out. Clearly the slowdown in business is a combination of things; the move, technology shifts, and with people in this state of mind, it's a wonder that we get any business at all.

9/11/01 The World Changed Today.

I awoke late today. Living under the flight path of SB Airport, one can't help but noticing the 6 a.m. United flight to San Francisco. Notibly it, and other background noises were missing. The fact that they were missing was odd enough for me to take note momentarily, but I was late and rushed off to work.

As I walked through the La Arcada I noticed a large gathering in the Whale Tail Deli, but continued to our new location, excited about our new campaign.

My fellow workers were glum. They included comments that I didn't quite follow, fairly vague... Then I walked back to the Whale Tail for my morning coffee. People were staring at both televisions. The repetition of planes flying into the World Trade Center, people jumping from the towers, news about a flight crashing into the Pentagon, and the sheer horror of it all, was reflected in the pained faces of the people staring into the TV sets.

The airport noises were gone, no flights taking off anywhere in the United States.

Thousands of people are gone.

9/5/01 We Are In!

It was a rough move, but we survived. Hardwood floors, chandelier, new counters... it's coming together and looking very promising.

8/11/01 La Arcada To Become Permanent Home

News today was amazing. Mr Petersen and his remarkable crew have notified us that we will be getting an expanded home. Grayphics will soon take over Suite 7 in addition to our little "annex" at Suite 17.

2/15/01 A Landlord With Heart and Soul

Hearing of our plight, Mr. Hugh Petersen, notably the most loved landlord in Santa Barbara, made room for Grayphics in the La Arcada. Although the space was one-fifteenth the size of our prior location, we were still able to meet and greet clientele downtown.

Business was far from usual however. Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth - thank heavens for the internet. All the large format, proofing systems, imagesetters, processors, and most computers were moved out of Santa Barbara and projects, now supplied solely over the Internet, are to be shuttled into town 3 times a day.

12/31/00 Professional Investment Planning & Bill Levy Put The Squeeze On

With a four year renewal left on our lease, and after four years and over $100K in remodeling, Grayphics was put out on the street by our landlord.

Trey Pinner of Professional Investment Planning, a management company used by Levy, suggested that Levy no longer wanted "small businesses" in his buildings and wanted to make way for corporate entities like Diesel Footwear & GBMI.

While trying to hire attorneys to fight the eviction, we discovered with Levy's resources, we'd go broke trying to stay put.