In Tandem Design, Inc. was founded in December of 1988, and incorporated in September of 1989, by Harry L. Shaw and Miki Lieberman as a computer-based graphic services company. We are and always have been a pure PostScript® environment, including and supporting both Macintosh® and MS-DOS® platforms (with an extreme bias in favor of Macintosh®).
- History of the Company
- Products and Services
- Management and Staff
- Back to the iTD Home Page
Miki Lieberman, a fine artist and graphic designer, and Harry L. Shaw, an engineer, realized in 1988 that the graphic arts industry was fast becoming computer-dependent. They also realized that there would be a need to join the creative world with the technical world in order to efficiently produce print-media projects in a computer environment. The company name reflects this need for technology and art to work in tandem. Harry had been living in Kansas City, MO., working for Hallmark Cards, Inc. Miki moved to Kansas City to learn the use of computers for graphic design. They realized that to start the business in earnest, they would need a client base. Miki had one in Baltimore, so Harry and Miki moved back to Baltimore to start In Tandem Design.
Initially, the company was located within a printing company in Timonium (a northern suburb of Baltimore). After two years we needed more space, and there was a realization that being located within a printing company caused some friction with other clients, some of whom were also printers. In January of 1991 In Tandem Design, Inc. was relocated to its current location, 8422 Bellona Lane, Suite 101; Towson, MD. 21204-2056 (Towson is a northern suburb of Baltimore).
All Elements on the Page, Plate-Ready Negatives Out
At the time iTD was founded, most imagesetters were being used to image RC paper, and most Macintosh® computers were being used to complete only part of the typography, design and production functions required for a print-media project. RC paper output was pasted-up, just as traditional typesetting had been. Tints and halftones were being stripped in by the printers. At that time process color was out of the question.
We realized that the equipment had the potential of doing it all. We began with the intent of "all elements on the page, plate-ready negatives out." It was two years before desktop scanners got to the point that they could do adequate halftones and marginal color scanning. It was another two years before repro-quality scanners were being designed for scanning directly into the PostScript® environment for computer assembly and imaging. We have upgraded scanning ability as it improved for the environment. We have had repro-quality scanning since 1993, and have not moved outside the PostScript® environment.
We have always felt that a hybrid of the old and the new would never be efficient, and would never be simple to operate. Even today, spot color on many dedicated systems is a bit of a kluge; several high-end page assembly systems have gone the route of the albatross; all new dedicated page assembly gear is PostScript®; all new scanning equipment is designed for scanning to disk for PostScript® assembly (as well as other things).
Diamond Screening®
Stochastic Screening became available in 1993. In Tandem Design, Inc. got beta versions of software and was instrumental in solving the calibration problems that initially plagued the use of stochastic screening. Harry was once the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Diamond Screening® of the Technical Committee of the Lintoype-Hell Users Group of North America (of the world of the solar system of the universe ...). The reports on stochastic screening for that group, for Conceppts 95 and for Vue Point 95 are available as Acrobat® *.pdf documents (Acrobat® Reader for MS-DOS® or Mac is available from Adobe Systems, Inc.).
Many of the jobs for which we control composition and image negatives for printing are done with Diamond Screening®. (Of course, with our recently-acquired Digital Offset Press, we do short-run color and variable-data printing in-house, without going to negatives.)
New Frontiers
As the flexibility and power of computers has grown, so has the number of graphic-related functions they can perform. Now video editing, animation, and interactive multimedia can be produced with Macintosh® computers.
In Tandem Design, Inc. stays with this evolution.
Recently, we have been designing packaging for CD-ROM products. We also write one-up CD-ROMs. We have a World Wide Web server on which clients publish their Web sites, some of which we design. Therefore, through us a client can have produced their print-media products. Then we can help them transform those products into, or create new products for, interactive CD-ROMs. We can design and/or produce packaging for the CD-ROM product. We can arrange for production of the packaging, duplication of the CD-ROM, and assembly into the finished product. Then part or all of the product can be advertised or made available on the World Wide Web.
In Tandem Design, Inc. has been primarily a service to others in the creative and production sides of graphic arts; we continue in that vein with new-media products. We provide parts of interactive products. We assemble parts into interactive products. We take concepts and design elements into HTML language for the World Wide Web and publish them on our server or provide the files for a client to use elsewhere.
