Champaign company looks to animation as well as illustrations
Over the years, the number of textbook publishers has shrunk due to consolidation, and the demands put on vendors have grown.
Today, for example, Precision Graphics provides not only illustrations for textbooks but also animation and three-dimensional work for companion products.
“We’re pushing to make sure our technology is more advanced than that of our competitors,” said Jeff Mellander, founder and president of the Champaign-based company.
Precision Graphics supplies illustrations for many college textbooks in anatomy, biology, chemistry, physics, math and psychology. With each new edition, publishers try to include illustrations different from and better than those used in previous editions and by rival publishers.
The publishing industry underwent a major consolidation between 1998 and 2003, Mellander said. The big three survivors were McGraw-Hill, Cengage and Pearson Education. Other major players include Reed Elsevier, W.W. Norton and John Wiley & Sons.
With that consolidation, “there are fewer places to market your services” and those players have more leverage, said Jason Berg, manager of new business development for Precision Graphics.
Going forward, Precision Graphics aims to distribute more of its own content so it won’t simply be working for hire, Mellander said. The company wants arrangements that allow it to be compensated every time its work is used in other products.
But, Mellander observed, “it’s a difficult challenge to get publishers to accept that as a paradigm.”
Already, Precision Graphics is planning to move “upstream” in the industry, getting involved earlier in the publishing process to help determine what’s possible in a book and related products – for example, whether an animated sequence might have a place in the learning process.
Precision Graphics would like to own and distribute its own content, perhaps partnering with an author to provide downloaded content rather than material for a printed book.
“A much larger proportion of textbooks will be digital,” Berg said. Illustrations need to be rotatable and animatable because less of the artwork is going to be printed, he said.
Meanwhile, Precision Graphics is exploring other realms. It’s working with Parkland College to produce short, animated movies that can be shown in the planetarium as part of a high school science curriculum. It’s also working to strengthen its presence in the local design market, building ties with both Parkland and the UI.
Formed on Nov. 10, 1977, Precision Graphics was originally located on West Washington Street in Champaign. It moved to its current headquarters in the former Atkinson Monument building at 106 S. Neil St., C, in 1990. There it has 12,500 square feet on two floors.
“When Precision Graphics moved into this office, it lent credibility to who we are as a creative group of people,” Mellander said.
Authors and editors come to meet with the company’s illustrators and designers, and Mellander counts that “human dialogue” an important part of the collaborative process.
Mellander, 58, recently received the “Longevity Through Innovation” Award during Innovation Celebration at the University of Illinois.
When asked whether he’s considering retirement, he said, “I’m certainly interested in looking toward retirement in the future. I don’t imagine I’ll completely retire.”
Mellander said he works a 3 1/2-day week right now and has a day-to-day management team operating the business.
In addition to Berg, key people include: Jan Troutt, vice president of publishing services; Kristina Seymour, production manager; Kirsten Dennison, composition and full-service manager; and Lisa Torri, art development and full-service coordinator, who works from southern California.
Mellander said he was contacted a couple years ago by a company in India that was interested in acquiring Precision Graphics, seeing it as a door to the U.S. market.
He said he felt the combination had potential, but the Indian company did not grasp the opportunity correctly so he “did not find the offer interesting.” Mellander concluded the Indian company would use key Precision Graphics staff to train people in India, then gradually dissolve the company.