Color Management for Global Output

For makeup and jewelry catalogers, color management is undeniably a major production concern. Such is the case for Avon Products, New York, which recently turned to an innovative solution for the production of its internationally distributed print brochures.

The International Challenge

Avon has a presence in more than 135 countries, with printing services contracted in 32 nations, making consistent, across-the-globe color control a tricky endeavor for a core group of people, including the art-direction staff and Bob Jordan, Avon’s quality-control manager. Betsy Wordsman, Avon’s senior manager of global print production, explains, “For economic reasons—and the substantial growth of our company—Avon wanted to create a consistent global image for its cosmetics and fragrance brands.”

Creating global brands, from a production standpoint, dictates that color is consistent throughout Avon’s international markets. “However,” explains Wordsman, “when you’re talking about global products, it’s a whole different realm we’re entering. With production and printing handled in so many other countries, we run into a situation where we’re dealing with different papers, different proofing devices, varying output devices and ink-standard inconsistencies. We’re very fortunate to have SWOP [Specifications for Web Offset Publications] throughout the U.S., but these do not apply to other areas of the world.”

Envoy for Global Production

More than two years ago, Valerie Merone, Avon’s global vice president of brochure operations, was contacted by printer R.R. Donnelley & Sons. Together, Avon and the printer devised a plan for making global color and asset management a more attainable goal.

The concept was to supply fully retouched high-resolution images to Avon’s global production partners. Imaging for each fragrance and toiletry brand would be uploaded to Avon’s global image database. Sixteen Avon countries were linked to the original database. Internationally based database users were trained on the system, and global brand imaging began appearing in Avon brochures around the world.

“During this phase, Avon decided to upgrade its software platform. For the development of the asset management platform—Envoy—we considered three or four solutions, but we found that none of them really suited us,” Merone recalls.

Partnering with Mark Jones, World Color’s senior vice president of technical services, Avon’s Kirk Booth, director of electronic publishing systems, began to analyze Imation’s MediaManager, a client/server application for managing digital content, including image, audio, video and text files. According to Booth, the three firms (World Color, Imation and Avon) formed an alliance to customize the solution for Avon’s unique needs.

The idea for implementing asset management to control color was to create a more reliable way for remote offices to obtain high-resolution images. Avon’s central production center would be responsible for having images scanned, retouched and stored in the database, allowing international offices to simply download images. While there will always be inconsistencies with substrates, inks and proofs, the solution promised to remove at least one potential variable from the workflow.

Citing approximately 28 customizations required by Avon, Booth notes that Imation primarily made cosmetic changes to MediaManager’s graphic interface. The changes, he says, were needed to make the solution more user-friendly for those in other countries.

Up and Running

Once the software had been fine-tuned, Avon’s Global IT department designed a network that would connect Avon’s satellite offices to a central asset-management server. Taking into consideration the telecommunications solutions available, a number of connections were instituted, including T1 and ISDN lines.

After the asset-management application was functional and network connections installed, the next challenge was to train Avon’s global production personnel.

“Russ Hardin, our group vice president for global brand imaging, invited many of Avon’s global production associates to meet and discuss proofing, the database and workflow,” Booth explains. “We went through the workflow with them, explaining how the system would allow them to download the high-resolution images that they could drop into sample brochures that we would also provide. At that point, they only need to change the copy, add the appropriate SKU numbers and insert pricing.”

In December 1998, after less than two years of development, Avon began rolling out Envoy to selected international offices in Poland and the United Kingdom. Satellite offices were provided with a CD-ROM that included a PDF-based installation instructional manual as well as the full Envoy program.

“In these countries, we agreed to a three-month pilot program. As that progressed, we made some additional changes to the application,” Booth recalls. “Envoy is a living, breathing entity that will evolve over time. There will always be a need for faster downloads, so Avon plans to continually look at those issues.”

Next Phase: Color Management

Avon’s priority has been to develop and install Envoy in its global markets. As of the date of this publication, the installation phase will be complete, allowing Avon to turn its attention to color management.

Envoy allows Avon to remove one of the variables from the print production chain. The next challenge will be to address standards for the variety of output devices employed across the world. “I would like our color profiling to be part of a more automated process, so that when a user logs on to Envoy, (an Avon-specific) color profile would be applied to any images they download,” Booth concludes.

“Being ‘global’ requires a commitment to the belief that this is the way of the future,” Betsy Wordsman explains. “We can’t change the way the entire world prints, but fortunately, Avon has the vision to move in the right direction. We have to. The company is based on the premise that we have to have a quality brochure to sell our products.”