Article May 7, 2001 Issue

TO RUN A CLEAN SHOP

Dave Hohle

After I graduated from college, I got a job at a graphic arts company in Chicago. Within a couple of years, I had a pretty good knowledge of the process and was able to make a significant contribution to the operation.

Occasionally I was asked to photograph a competitor's product. The negatives were used as the basis for products we sold under our own name. This happened infrequently, but it always made me uncomfortable. It seemed to me that we were taking something of value and putting our name on it.

One day I asked to be relieved of this task. When asked why, I said it just didn't seem right to take photos of someone else's product. I also said the result we got from working this way was inferior to what we got from our normal process, and it compromised the quality of our final product from the outset.

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