Wizards of the Coast

When I first met John Dunn, it was in a tiny, stale room on the fourth floor of the Marriott Marquis in New York City. I'd corresponded with him for a few months, after he generously offered to come and speak at our MagazineTech conference. John originally piqued my curiosity by proclaiming that he'd taken his pubs CTP (computer-to-plate) and he was able to save money in the process. Needless to say, I was compelled to learn more. And during our subsequent conversations, I learned that he had quite a remarkable story to tell. He exudes passion for making magazines, and during a year that has left many magazine publishers little to be happy about, it's a fresh attitude I think we can all appreciate.In a galaxy far, far awayFormer Boeing employee Peter Adkison founded the publishing house in 1990 with the help of six friends. They called the new venture Wizards of the Coast. The seven compatriates shared a common goal, to embark on professional careers in the adventure gaming business. Within three years, the Wizards released its first trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. The product's success led to the development of other games and then to a series of retail locations. The publisher built its stable of publications to include: Dragon, Dungeon, Amazing Stories, The Duelist, Sideboard, Polyhedron, Living Greyhawk and TopDeck. In September 1999, the founders sold Wizards of the Coasts to Hasbro for more than $325 million. Subsequently, the new Hasbro sect planned and published two more publications: Star Wars Gamer and Star Wars Insider. Adkison retired from the business in 2001.Wizards' titles are richly dark, with fantastic illustrations that require heavy ink saturation. "Our art directors," Dunn comments, "under the eye of Group Publisher Johnny Wilson—ensure that each magazine has the right feel and pace for its individual readers."Exploring new frontiersMagazines were always close to John Dunn's heart, although his desire to pursue publishing as a career remained dormant while he served in the Marine Corps and, later, the aerospace industry. He married an art director who graduated from Cal Poly (she art directs for Nordstrom these days), and when John burned out on the aerospace gig, she encouraged him to find a career he could love. He chose magazines.Dunn, his wife and some friends began publishing an independent music magazine in California, allowing him sink his teeth into Publishing 101. Dunn started off strong, unable to sate his desire for production knowledge . "I got myself a Pocket Pal, and I read it from cover to cover," Dunn recalls. "Then, I taught myself how to use Quark, and then Photoshop and Illustrator."When he had a good grasp on design software, he took an apprenticeship at a Los Angeles prepress firm and learned manual preflighting and how to RIP film. "Once I mastered those," Dunn remembers, "I got my hands dirty with Photoshop, FreeHand and PageMaker. … I was also very fortunate to learn all about typesetting from conversations with master typesetters like my wife and our friend George Brown."In time, the Dunns gave up L.A. life in favor of Seattle. There, he went to work for a small commercial printer. "It was during that time in my life," Dunn adds, "that I really developed an appreciation of the craftsmanship of printing." In 1998, Dunn got a hot job tip that landed him a job at Wizards of the Coast. Dunn recalls: "I went into the interview, and when it came to be my turn to ask some questions about the company, I asked, 'Are you CTP?' They said, 'No.' But then they asked if I had any experience with CTP personally. I hadn't, but I told them that I was willing to learn."Testing one, two, threeDunn was offered a job to head up production of the company's Periodical Group. It wasn't long before one of the publisher's suppliers, Quad/Graphics, approached them about CTP. Dunn was comfortable giving it a try, particularly when the printer seemed so caring in its approach. "Quad said, 'What can we do to help you get to where you need to be for CTP?'," he recalls. Simultaneously, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, which printed the balance of the titles in Pontiac, IL, began talks with Dunn about scheduling CTP tests. "We had meetings with both printers, and we formed an action plan for internal prepress," Dunn explains. "We performed a cost analysis by breaking down every operation at the publisher and at the printer. … Looking at the short-term, the cost savings weren't overwhelming," Dunn adds, "but when you took a step back and looked at it on an annual basis, they were significant. Let's just say, if I saw that money laying on the sidewalk, I'd definitely pick it up!"Wizards of the Coast next invested in the hardware and software, including a CreoScitex Brisque and an Iris 4. Design, production and prepress became the domain of three art directors, one production designer and two prepress operators. With infrastructure in place, Dunn and his suppliers discussed file formats. Donnelley's plant asked for native application files but would continue to accept ad film. Quad/Graphics preferred CT/LW files. Next, Dunn and the ad coordinator had meetings to map out a new digital ad workflow and revamp the titles' digital ad specifications. Dunn tried something bold: He included a notation that agencies would assess a surcharge if they chose to submit film in lieu of digital native application files. "By the first few issues, 98 percent of the ads we received were digital," Dunn marvels. "Bob Henning and Bobbi Maas (in the ad production department) were very adept at convincing our advertisers that CTP was a good thing." "As a service to our advertisers, we even output Irises of their files that we've preflighted, to verify content and color. If there are variances, we work with the advertiser to ensure that their expectations are [met]," Dunn explains. The evolution continuesPrior to going live with CTP, Dunn heard Michael Weinglass and Linda Manes Goodwin speak at a conference about digital workflow. He realized that his was far from perfect. "I was shaking when I left that seminar, because I realized just how much work we still had to do," Dunn states. "To this day, I feel we owe a great deal to Linda, Michael and the others on that panel for their trailblazing efforts."A few years have passed since that fateful day, and Dunn reports that the workflow continues to evolve. "We just finished the new digital ad spec for PDF/X-1 files," Dunn explains. "We put together a PDF-based brochure that has screen captures and walks the ad creator through the process of taking a native app file to PostScript and creating a PDF/X-1."We have several quality checkpoints for digital ads," Dunn continues. "We have Enfocus' PitStop Professional and PitStop Server and Markzware's FlightCheck. We're also using [Agfa's] Apogee Create for generating our own PDFs and Apago's X-CheckUp for converting them to PDF/X-1. We're beta-testing X-CheckUp for PDF/X-1a. The PDF/X-1 ads will come into our shop through Dawnelle Miesner, our advertising production coordinator. She'll log them in and pass them along to Jen Gilbert, our production graphic designer. Jen will preflight them using PitStop and DDAP's PDF/X-1 verifier. "She'll also take all magazine files and convert them to PDF/X-1 file rights at her workstation," Dunn adds. "Those will be sent on to prepress where the files, along with the verified ad files, will be run to an Iris proof and compared to the client supplied proof. The final files will be burned to a CD-ROM and sent in one package, with proofs and a book map, to the plant.Wizards just bought a CreoScitex Trendsetter Spectrum for in-house digital halftone proofing and is implementing the CreoScitex/Heidel-berg workflow, Prinergy. It won't mean that the Iris will retire anytime soon. "We'll use both," Dunn says. "We'll give the printer whichever type of proof they prefer. One may want an Iris; the other may ask for a halftone contract proof."Wizards' prime directive"This is truly a unique place to work," Dunn exclaims. "We're encouraged to be ourselves and take risks. [Management] understands that we're all individuals, and they want us to be as creative as we want to be. I have to give credit to all of our staff for working with me on these technology challenges. They—and the management teams that supports us—make my life much easier. We genuinely want one another to be as successful as we ourselves want to be."To exemplify just how progressive his superiors are, Dunn says, "We have Intranet chat rooms where employees can jump on and sound off about anything they want to discuss with their co-workers. We have one called 'The Gripe Room' and one called 'The Smiley Room'. I'm sure these chats are monitored by senior management. They don't just sit back and watch the conversations unfold, they listen, they communicate and they respond to valid complaints and new ideas. This is undoubtedly the best company I've ever worked for." -Gretchen A. Kirby

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