By CARL E. FEATHER - cfeather@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon
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It’s the Fourth of July, a holiday when Americans’ thoughts turn to liberty — specifically being free from the chains of the job for a day or long weekend.
For Donald Pikovnik, president of Coloramic Process, Inc., and his sister, Becky Iannini, the Fourth of July is a holiday to be taken seriously. The Lake County residents identify with Tea Party values and believe in balancing personal responsiblity with liberty. And, as a business owner, Pikovnik appreciates the fact that he, not the government, determines what product he’ll produce and how much he’ll charge for it.
“It bothers both of us when people criticize our country,” Pikovnik says. “I think we’re a force of good in the world. I’d rather live here than any other place.”
Expressing that love for country and liberty through Coloramic’s main product, color-sample cards, is impossible, however. About two years ago, Pikovnik began thinking about a way to diversify into more creative printing projects that would also allow him to express his deep appreciation for the liberty Americans enjoy.
That led him to the iconic Statue of Liberty, which Pikovnik created in an embossed print using green foil with gold foil accents on the torch flame, crown and tablet lettering. He sells the prints online at libertynottyranny.com.
“It was a response to a lot of things going on in the world and our commitment to the foundations of this country,” Pikovnik says, explaining his motivation to create the patriotic product.
Coloramic is housed in a building on Industry Drive in Austinburg Township and has just three employees. Pikovnik’s father purchased the company out of bankruptcy in 1966, and with a lot of hard work and sacrifice, made it profitable and provided an opportunity for his children to earn their livings as self-employed Americans.
The company is one of a very few in the United States that can produce color-chip charts with a high degree of color accuracy. In the process they use, color pigments are adhered to the paper rather than attempting to create a facsimile of the color with printing inks. A special printing press is used for the process, which is done onsite.
“It’s very slow and very tedious,” says Pikovnik of the process, which can turn out only 600 or so cards an hour. “But there is really no other way to get the accurate color.”
Pikovnik said their typical customers include metal-building suppliers, cosmetic companies and powder coaters.
“Anybody who has a product that the colors are an important feature of it,” he says.
One of the presses in their print shop is capable of doing embossing work. The effect is created by heating a brass die and then pressing it into the paper.
Foils are placed between the die and paper, which picks up the color from the foil. In the case of their Lady Liberty print, the green foil’s color does not transfer uniformly and creates a varigated effect on the folds of the statue’s garment.
Parma artist Linda Carruth, who had done design work for Coloramic, did the drawing based upon photographs. Pikovnik and his wife searched a long time before they found the appropriate quotation to put on the bottom of the print: “Where liberty dwells, there is my county.” Ben Franklin penned that thought.
“That’s what we felt we were really trying to say,” Pikovnik said.
It cost them about $3,000 to commission the art work and then have the brass die produced. The image is about 18 inches from the base to the tip of the torch, and is printed on a sheet of fine paper measuring 12 5/8 by 21 inches.
Using that one die, they can produce numerous variations on the print simply by changing the color of the foils. They can also customize the inscription, to commemorate a special event, for example.
The prints are produced in short runs of 400 and sold without matting ($24.95), with double matting ($60) and with a frame (inquire) at www.libertynottyranny.com. He also has sold prints at Tea Party events and shows.
Pikovnik, who moved his company to Ashtabula County from Cuyahoga County after a fire destroyed the business’ other location, says he’d like to expand into other embossed art work to appease his creative and patriotic sides.
He feels there is a market for these products, especially with the resurgence of interest in the Constitution, Bill of Rights and preserving individual liberties. “Individual liberty is what we’re all about,” he says.
