Putting Your Printing Money Where Your Mouth Is
At JoyLab, we’re big on putting money where our mouths are. It’s a part of being a social enterprise business and embracing the idea that business can be a force for good in our community, promoting sustainable economic growth, equity, and social impact.
So, when we have to outsource work, we want to hire firms that share our values as well. This can come in a variety of forms, but one easy way we like to promote economic equity is through supporting firms that pay a living wage and encourage the well-being of their employees.
When we make recommendations at JoyLab, we know that we need to not only back them up with data, but that we need to do it well. We can spew numbers, but without the proper context and logic, they almost always fall flat. In short, without proper context and presentation, a statistic is about as useful to you as a lie.
As an agency, we send a lot of business to printing companies. Our clients may need new signage, postcards, business cards, or brochures, just to name a few, and while we do a lot of design, we don’t produce the physical collateral in-house. As we looked for partner printing firms to help us, we managed to find some amazing union print shops, but found that not too many people knew about them. Given the importance of their work, and supporting other businesses for good, we decided to publish a quick guide to a few union print shops in Denver, and online, that we can personally vouch for!
Denver
We’d be remiss if we didn’t put a plug in for our local shops! For Denverites, or anyone in the Metro area, these shops produce quality goods and align with our values:
C&D Printing checks all the boxes as a business for good. Woman owned and operated, they have over 30 years of experience in the industry. They were awarded an Environmental Leadership Award for 2016-2017 and cover a wide variety of printing needs. You can hire them to print finished files, help design your work, or mail out your collateral. To get a quote, go to their website here.
Gamino Printing is a wonderful, local, union print shop, and they can process orders relatively quickly. You will have to create your own design and send them the file. To get a quote, email ron@gaminoprinting.com.
Egan Printing is a family-owned, union print shop that has been a Denver staple since 1891. They provide a wide variety of printing services and have been recognized for their environmentally-friendly technology. Give them a call at 303-534-0171 to start the printing process.
Online
Local doesn’t always work, and we recognize that. The good news is that you can still support a business with impact, even online. Here are a few online options for union print shops:
At Dr. Don's, they are fast, have good service, and are competitively priced. Plus, they're based in Arizona, so you get the added bonus of supporting a Union shop in a right-to-work state! Visit their website here.
For an online union shop, visit Print for Progress - they're basically the union version of VistaPrint. We've gotten a few items printed here and they are high quality.