Cheers to 70 years – Links to January Cover Information

Over the summer, Printing Industry Midwest (PIM) held a cover contest for our annual Print Buyers Guide. All cover contest entries can be found in the January 2026 printed newsletter.

PIM wanted to use one of the entries for our January newsletter cover. Kaylen Wieneke of Panther located in Sioux Fall, SD, design was picked to be the newsletter cover.

“Anniversaries are for celebrating, and what’s a celebration without cake? For a 70th anniversary, a seven-tiered cake felt fitting. Inspired by PIM’s theme, “70 Years of Serving the Print Industry,” I designed a cover that ties together cake and print. Each tier represents a decade, decorated with the presses and technologies that shaped the industry at the time. Much like icing ties a cake together, each wave of print innovation has added something special to the industry. The result is both a tribute to seven decades of innovation and a celebration of the community that makes it possible,” said Wieneke.

Here is the history of the images used in the cover design.   

1956-1966: 

• The image on the left is a Linotype typecasting machine, which was invented in the late 1800s. During the 1950s, there were over 100,000 linotypes in use worldwide.
• Image purchased from Adobe Stock
• The image on the right is the Heidelberger Zylinder 54 x 72 cm from 1957. It was the bestselling book printing press of Schnellpressenfabrik AF Heidelberg.
• Image from https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-1950-1959
• Information on both presses from https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-1950-1959

1967-1976: 

• Image of IBM 3800 which was the first commercially available laser printer, announced in 1975 and introduced in 1976
• Image from https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-1975
• Information from https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-1975 & https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=926

1977-1986: 

• Image of the first Apple Macintosh released in 1984. It was the first time graphical user interface and a mouse were combined and provided a simplified user experience.
• I downloaded the image from Adobe Stock. 
• Image of PageMaker startup disk from 1985. It is a desktop publishing program that led many people to have the ability to create high-quality materials on personal computers.
• Image from https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-1985
• Information from https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-1984 ; https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/forty-years-ago-the-mac-triggered-a-revolution-in-user-experience-180983623/ ; https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-1985 ; https://novedge.com/blogs/design-news/design-software-history-aldus-pagemaker-revolutionizing-design-with-desktop-publishing-in-the-1980s#:~:text=Impact%20on%20Design%20and%20Publishing,and%20outsourcing%20to%20professional%20typesetters.

1987-1996:

• Image of the 1993 Indigo E-Print 1000, which is a sheetfed digital press that uses ElectroInk technology, also called ink-based electrophotography. It was the first digital offset press as it bypassed the printing plate requirement and print directly onto paper.
• Image from https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-1993
• Information from https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=2043 ; https://nobelusuniversity.com/2016/08/18/a-revolution-in-print/ ; https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-1993

1997-2006: 

• Image of the 2000 Agfa Galileo VS Comput to Plate Platesetter system which can image visible light violet plates.
• Image from https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-2000
• Information from https://www.piworld.com/article/the-great-digital-plate-debate-16352/all/ ; https://www.printweek.com/content/review/agfa-galileo/ ; https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-2000

2007-2016:

• In 2016, Esko introduced CPI Crystal 5080 XPS flexo platemaking system, which combines a flexo plate imaging unit with a UV LED exposure device
• Image from https://www.esko.com/static/uploads/2024/03/CDI-Crystal-XPS.webp
• Information from https://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-2016 ; https://www.esko.com/en/why-esko/flexo-platemaking; https://www.esko.com/en/products/cdi-crystal-xps ; https://www.flexography.org/honors-awards/technical-innovation/esko-xps-crystal-5080/

2017-Beyond:  

• Since AI has evolved and grown in capabilities, I thought that I would use it to create the top cake layer press image. 
• I created and purchased it from Adobe Stock.

Background, cake, waiter hand with serving tray, and candles were all purchased from Adobe Stock