Two years ago this week, I walked away from the traditional analyst world and stepped into the unknown. I didn’t have a company name yet. I didn’t have a website. But I had an idea, a laptop and a microphone.
On August 29, 2023, I recorded my very first interview. It was a web conference with the late Dr. Harvey Levenson, Professor Emeritus at Cal Poly and one of the most respected voices in print education. At the time, I wasn’t sure what I was building. I just knew the industry needed new conversations and that this was the first of them.
It started with a question about a textbook.
I was researching Graphic Communications by Richard J. Broekhuizen known as “Mr. B” to the students he taught for 38 years at Nova High School in Ft. Lauderdale. That book helped fashion my own journey into graphic arts. When I couldn’t find much information about Mr. B’s legacy, someone pointed me to Dr. Levenson.
That email led to a call. And that call became this conversation.
The interview runs just under 45 minutes. It’s unedited, unscripted, and looking back more relevant than ever.
In this conversation, Dr. Levenson reflects on:
The collapse of high school print education programs
Why the terms “shop” and “trade” are holding the industry back
The rise of packaging as a growth engine
The disconnect between marketing tech and print workflows
And how innovation in education is needed to shape what comes next
But what stuck with me most was this:
“If the printing industry wants to be heard, it needs to stop preaching to itself and start speaking in the language of marketing.” - Harvey Levenson
Dr. Levenson didn’t just teach printing, he helped define its place in modern communication. Releasing this conversation now, two years into my journey, feels like closing a circle I didn’t even realize I had drawn.
Two years later, what’s changed?
Listening back to this conversation, I can hear how much my own thinking has evolved. I still believe many of the same things about the future of print, but I now see them through a wider lens. I’ve spent the last two years studying digital adoption, paper suppression, marketing tech stacks, and how communication actually works in practice.
I’ve also learned that change rarely comes from within the industry. It comes when we ask better questions, invite in new voices, and step outside the language we’ve always used.
This conversation with Dr. Levenson helped set that path in motion. I’m grateful to have had it and even more grateful to share it with you now.
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