Nathan Atkinson

neatkin52@aol.com

I grew up in Southern California moving to San Francisco in the mid 70's. My college interest was in psychology culminating in a senior project conducted in Nairobi, Kenya. I received a Bachelor of Arts in Behavior Science from California State Poly Technical University in Pomona. While subjecting individuals to behavior modification experiments, quantifying and measuring results and speculating if the findings were significant within a .01% of probability, I learned the craft of printing to pay for my education.

My print production career started while working in ad-alley at the Los Angeles Times. I was trained to compose advertisements on galleys with hot type, traditional cut and paste using photocomposition, and operate letter and offset proof presses. Moving to San Francisco after graduation I found work at AM-Graphics running small format offset presses. Working for this company gave me the inspiration to open my own printing company. In 1977 my wife and I established Atkinson Press, which we operated until May 31, 2000, when we retired out this company. Atkinson Press had built a niche in quality small format commercial printing with the major work provided from print brokers and graphic designers.

With over thirty years of print production experience, I find myself at City College of San Francisco ready to share my knowledge, practical experiences and industry contacts. What pleases me the most about this chosen career is that I have lived through many changes in print technology and feel at home with the Linotype operators of the past and the new breed of digital press operators of the future.

Make sure that you sign up for a press operations class during your tenure in the Graphic Communications department or City College of San Francisco. I look forward to sharing my passion for print production with every graphic arts student and anyone interested in print.