Young managers – Taylor Buckthorpe, Colordyne

I’m almost 30 and have been in print for nearly half my life. I took my first real job at 15. Most kids my age were getting jobs at the grocery store, restaurants or coffee shops. Meanwhile, I was being teased by my brother for being unemployed. That sibling rivalry fueled a bit of competition. I reached out to a family friend, Linda Zabik, who offered me an internship. When I turned 16, I was offered a part-time job as a marketing and public relations representative working for one of the largest credit unions in Michigan.

Over the next four years Linda mentored me, and helped develop my interests and turn them into marketable skills. She taught me how to be a good employee, to listen first, ask meaningful questions second and how to represent a company. I was pitching financial services at events when I was 17 years old, which is why today I have such comfort public speaking and presenting. 

When Linda needed another graphic designer, I taught myself Adobe Creative Suite. I eventually started down the road of graphic design working on community and charity events. I was recognized for my graphics skills and Genisys started giving me more responsibility. Soon I was managing the digital print production and assembly of all branch graphics. This was my first exposure to digital print production. 

One day, with a little push from Linda and encouragement from family and friends, I started my first company, Conceptual Designs LLC. I was about 17 years old and was doing graphic design work for anything I could get my hands on and was outsourcing the digital printing. 

Starting in the professional world at 15 took some dedication. I wore dress clothes to school from junior year of high school all the way through college. I dropped my electives in high school to pursue the work experience I was getting at the credit union. I commuted all four years of college, taking 18 credit hours a semester to graduate with a degree from the university of Michigan in international business with concentrations in finance, management and marketing. 

Labels and packaging 
I really dove into labels and packaging in college when I took an internship with Barcodes West, a variable data label converter in Seattle, Washington. Barcodes West was unique as they were a completely digital shop and a leader in variable data at the time. I never knew what a label converter was before the day I walked in their building. Management told me I would learn the business from the ground up that summer, and they weren’t lying. There I was, a business student, taping boxes, sweeping the floors and running rewinders until I showed enough promise and graduated to running presses.

They eventually gave me the job of testing a new digital label press from Colordyne Technologies. Barcodes West was the first end user for Colordyne’s production class print engine using Memjet technology. You could say I’m one of the first operators of a multi-printhead Memjet platform. This was my first exposure to the technology and I was hooked. 

By the end of the summer and with the internship coming to an end, I was offered a position at Colordyne. The only issue was I hadn’t graduated yet, and Colordyne wanted me to start right away. I worked a deal out with the dean of the business school to let me take all of my senior level classes online, not common practice at the time. 

Soon enough I was packing up and moving to Milwaukee to start my career with Colordyne. I’m the director of sales at Colordyne and love working with the wide variety of companies looking to integrate inkjet into their applications. I also get the pleasure to work closely with our ownership team at Colordyne to evaluate new technology and shape the future direction for our company. 

I’ve been blessed my whole career to work for talented people who embrace young professionals and believe in providing people like myself with opportunities. Our CEO and founder Gary Falconbridge shared his vision with me eight years ago and gave me opportunity to embrace it, make it my own and run with it and build a name and career for myself in the label industry. For that, I am incredibly thankful.