From Chaos to Clarity
From Offset to Wide Format—And a New Level of Precision
Chris started CL Visual with his partner Leigh in 2015. Both came from offset and digital printing, but they found their stride in wide format. “We found a passion for it,” he said. But that passion came with standards—and the bar, as he saw it, was way too low.
“What was out there wasn’t good,” Chris said. “We knew we could do it better.” And that mentality stuck. Every time they built something, or rethought a process, they asked: What can we do better? How can we be faster, cleaner, smarter? How do we give clients better results while saving time on our end?
The Tools Behind the Operation
Right now, the backbone of their workflow includes Enfocus Switch, PitStop Pro, and Griffin, along with a mix of modules and custom-coded elements. “We’ve implemented a lot of different things,” Chris explained. And these aren’t just sitting in the background—they’re deeply woven into how the team works every day.
“We use it daily. The time and material savings have been tremendous,” he said. Manual tasks that used to eat up hours have been chopped in half. Nesting, material planning, and ink optimization alone have saved them an estimated 25–30% in materials and another 30% in ink.
And the kicker? “It’s eliminating human errors,” he said. The tiny things that used to fall through the cracks—like forgetting a cut line or leaving an extra layer visible—just don’t happen like they used to.
That One Loom Video
Chris recorded a Loom video back when they were first building out the process. “It was the entire process, start to finish,” he said. He blasted through it quickly—just under 47 minutes—but even at that speed, there were errors.
“I didn’t put a cut line, I forgot to offset a path, I didn’t change that swatch, didn’t delete a layer,” he listed off. “It was basic—and it didn’t look great.” But it gave him the data he needed to move forward.
Now, thanks to the workflow they’ve built using Enfocus and their own proprietary systems, that same job takes five minutes. Sometimes less. “We do 20, 30, 40 of those a day now,” he added.
Turning 50 Pages into 2
One of the most eye-opening moments came during a routine review. There was a file prep process—something that seemed like it should only take 15–20 minutes. Chris asked the team to break it down. They came back with five pages.
But once they walked through it, step by step, including every click, move, save, and switch—it turned into a 50-page document. “That was wild,” Chris said.
So he tackled it head-on. Using Enfocus and custom scripts, he trimmed it all the way down to two pages. “Now I can hand that to someone who knows Illustrator but doesn’t know wide format or vehicle wraps, and they can do the job.”
That kind of clarity isn’t just for speed—it’s about making the work accessible. It turns onboarding from a mountain into a hill. And it frees up experienced staff to focus on higher-level problems instead of repeating the same steps every day.
Time Is a Resource—So Spend It Well
“We always look at repetitive tasks and ask, what’s the best use of our time?” Chris said.
He’s not shy about putting money behind a better system. “Even if I spend double what was needed upfront, we’ll make it back—and we probably already have.”
And it’s not just about savings in a spreadsheet. “When people aren’t stuck doing mindless clicks, they’re working on the real stuff,” he explained. “They grow. They think more. They make better decisions.”
The Shift You Don’t See But Feel
Chris gets it—automation can feel overwhelming to implement. “You look at it and say, it’s gonna take forever. How would we even do that?”
But once you actually start building the system and watching it work, everything changes.
“It lets creatives be creative again. It prevents mistakes. It just makes people happier,” Chris said.
Sure, the savings on ink and materials are nice—but those are just the side effects. The real win is the smoother workdays, the faster onboarding, and the people who feel less stressed and more confident in what they’re doing.
Final Thoughts
What started as a 47-minute solo video—and a 50-page checklist—turned into a five-minute task and a two-page manual. Not by chance, but by intention.
That’s the power of building a smarter workflow: not just making things faster, but making work better.
Chris didn’t overhaul the process because it was trendy. He did it because it made sense. And now, the whole team at CL Visual is better for it.
