“Fifty years is a big deal. It’s generational. That is surviving recessions, COVID, downturns …," said Denny Carter. “We have gone from letterpress to offset and now digital presses. These are all big breakthroughs in the printing industry that many printers did not survive.”
Credit: Jen Balduf
Credit: Jen Balduf
The Carters say their success has been their ability to made adjustments and technology investments to keep up with the changing times.
They officer services from brochures and booklets to large-format prints and design. The latest addition is a state-of-the-art digital envelope press that prints 10,000 full color and full bleed envelopes an hour, Denny Carter said.
Credit: Jen Balduf
Credit: Jen Balduf
“And another thing, we’ve always had very good employees, and we love them, and we try to treat them well,” Linda Carter said.
All but one employee has been working at Creative Impressions for more than 10 years, and there are at least three workers who have been there 30 or 40 years, she said.
Roll with the punches
Denny Carter was a Chaminade High School student selling ads for the yearbook when he called on Drury, a former downtown Dayton printer. They bought an ad and offered him a job part-time while he was in school.
His next job in the printing industry was at Otterbein Press, which was the publication house of the Church of the United Brethren Church. He started out doing press work before he was moved into an office job, where he was an assistant layout planner. When the church sold the publishing house, he went to work for a small printing business.
It wasn’t long before he had to break the news that the owner “shut the business down.” His wife’s response: “What are you going to do?”
That’s when he made his second proposal, which was for them to go into business together.
Denny Carter had brokered printing with other printers and used his connections to help start their business.
“We were young and just roll with the punches,” he said.
Growing pains
Within six months of printing a lot of wedding invitations in addition to other jobs, they were able to rent a space on Colfax Avenue in Kettering.
They started buying equipment and, after about five years, ran out of space as their business grew.
Their next move was to Gateway Circle in a space twice as big as the former space.
It didn’t take long before they outgrew that space and moved to the other end of the building, which they also outgrew.
That’s when they moved to 4611 Gateway Circle, where they are now.
“This was our big move because this whole building was vacant and it was the same landlord,” Linda Carter said.
They have since taken over one whole side of the building.
“And we’re busting out the seams again,” she said.
The next generation
As they celebrate 50 years in business, Creative Impressions looks ahead to the next half century.
It will be up to their sons to find a solution to meet the space needs for the family business, Linda Carter said.
Both parents said they feel pride and a sense of accomplishment for creating a business. But it wasn’t necessarily a given both sons would work for the company.
Ed Carter was seven years old when his parents founded the business, and he was a helper from the start.
“I always thought I wanted to get into the family business,” he said.
Both sons worked at the business during college and high school, performing more labor-intensive tasks.
After college, Ed Carter went to work for Baesman, a large printing company in Columbus. He moved back to the Dayton area in 1995 when he decided to get involved in the family business and start his family, he said.
He now works as sales manager.
His brother had a different journey. Ben Carter said he did not imagine working for the family business and that, as a teen, he hated a lot of the work, such as collating by hand.
After college, Ben Carter worked at National City Mortgage for a few years until 2000, when Denny Carter asked his younger son if he’d join the family business.
Credit: Jen Balduf
Credit: Jen Balduf
Ben Carter said he wanted join the family business, where is works in sales and production management, and not just because he would not be doing the same jobs he disliked as a younger man.
“I think it was the sense of pride that my mom and dad had in the business and the thought of working with them and my brother to be able to do something together that would be providing a quality product for our customers and working with customers to help them achieve their marketing goals,” he said.
For more information, visit www.creativeimpressions.biz.
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