Future Print Celebrates 40th Anniversary in 2021.

Future Print is proud of the strong roots built in the Regina community. We love what we do and strive to deliver the highest-quality products possible. We are excited to celebrate a huge milestone this year- 40 years in business!

Owner Karmen Bernt shares an historical walk through how Future Print started and where they are today.

Karmen was 21 years old when he started Quick-Way Printers. He had gained experience at another printshop for 4 years prior to starting the company which makes it 44 years in the printing industry for him (and counting)

Karmen distinctly remembers opening day. They were ready to go at 8:00 am and wondered where the customers were going to come from. The only advertising they had was an ad in YellowPages. Mid morning they were thrilled when a welding shop across the back alley saw the ad and placed an order for flyers that first day.

“I remember sleeping on the floor beside the printing press during a long run of 102,000 that I printed in one day. When the press ran out of paper, it would make a huge racket and wake me to refill the paper. " - Karmen

Back in 1981 they were one of the first in a new industry called “Instant Printing” or “Quick Printing”. It differed from the regular print industry because they had smaller printing presses known as duplicators and used disposable paper plates rather than metal plates. This allowed them to print almost instantly. Back then, one printing facility in Regina was booking a year in advance! At the time, dry powder toner copiers were in the infancy stages as most smaller copiers were still using liquid toner.

The next huge innovation to revolutionize the industry was colour copiers. The quality back then was not at today’s standards however Canon pioneered this technology and changed colour printing forever. Now you could push a button and have a colour copy in minutes.
Today Future Print colour copiers print up to 100 copies per minute with fantastic quality.

“In the mid 1980’s I remember hearing about a radical new technology called “Desktop Publishing” on an Apple MacIntosh computer. We had traditional typesetting equipment at the time and thought that this new low-quality method will never take off. Wow, were we ever wrong!” - Karmen

The company continued to grow and add staff, which meant that more production space was required. They purchased a former Synagogue from the Regina Jewish community and converted into a modern print shop. The new building with a heritage flavour became an amazing environment to work in. There were 27-foot-high ceilings in the back production area, unique green brick, and herringbone hardwood floors throughout. Everyone that went for shop tours commented that this was the nicest and cleanest print shop they had ever seen.
How Future Print Got Its Name

The name Quick-Way restricted them to quick, small projects, so the decision was made to change the name. They went to the public library and spent hours looking through print shop ads in hundreds of phone books from Canada and the United States. Eventually they decided and Quick-Way Printers became Future Print.

The Last Move
After lots of searching they moved 3 blocks north to 1650 Saskatchewan Drive which was the former EMS facility. The ambulance doors were removed, and the garage area became a print shop.
During their years in business, they undertook many unique marketing campaigns. Now that they were in the former ambulance building, they came up with Karmen’s all-time favourite marketing idea - they used an ambulance as their delivery vehicle. They purchased an actual ambulance and changed the decals to Future Print Logos. As the medical profession loves acronyms, they had slogans on it, like – PPRT, Printing Predicament Response Team. The vehicle was used for several years and was a great deal of fun.

They invested in a 4 colour printing press along with a matching colour proofing system. Colour printing was growing because of the digital age, everyone became a graphic designer with their home/office computer. Customers could simply send a file and we could print booklets or brochures for them.

Next, they became one of the few places in Saskatchewan that did gold foiling and die cutting in-house.
They fulfilled Karmen’s dream of becoming a one stop print shop, with almost every kind of printing under one roof.
The next big innovation for the company was a shift into Signs and Labels. The industry term for this is wide format printing. They were now able to print onto hundreds of different materials for indoor and outdoor signs. This also allowed them to manufacture custom decals in any shape, from small product labels all the way up to a 400-foot-long fence banner.

After 40 years they are now dealing with 3rd generation business owners.

“Many machines have come and gone in the last 40 years, however the people on our team and the customers are the memories that we cherish the most. We have so much gratitude for this wonderful community and are so thankful for your support! We look forward to serving you for many years to come.” - Karmen Bernt

P.S. Letter from Premier Moe - May 2021