Congratulations to Jacob Topete, our February 2024 Employee of the Month!
Jacob Topete came to us as an intern through the San Jose Works program. An amazing program sponsored by the City of San Jose, where they place interns – PAID by the city into sponsoring companies, that will help develop them as they pursue their career choices.
JP Graphics has been a huge fan of this program for local high school students, and Jacob is one of the reasons why.
Jacob was a Junior at the time and interested in our marketing aspects, including social media, video and graphic design. Suzi Worley handles our internships remotely, and develops a syllabus for them to come in. Suzi provides them with hands-on experience in marketing and social media, from promotional campaigns and videos to ideation and content writing. Our interns that year were Jacob and Lisette (a Senior) who produced some fun marketing pieces and generated YouTube interviews with the employees that were selected as Employee of the Month.
When they’re not working on marketing with Suzi, Joan fills them about how EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH PRINT! and inspires them to think differently. The ultimate culmination of their internship? The ability to print anything they want, if they design it and take it through production.
So, when Joan received an e-mail from Jacob telling her that he got accepted into SJSU into their design program and wanted to work for JP Graphics while going to school, she was ecstatic! Continually on the mission to bring more youth into the world of print, Joan now had an opportunity to truly help and inspire, as Jacob should for sure ace those classes that need print, as we do it all here! Joan even connected him with our Visual Media Alliance partners, asking them if he could qualify for their print scholarships.
Jacob officially began working here as an employee in August of 2023, and since that time, he has run the Xerox Iridesse Press, the HP10000, the Aerocut, the Zünd and has been making pdfs in Prepress and checking files. More importantly, he is going to be the one that would help figure out how to do Heat Transfers for shirts, transfers for promo items, temporary tattoos, and all the crazy stuff that we show we can do on the Print It – Love It – Share It and Idyll Time Gifts Etsy Stores. (The Idyll Time Gift store was set up by another Intern, Nat Bui)
Joan is a huge fan of print fulfillment and Etsy, so as part of Jacob’s training we asked him to set up his own Etsy store, where he could sell his work and generate some extra funds to see how print might play a continual role in his future. As there truly is no other print shop that covers the whole array of print – digital, offset, embellishments and finishing than JP Graphics.
We have ordered a transfer kit for the X33 and have tasked Jacob to implement this, in addition to producing weekly shirts for our Promo Guy, Bill Grizzle, to wear like the parody of FoldFactory.com – which JP reposts every Monday on Facebook for design ideas.
Jacob has inspired us with some of his assignments and is bringing back the fundamentals of good design. Jacob has designed Business Cards for his friends, an amazing Hair Salon, adding soft touch lamination and dimensional UV. He has even created wine box designs for realtor friend. Printing on the boxes and Idyll Time Wine labels. He has been a great help with the wine store, and at their 2021 Idyll Time Release Party last October.
The Senior Staff see the potential. It’s contagious watching the other young guys want to learn more and more equipment. Here are just a few of the comments from the staff:
- Jacob does so much in the time he is here. Working and organizing the paper on the HP10000, then Prepress.” ~ Debbie
- Although we had the best offset month in years, it is Jacob that is here ’till closing getting his hours in and working on something.” ~ Joe
- Jacob knows the HP, Xerox, Aerocut, Prepress… he could truly take this into a longer 2nd shift if the workload demands it. ~ Dave
- This kid is going to bring all my crazy ideas to life. Using transfers to create logo-branded marketing pieces. Proving that print is still relevant, as I smile with every Etsy order shipping out – air fresheners, bookmarks, stickers. When he has his store up and running, seeing him sell something that we produce shows it’s the creatives that are truly the influencers. Watching Jacob enjoy this print world and MAKE $$ doing it is the best feeling in the world. ~ Joan
We can see Jacob working here even after his graduation, but even if we only get 4 years from him, JP Graphics and the entire print community will benefit and SJSU will have a talented alumnus!!! Thanks Jacob, for making print relevant again, one Etsy order at a time.
