Inspiration in Action: Print Basics Makes Memorable Images

I always say the most important jobs we do are the ones we don’t get paid for,” says Craig Tanner, CEO of Print Basics, located in Deerfield Beach, Florida. The 20-year-old, full-service commercial printing company— owned and run by Craig and his wife, Lisa Tanner, president — uses its wide-format capabilities to help honor people who have passed away.

Craig Tanner, CEO of Print Basics, gives back to his community by honoring those who have passed on. | Credit: Print Basics

“When a client loses a loved one,” Craig shares, “we reach out immediately with condolences and offer to enlarge photographs onto 24x36" foamboards for use at services. It’s a way of preserving their loved one’s memory, and we’ll do it for free, with as many pictures as they want, as long as I’m in the business.”

This “service,” he adds, has also been offered to the local Broward Sheriff’s Office, as well as to local police and fire departments to honor fallen officers or firefighters. For him, it was an honor to do so.

This quest to serve clients and friends in this way can be quite emotional. “I’ve sat with families and their religious leaders, going through photographs after a son has passed away,” he says. He also shared the experience of stopping by a house to drop off enlargements and giving them to the mother of a child who had died suddenly, who had not heard the prints were being produced. “She started bawling and bear-hugging me. I didn’t know what to say.”

Craig estimates 90% of the families he reaches out to take him up on the offer to create printed enlargements. The remaining 10%, he says, usually decline because they are traveling out of town for the funeral and find it easier not to travel with the enlargements.

The company’s ongoing effort, he says, began 10 years ago when a friend of Craig’s was killed in a road-rage incident and photographs were used to pay tribute. Asked why the company offers these services, he says its mainly because they can. “We have equipment that can do something important,” he says. “We do what needs to be done.” In some cases, he has a 20-30-year relationship with some clients and believes this kind of help is the least he can do to help struggling friends cope.

Craig says that during the 10 years, Print Basics has provided free tribute prints roughly 100 times, and generally does one or two enlargements. He says the enlargements, which are direct-printed onto foamboard using an HP flatbed printer, often become keepsakes — a beautiful, visual reminder of the person that was. It is not uncommon, he says, for families to reach out again, asking for smaller enlargements to give to friends and family. Print Basics provides these too — free of charge.

Craig shares that he reached out to the local Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital (Hollywood, Florida), offering to provide the service for families who have lost children. A rack card was created that could be given to grieving parents. He says Print Basics recently received its first phone call related to the hospital-based offer. He recognizes the enlargements are ultimately a small salve for a great wound. “We’re not making anything better, but we’re helping,” he shares.

Also a photographer, he believes there is a need for this type of application because he’s been to services where the grieving family has put together a photo collage that cannot really be seen during the service. He has personally worked with families to help them select the best photos of their loved ones. About the company’s effort, he says, “We have the ability to do something very important for a family in this very important moment of their life. People stop and look at it. We’re doing what we can.”

Asked how this effort has been rewarding for Print Basics, he illustrates the degree to which it is a simple kindness, a thoughtful gesture, a service to humanity. In a perfect world, he adds, the phone would stop ringing and we’d all live to be 120. But, until that day comes, he’ll do what he can to support those around him. “The goal is to give back to the community,” he says. “I’m not doing this for any future business. My hope is other printers will see this and decide to do the same.”