Ink Spot Printing

Ink Spot owner Marynel Valenzuela and press operator Don Newhouse.

For almost three decades, Ink Spot Quality Printing Corp. has been providing instrumental support for Kaua‘i’s businesses and residents. Personalized service, diversification, competitive rates, experience, top-notch products and creativity have kept this little print shop in Līhu‘e in business all these years.

“There’s a variety (of services) when you come here,” owner Marynel Valenzuela said. “If you want a one-stop-shop, this is the place.”

Whether you need a single photocopy or thousands of brochures, Ink Spot can do it. The company’s large array of services include photocopies, business cards, posterboards, invitations, letterheads, brochures, rack cards, programs, pamphlets, banners, decals, flyers, tickets, menus, gift certificates, promotional items, packaging and more. They even do fingerprinting.

Marynel Valenzuela

Ink Spot also has a team of graphic designers to assist clients who don’t have a camera-ready product. Their clientele range from local residents to small and large business owners, hotels and resorts of all sizes, restaurants, nonprofit organizations and event promoters.

Valenzuela said doesn’t turn away clients asking for special services.

“It doesn’t stop right there just because we don’t do it,” she said, adding her staff will help the client by finding a third party printer that can do what he or she wants, and will also consider assistance from another company or find someone else who can do the job manually.

“That’s the extended business that I would offer,” Valenzuela said.

Ink Spot has been in business for 28 years, originally opened by Tom Brown. For Valenzuela, it all started in 1997, when she first came into the store as a customer. Seeing how busy the print shop was, she helped out people at the desk. Brown saw it, and offered her a job. In 2004, she bought the business from Brown.

Rod Valenzuela

Although the job takes most of her time, Valenzuela somehow finds time for side projects and to serve in different organizations. She is a board director and former president of the Kaua‘i Filipino Chamber of Commerce. She is also involved in the development of the Kaua‘i Philippine Cultural Center in Puhi.

And then there’s fashion. Valenzuela put together the first Kaua‘i Fashion Week four years ago, and has since organized it every year. This year’s event is May 7 at the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort and Beach Club at Kalapaki Beach. Tickets — $35 for the show and $75 for the dinner and show — are already on sale at Ink Spot.

Felipa Newhouse, of the bindery department.

One of the ingredients for the company’s success is keeping it in the family. The workers are either family or hānai family, which is adopted in Hawaiian language. A couple of workers have been there since the time when Brown used to own the business.

Valenzuela says the company has also become a place for her kids, her staffʻs kids and their friends to do homework. The children became so proficient in computer work that sometimes their teachers even question if they got help, she said.

Ink Spot is currently sponsoring a graphic design scholarship at Kaua‘i Community College. Valenzuela said graphic design can take kids further in life, and she would like to hire one of the graduates in the future.

Ink Spot is open Monday to Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. They close for lunch from 1 to 2 p.m.

The store is at 4100 Rice St., Suite 10 in
Līhu‘e, next to Love’s Bakery. Visit www.inkspotkauai.com or call 246-0147 or email print@Ink Spotkauai.com for more information.