Lexington, KY - Newly arrived home from World War II, hundreds of thousands of GIs couldn’t wait to get on with their lives. With optimism and perhaps new-found confidence, many dreamed of starting their own businesses.
Kentuckian Jack Lynn, who had been a member of the Merchant Marines stationed in the North Atlantic, was one of them.
Skilled at working with blue prints, Lynn returned home to work in that field in Louisville. But someone suggested he move to Lexington and start his own company.
With $5,000 from his father, Lynn and wife Marcella rented a 1,000 square foot building on Short St. in Lexington, bought some used equipment and flung open the door to customers. That’s when Lynn Blue Prints, the forerunner of today’s more familiar Lynn Imaging, was born.
In the company’s early days, there were several Lexington-area engineering firms competing for the same business, explained J.L. Lynn, the founder’s son. “There was a ‘war’ going on for five years but he survived and built a great reputation,” he said.
In the 1960s, Lynn moved the company to a series of buildings on Old Vine St., where the company is headquartered today. “I started trimming prints when I was nine years old and made about 50 cents a week,” J.L. remembered about his family’s business.
“We opened some copy shops around the area when that was a ‘hot’ business to be in,” said J.L. There were several locations in Lexington, Nicholasville and Frankfort, and during the coal boom, one each in Hazard and Pikeville.
At Lafayette High School, Lynn became close friends with classmate Mike Carter. When Jack Lynn decided to retire in 1976, J.L. persuaded Carter to join him. “We started buying the business. That transaction was concluded in 1982 and we’ve been working here ever since. I consider Mike to be like a brother,” said J.L.
The company became Lynn Imaging in the late 90s. Today, it is a construction information management company using technology to help clients coordinate and simplify the management of project information. Lynn also provides a wide range of printing, copying and scanning services. It maintains operations in Lexington, Louisville and Frankfort with 60 employees.
Lynn and Carter employ several family members. J.L.’s daughter Shelby Marshall is business development and marketing director, Carter’s wife Dottie works in personnel, his brother Tommy manages the pick-up and delivery department and son Justin works in sales. Carter’s daughter, Amanda Schoonover, works in sales and an important facet of the company – e-communication – construction information management software that directs a construction job from project inception to the death of the building.
The executive committee consists of Lynn, Mike and Dottie Carter and Glenn Norvell, the CFO.
Lynn Imaging is always evolving. Lynn said the staffused to send sets of printed plans and specifications to architects, engineers and contractors. Now, more than half of the time, they send digital files to those offices. They can also sell customers printers that image that information onto paper.
“Instead of doing all of the printing at Lynn, they can select and print what they want, when they want in-house. We also have an extensive scanning business.”
Lynn Imaging spun off a second company – Monster Color – providing, among other things, high quality graphics, banners, signage and posters. Maybe you’ve seen Monster Color inside Rupp Arena. For example, the company “wrapped” an entire concourse sponsored by Whitaker Bank and branded it with images. Monster Color also does branding around UK’s campus, at Commonwealth Stadium and at Blue Grass Airport, among many locales.
“We have banners displayed around town that are 100 by 150 feet in size. We ship displays all over the world,” said Lynn. “We have what are called Flat Head printers that print directly onto material that’s up to two inches thick. There’s also the Zund Custom Cutter which allows us to cut any shape.”
Lynn says Malone’s and Sal’s restaurants in Lexington have displayed life size, custom-cut stand-ups of the UK coaches. In short, the company consults with clients, designs and installs its Monster Color images.
Lynn, Carter and Norvell spend a good deal of time traveling to see new technologies. Lynn and Norvell went to the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) show in Las Vegas to see what’s coming in large format color imaging. “We travel because you can’t find out everything happening (in the industry) in Lexington. We have to go to bigger cities and shows.”
Lynn says the recession has slowed most large construction projects in Kentucky. While in 2007 there might have been 400 such projects, today there are only about 80. Lynn Imaging, to some degree, has a hand in nearly all of them.
“We have been very blessed. I think we’ll get bigger,” Lynn predicted. “My dad told me about the Great Depression he went through. I hope and pray it doesn’t happen to us. I think the economy will recover.”
“We’re a family-owned, local business,” Lynn concluded. “I hope it remains that way after Mike and I retire.”