JP Digital Imaging may be located in Mountain View, but there’s a lot of Menlo Park in the building. Jim, wife Leslie, and daughter Ashley are all Menlo-Atherton High School grads, and they all grew up here.
Jim was first a photographer, shooting architectural interiors for his mother, much-respected local interior designer Mary Peck.
“I started my photography business after two years at Foothill College,” recalls Jim. “Besides interiors, I’d shoot weddings and did a book for Sunset. I used a Sinar box camera, which was one of the big boxes that Ansel Adams used.
Jim’s photography business got so busy that he opened a photo lab on El Camino, TimeFlex Photography. That morphed into JP Color and eventually today’s JP Digital Imaging, which specializes in digital grand format printing.
Leslie grew up with the Peck family and was good friends with Jim’s sister. Jim got to know her when she was in college, and the pair married in 1982. While Jim focuses on the construction side of the business, she works out of their home in Menlo Park with an emphasis on non-profits.
After graduating from the University of Colorado, daughter Ashley worked in San Francisco doing marketing for a number of start ups. “Jim [as she calls her Dad at the office] did trade show collateral for one company,” she says. “Eventually, I decided to try working for my Dad to see if I liked it. My focus is on marketing, sales and HR. I spend half of my days with one of our biggest clients, Google.”
Touring their plant, it’s clear that what they offer is much broader than simple large format printing. There is a plethora of machinery for all kinds of jobs, including wallpaper, directional signage, indoor and outdoor displays, vehicle wraps and printed window and privacy film.
Last year, they added a CNC Router, which contour cuts, grooves and engraves all kinds of hard materials such as wood, acrylic, PVC , and aluminum as well as a Digital Flatbed Cutter, which is used to cut signs and packaging materials. It can also create soundproofing materials. A complete lineup of the company’s products and services is available online.
Jim sums up the business concisely: “We can design it, print it and install it.”
Photo by Irene Searles