Info

The company known today as Blackhawk Corporation was chartered in 1991 as an independent business entity focused on digital imaging and prepress services. But our roots date back to 1946, when Blackhawk Engraving Company opened its doors as a letterpress engraving shop in Oregon, Illinois. Another company, Progressive Graphics, was founded in 1972 as a trade composition firm serving the metropolitan Chicago market. Over the years that followed, Progressive grew very quickly - branching out into color separations, form stripping and, eventually, plate-making and gravure cylinders. In 1976 Blackhawk Engraving and Progressive Graphics merged to form Combined Communication Services (CCS). Specializing in composition, camera work and film stripping, CCS remains one of the most respected prepress operations in the country. In 1977, CCS expanded its market by acquiring ProGraphics, a Clearwater, Florida-based color separation operation, and moved all of its electronic scanning and digital operations to that location. As CCS grew, the company saw an opportunity in the web offset printing marketplace. Today CCS is made up of two operating divisions - prepress and web printing -- that cooperate to deliver quality products and superior service to a broad spectrum of customers. The Clearwater operation was divested and became Blackhawk Color Corporation. Today we are known simply as Blackhawk Corporation, reflecting our focus on providing a broader range of digital imaging services at the cutting edge of CrossMedia Communications. Although we are no longer a division of CCS, the history of Blackhawk Corporation and our credibility have a great deal to do with Combined Communication Services.