Running Images’ Zolan Heads Village Green

Fred Zolan was thrilled. “I’m going to be a sponsor of the Tideline,” he told the Palisadian-Post on March 14.

Zolan, a Palisadian who owns Running Images Design and Print in West Los Angeles, is also the new president of the Village Green Committee.

Zolan met Lisa Saxon, the teacher advisor for the Tideline, Palisades High School’s newspaper, when students were having a bake sale across from the Village Green.

“The print quality of the newspaper looked terrible,” said Zolan, who felt that students deserved a better-looking product.

“Fred stopped by the table, talked to the students, looked at the product and immediately offered to step in and help by extending his expertise and financial support,” Saxon said. “My students and I think of Mr. Zolan as our angel. He shares our passion for journalism and is helping us identify strategies that will enable us to continue to produce a top-notch product.”

Zolan knows printing. Straight out of high school in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1971, he worked at a print shop, Dyna Copy. Within five years, he had been promoted to manager at a second shop in Stanford. He then worked as an apprentice at the daily Bridgeport Post, which is now the Connecticut Post.

In 1979, Zolan decided to move to Los Angeles. “I drove across the country to start the decade out here. I arrived at a third cousin’s home in the mid-Wilshire district, just as the ball dropped in Times Square.”

Zolan soon went for a job interview at the Evening Outlook in Santa Monica. “I told them I had worked at the Bridgeport Post. They called back East and I was hired on the spot.”

He noted that one of the advantages of working for the newspaper was seeing the classifieds before they were printed, which helped him land a rent-controlled apartment in Santa Monica.

Zolan’s newspaper career in Connecticut began with hot type (the technique used by Johannes Gutenberg in the 14th century: pressing a page of paper directly onto a block of type), which was gradually phased out in the 1970s. “Now the page goes straight from the computer to a plate or negative,” he said. “I have definitely witnessed the evolution of printing.”

While working at the Outlook, “I investigated the business side of how small print shops worked,” Zolan said. “I found that one of the main issues was staying organized. Some places were in shambles because they didn’t keep the workflow fluid—from receiving a job to production and then delivery.” Another issue he saw in some businesses was the lack of communication with customers and keeping them updated.

In 1984, he launched Running Images with help from his then girlfriend and now wife, Judy Miller, at the corner of National and Sepulveda. His current shop is at the corner of Cotner Avenue and Olympic Boulevard. He still has some of his original customers, including Famous Frames.

“People who want high-end printing come to me,” Zolan said. “It’s a thought-out process: color, paper, price and time are all important.” He has also learned how to cope with customers who tell him they need it yesterday. “I won’t promise something I can’t deliver,” he said. “I run an honest business, so I can sleep at night.”

Zolan has designed logos for Palisades Elementary and Palisades Tennis Center and is currently working on one for Chop Shop Gourmet. He creates the design in black and white first. “If it doesn’t work in black and white, it doesn’t work.”

He and Judy have lived in the Village area since 1993. Their son Jeffrey (20) is a sophomore at Tulane and daughter Stephanie (19), a senior at Milliken High School, will attend Syracuse University this fall for a music management degree.

Zolan’s involvement with the Village Green started about five years ago when he was walking through the pocket park and noticed that the American flag was tattered. “I was embarrassed,” said Zolan, who found a replacement flag through Arnie Wishnick at the Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce. He then noticed “the benches needed some loving care.”

He took them home one at a time (there are eight), sanded the teak and refinished them—on his own “dime and time.”

In 2010, the trashcans, which may be the most beautiful in Los Angeles, became his next project. He created a pattern, which was stenciled on the side by three PaliHi students, Marcella Ablado, Aurelia Friedman and Noah Martin, and then painted.

Zolan also started a “Sponsor of the Green” every month, and posted a calendar. He developed business cards, printed a notepad and built a Web site (palisadesvillagegreen.org) for the nonprofit.

“We have a great group that’s committed to keeping the Village Green green, and to keep its integrity and not let it fade,” Zolan said. “I scrub everything because I want it to shine. This is a private park without a fence around it because it’s for the community.” The City does not own or maintain the park.

Neighbors may have seen Zolan on the Via de las Olas bluffs because he also flies gliders, which are operated by transmitter to receiver controls on the plane wings. He generally flies his plane into the face of the bluff when he’s leaving and then crawls down to retrieve it.

“They are going 40 to 50 miles per hour and I don’t want to risk hitting anyone,” he said. “There’s something about letting go of something with no strings attached and having it come back to you. It’s like sending a child off—it returns.”

Running Images is located at 11150 W. Olympic Blvd. Call (310) 477-3591 or visit: runningimages.com.