Need Assistance?

Call us 319-364-2473 or Contact Us via form.

Need Assistance?

Call us at 319-364-2473
or Contact Us via online form.

Our History

Story of Rapids Reproductions

Rapids Reproductions began in 1952 as Standard Blueprint of Iowa. Founded by Dan Avery with help from the Swanson brothers from Omaha, the company grew quickly in the 60′s with the addition of a salesman from Minneapolis named Ralph S. Wasik. After Mr. Avery’s passing Ralph became Manager of the company. In 1974 Ralph purchased the company from Standard Blueprint of Omaha and it became Rapids Reproductions.

Under Ralph’s stewardship the company prospered and began the company’s culture of accepting new technology by becoming CAD system dealers in 1984 and adding color copying shortly after. After Ralph’s retirement his son Ronald took over and continued the adoption of leading edge technology by becoming one of the first dealers of wide format xerographic copiers which would eventually replace blueline copiers.

With the help of a new Sales Manager named Gerald Mohwinkle, Rapids also began expanding with the opening of an office in Davenport. Ralph’s other son Ralph W. Wasik succeeded Ronald as President in 1992 and the expansion really began with the purchase of Acme Reproductions in Waterloo and the opening of our Urbandale office. The internet, digital drawings and large format color printers continued changing the way our clients worked. Ralph Jr. kept the company current by investing in large format digital color and becoming part of the ReproMax digital network(RMX Network).

A New Era Of Rapids

In 2009, Ralph Jr. appointed Gerald Mohwinkle as President. A veteran of the industry having worked for Bruining (Oce) as well as over 20 years with Rapids, he continued the progress by moving our Cedar Rapids headquarters to larger and more modern facilities in the fall of 2009 and the acquisition of Technigraphics and Tri-State Blueprint and Framing in 2010.

In 2012, we invested in a flat bed printer which prints on almost any substrate such as wood, metal and even plexiglass.

 In 2013, we enter the 3D printing world by becoming 3D Systems dealers and providing our customers with 3D printing services. We added Markforged 3D printers shortly after. In 2017 we invested in a router/cutter for all the custom sign requests we get. 2019 we bought a 64″ vinyl cutter which does highly accurate cutting for all sorts of window, wall, sign and vehicle graphics. In 2018 Ron Wasik was appointed President for his second time and lead the company until 2021 when Bradley Mohwinkle was appointed President.

About The New Logo

Rapids Reproductions has had a rich history operating under our recognizable logo from 1952-2022.  In those 70 years we have seen a lot of growth and change.  Through a committee and approval of the board we felt it was time for a change to help celebrate our 70th year of business. 

Rapids Reproductions wanted a more modern logo that spoke to the large and grand format color printing we are growing into.  We also felt it was important to hold on to a bit of our history and why we incorporated features such as the drawing compass into our new logo.

Story of Rapids Reproductions

Rapids Reproductions began in 1952 as Standard Blueprint of Iowa. Founded by Dan Avery with help from the Swanson brothers from Omaha, the company grew quickly in the 60′s with the Picture3croppedaddition of a salesman from Minneapolis named Ralph S. Wasik. After Mr. Avery’s passing Ralph became Manager of the company. In 1974 Ralph purchased the company from Standard Blueprint of Omaha and it became Rapids Reproductions.

Under Ralph’s stewardship the company prospered and began the company’s culture of accepting new technology by becoming CAD system dealers in 1984 and adding color copying shortly after. After Ralph’s retirement his son Ronald took over and continued the adoption of leading edge technology by becoming one of the first dealers of wide format xerographic copiers which would eventually replace blueline copiers.

With the help of a new Sales Manager named Gerald Mohwinkle, Rapids also began expanding with the opening of an office in Davenport. Ralph’s other son Ralph W. Wasik succeeded Ronald as President in 1992 and the expansion really began with the purchase of Acme Reproductions in Waterloo and the opening of our Urbandale office. The internet, digital drawings and large format color printers continued changing the way our clients worked. Ralph Jr. kept the company current by investing in large format digital color and becoming part of the ReproMax digital network(RMX Network).

In 2009 Ralph Jr. appointed Gerald Mohwinkle as President. A veteran of the industry having worked for Bruining (Oce) as well as over 20 years with Rapids, he continued the progress by moving our Cedar Rapids headquarters to larger and more modern facilities in the fall of 2009 and the acquisition of Technigraphics and Tri-State Blueprint and Framing in 2010. In 2012 we invested in a flat bed printer which prints on almost any substrate such as wood, metal and even  plexiglass. In 2013 we enter the 3D printing world by becoming 3D Systems dealers and providing our customers with 3D printing services. We added Markforged 3D printers shortly after. In 2017 we invested in a router/cutter for all the custom sign requests we get. 2019 we bought a 64″ vinyl cutter which does highly accurate cutting for all sorts of window, wall, sign and vehicle graphics.  In 2019 Ron Wasik was appointed President for his second time and lead the company until 2021 when Bradley Mohwinkle was appointed President.

About the new logo

Rapids Reproductions has had a rich history operating under our recognizable logo from 1952-2022.  In those 70 years we have seen a lot of growth and change.  Through a committee and approval of the board we felt it was time for a change to help celebrate our 70th year of business.  Rapids Reproductions wanted a more modern logo that spoke to the large and grand format color printing we are growing into.  We also felt it was important to hold on to a bit of our history and why we incorporated features such as the drawing compass into our new logo.