Active in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Coons works behind the scenes in the film and computer graphics industries.

[5] There Coons worked on the many technical problems with scanning and adapting the IRIS printer to fine art printing, including modifying the machines to take heavy paper stock and dealing with the poor fade resistant (fugitive) nature of the inks.

[7] In the mid-1990s, Coons shifted his focus exclusively to scanning, while Nash Editions continued to specialize in fine art printing.

[citation needed] Coons has been involved with motion-picture technology since he was in junior high school, where he was one of the "Audio-Visual Team" that handled the equipment for educational films and shows.

He is widely regarded as a "connector" in the sense Malcolm Gladwell wrote about in The Tipping Point, though some see him as a Gladwellian "maven".