‘DESIGN AUTOMATION IS ABOUT CREATING NEW JOBS’: A CONVERSATION WITH CHILI PUBLISH
Kevin Goeminne
The robots, it would seem, are taking over. Over the past few years, countless op-eds and comment pieces have been published on the subject of automation and the effect that this trend might have on traditionally manual occupations. Fin Slater spoke to Kevin Goeminne, CEO and co-founder of CHILI Publish, about the challenges and opportunities this shift could present for print software. FS: Could you give our readers an overview on the current state of the
FS: For people who might be unaware, could you explain how your
print software market and also explain its history?
technology works?
KG: I think what has happened is that, over the past few years, a way of producing that was very conservative in terms of regulation and procedures has evolved a lot. In the past, I think the production of packaging was a very manual process, with a lot of certification and checklists before going to the actual production process. We believe that it doesn’t make sense any more to try to manually create all the different artwork that is needed for this process. The reason for this is that the world has completely changed in the past ten years. In the past, I was maybe communicating in one language, in one market in which my brand was popular. Today, we’re in a globalized world where you need to create so many variations for the marketing on your packaging, because keeping it the same for one or two years just doesn’t cut it anymore. Look at what’s happening with tobacco producers, for example. They need to be a lot more reactive to their competitors, in terms of things like colours, messaging, and feel. That’s where we see a big need for products like CHILI Publisher, and solutions in general, that can help companies to avoid manual labour in packaging production.
KG: Simply put, we simplify and automate graphics production. When we say graphics, we mean three things: packaging, print, and digital. There are two types of people who use our technology – brand owners, who buy our solution and integrate it with third party software like Esko Webcentre, and agencies who want to acquire the technology to build an application, like a tool that can automatically produce labels or a brand management platform. FS: To put CHILI’s technology into context, could you give us an example of how it might work in practice? For example, how might a company that wants to produce collateral for a conference use CHILI publisher? KG: A good example of a company that does this exactly is Phillips. They would think about the materials they need to go to a trade show. These materials would then be ‘templatized’, which is what we call converting and adding intelligence to an InDesign or Illustrator file. That template then knows how to respond to certain inputs – things like text, product choices, and certain selections. This will automatically create a press-quality PDF that can go to production. Packaging Europe | 21 |
