MARCH 2019 22 P rint Estimating is Simply a Time Calculator 26 P ersonalization: Inkjet’s Perfect Pitch 39 D igital Signage Scales Down
Digital Print Finishing & Mailing Improved workflow and embellished inkjet output lead the way into Q2 2019 and beyond p.12
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VP, GROUP PUBLISHER Kelley Holmes kelley@whattheythink.com 772-579-7360 COO Adam Dewitz adam@whattheythink.com 612-424-5090 PRESIDENT Eric Vessels eric@whattheythink.com 740-417-3333 MANAGING EDITOR Richard Romano richard@whattheythink.com 518-290-6584 SENIOR EDITOR Cary Sherburne cary@whattheythink.com 603-430-5463 EDITOR Jessica Taylor jessica@whattheythink.com 321-626-2300 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Paul Zimmerman paul@whattheythink.com 973-727-1376 PRODUCTION EDITOR & MANAGER
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Please contact your account executive PrintingNews.com PrintingNews.com—the web portal representing content from Printing News, Wide-Format & Signage, and Inkjet’s Age—is devoted to delivering you timely news and multimedia content on a daily basis. Printing News (ISSN 2380-5056) (USPS 500-850) Volume 42, Number 5 is published ten times per year in January/February, March, April, May, June/July, August, September, October, November and December by WTT Media, LLC, at 2038 Ford Parkway #218, Saint Paul, MN 55116. Periodicals postage paid at Saint Paul, MN and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Printing News, PO Box 3257, Northbrook, IL 60065-3257. Canada Post PM40612608. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Printing News, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Subscriptions: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the U.S. to qualified subscribers. Publisher reserves the right to reject non-qualified subscriptions. Subscription prices: U.S. $47 per year, $91 two year; Canada/Mexico $69 per year, $128 two year. All other countries $101 per year, $191 two year. All subscriptions payable in U.S. funds, drawn on U.S. bank. Canadian GST#842773848. Back issue $10 prepaid, if available. Printed in the USA. Copyright 2019 WTT Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recordings or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. WTT Media Inc. does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person or company for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material herein, regardless of whether such errors result from negligence, accident or any other cause whatsoever. The views and opinions in the articles herein are not to be taken as official expressions of the publishers, unless so stated. The publishers do not warrant, either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of the articles herein, nor do they so warrant any views or opinions offered by the authors of said articles.
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Women in printing
Why did we come?
F
rank Romano was kind enough to share these comments with me when we visited the Museum of Printing in Haverhill Massachusetts outside of Boston. Please take the time to visit this amazing place celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It’s well worth it. These are the words written in 1955 by Florence B. Shera, the President of the Club of Women of New York. Florence ended up falling in love and marrying Leo Joachim, the former owner of Printing News. “What attracts women to printing? It’s not one of the typically feminine fields, like teaching, or fashion, or interior decorating, or nursing. And printing doesn’t open its arms to women or invite them into its portals. Once in the field, a woman finds no advantages as a woman, nor ease of advancement nor high wages nor any special recognition. Yet, here we are - women in printing. Why did we come? Perhaps because there’s an excitement in printing that demands one’s final ounce of skill, the nth degree of attention, the keenest thought and hair’sbreadth alertness. And even as you pour out your ability, your training, your common sense and your ingenuity, stretching to the breaking point of effort, there is no assurance of the result, no promise that this time you’re right because you were last time, no guarantee that if you knew what you were doing yesterday you’ll be equally adept today. The return is indefinable. It lies partly in the fact that your best efforts are never finally enough, but must always be improved and developed; that the printing with which you are involved in one form or another has a thousand shapes and purposes and meanings. There is no sameness, no smug
conclusion to one’s requirements. This is a moving, changing, challenging, fascinating field, and the women who seek it out must have courage and persistence and appreciation of craftsmanship and excitement in their souls. Such women did come into printing, and as much as a quarter of a century ago organized themselves into a group - not to make any demands upon the trade, but rather to insure their own growth and education and increasing value in the vocation of their choice. Today (in 1955) our group is 25 years old, and we pause to take a look at women in printing, past and present. We are happy that we have endured as a club, that we have been steadfast in our aim to improve ourselves individually so that as a group we might add our strength to that of all graphic arts groups dedicated to the progress of our industry. Yet almost simultaneously with our moment of self-appraisal, we are starting again, passing the milestone and looking ahead. We are confident that through the years to come we will be constantly informing ourselves, listening, watching, doing, experimenting, so that we may march in the vanguard, abreast of the research and development of the great art of printing, preservative of all the arts - our livelihood and our love. “ Here is her picture and I wondered while reading this how much of this still applies to the strong women in this industry I have had the pleasure of knowing and befriending. ■
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CONTENTS
MARCH 2019
PRINTING NEWS 4 Editorial: Women In Printing: Why Did We Come? COVER STORY
12 Hot Tech in Value-added: Digital Print Finishing & Mailing
12
16 Print Business Leadership in the Digital Age 22 Print Estimating is Simply a Time Calculator 24 The Year Ahead for Catalogs and Magalogs 26 Personalization: Inkjet’s Perfect Pitch
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50 Browzwear 3D Enhancements Bring Added Functionality to Virtual Fashion Design 52 EFI Connect at 20: Perpetual Change 56 Sewbotics: The “Last Mile” in Automated Apparel Technology 62 Another Tradeshow. Another Week out of the Office Is it really worth it?
Departments 4 Editorial
28 Production Printing Presses: How Do You Compare Them?
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Printing Pulse
21
New Products
30 2019 Inkjet Predictions
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32 Watch List: Video 55 Wide Format & Signage News Classifieds/Supplier Directory
32 Watch List: Video 34 Pricing Methods to Make Money in Prepress 36 If Price Isn’t the Real Motivator, What Is? WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE NEWS
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42 You Get What You Get
46 Reed Between the Lines: Evolving Sign Codes Impact Exterior Signage—and Potentially More
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Printing News March 2019
DScoop
Mar 24 - 27
INPrint USA
Apr 9-11
ISA International Sign Expo Apr 23-26 Fespa
May 14-17
39 Digital Signage Scales Down
44 Pricing for ROI in 2019
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In the Know- Events
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Printing News linkedin.com/groups/1780044 youtube:
49 Employee Retention Is good...Until Its Not
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PRINTING PULSE AXYZ International Announces Rebrand to AXYZ Automation Group
Amcor Limited Achieves Idealliance G7 Master Facility Qualification Idealliance, working closely with Amcor Group GmbH and one of their closest packaging customers during a G7 Training and Master Qualification in Rinteln, Germany masterfully performed in achieving G7 Master Qualification on offset and rotogravure as well as training staff from across Europe as G7 Experts. Amcor Limited is one of the largest packaging service providers in the world serving some of the largest brands in the world, utilizing a multitude of printing processes across the world. Idealliance, a global think tank, with 12 offices strategically located throughout the world has developed some of the world’s most leading ISO standards and specifications. With G7, also known as Near-Neutral, being revised into ISO Standard 12647-2, G7 is continuing to grow at an incredible pace around the world. Print service providers of all types know that a measurable, predictable, and uniform color management process provides significant immeasurable business advantages. For printers to make money, orders must be turned around quickly, they must be consistent, and they must be predictable, especially when you can significantly drive down waste and massively increase profitability. Whether the process is: offset, flexo, gravure, screen, wide format, digital (toner and inkjet), industrial inkjet, or dyesublimation, G7 works on any printing process.
AXYZ International, has announced the launch of a new brand identity and logo. AXYZ Automation Group is now the official name that represents all three of their brand identities – AXYZ, WARDJet and CNCshop.com. After the successful acquisition of WARDJet in April 2018, a rebrand was deemed necessary to more accurately reflect AXYZ’s combined impact on the CNC router and waterjet cutting industry. A key component to the rebrand is AXYZ’s renewed focus in automation, backed by a broad and deep product line of waterjets and CNC routers. A customer-focused approach to producing automation solutions, as well as providing continued product support, realigns the company with the demand that the next generation of manufacturing will usher in. The new logo was redesigned to reflect the integration of both CNC router and waterjet industries, and a forward march into the exciting world of automation. AXYZ will continue to provide customers with opportunities to automate the fabrication of materials production with the same high quality and level of support as before. Through continuous enhancements to their current product line and a wide selection of service packages to choose from, AXYZ remains the one stop shop for all things CNC machine-related.
www.printingnews.com/21046230 “Discover Roland/Explore Africa” Contest Winner Announced The dream trip of a lifetime is now a reality for a former Bosnian war refugee and current Arizona sign shop owner Mladen Mirkovic. Roland DG today announced that Mirkovic is the winner of the Grand Prize in Roland DG Corporation’s Discover Roland/Explore Africa Contest – an all-expenses paid, luxury African sightseeing safari for two. The 11-day tour includes stays at three South African parks known for their wide variety of wildlife. Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mirkovic’s family was forced to flee the war in 1992, eventually emigrating to Phoenix. Following school, a passion for advertising and printing led him to purchase a plotter and open his own sign shop, Custom Graphix Signworks, LLC. A demonstration of a VersaUV LEJ-640 UV hybrid/flatbed printer from local Roland dealer Toryon Technologies inspired Mirkovic to write his winning entry, which read as follows: “I discovered the Roland VersaUV LEJ-640 hybrid printer, a machine that will open the door to new opportunities and discoveries. This printer will allow me print directly to substrates, eliminating additional labor as well as the cost of vinyl media and application tape. I also discovered new ways to profit and save. Roland will always help me discover new ventures for my sign business.”
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PRINTING PULSE Canon Solutions America Offers Customers Enhanced Network Security Capabilities Through EventSentry • Correlate and monitor event logs and log files in real time, as well as monitor performance, disk space, services, processes, and more. • Track processes, console and network logons, file access, account management events, and even policy change events. • Visualize data with insightful dashboards and a powerful job and reporting feature. Canon Solutions America, Inc., announced the addition of enhanced security capabilities through EventSentry, a hybrid Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution that provides event monitoring for businesses of all sizes. This offering helps provide security and IT professionals with increased visibility into their systems, allowing their infrastructure and applications to operate securely and efficiently. Enhanced features available in EventSentry include real-time alerts, flexible dashboards, security event log normalization and correlation, and more.
www.printingnews.com/21047096 Authors of Interactive Printing and Graphic Communication Textbook Publish Syllabus Guidelines for Teachers Following the publication of Introduction to Graphic Communication, authors Harvey Levenson and John Parsons have released the first of several resources for schools and organizations using the textbook. The syllabus recommendations, summaries, recommended reading/viewing plan, and resource list may be freely used by instructors as handouts or in course catalog descriptions. As a core textbook for education and training in printing and related industries, Introduction to Graphic Communication, combines the print experience with related video content and other online interaction, via Ricoh’s Clickable Paper technology. The syllabus recommendations include a list of the top videos for each chapter, along with the viewing time for each.
www.printingnews.com/21045908 HP Reaches 1000th HP Indigo Series 4 Press Sold HP Inc. announced it has reached a milestone onethousand HP Indigo Series 4 presses sold, amid growing customer momentum for its industry-leading 29 inch (B2) platform across commercial and labels and packaging digital printing applications. Ryan Printing a New York, USbased, print service provider, was recognized as the 1000th worldwide installation of an HP Indigo Series 4 press with its purchase of an HP Indigo 12000 HD Digital Press. “The Indigo 12000 HD will be a perfect fit for our longer and large-size digital runs and our shorter traditional offset jobs, and will help enable us to open up new markets and capabilities,” said Al Ryan, owner and general manager, whose new press will expand production alongside its HP Indigo 7800.
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ISA Launches Women Leading the Industry Initiative Women Leading the Industry, a new initiative launched by the International Sign Association with Sign Builder Illustrated magazine, will hold its inaugural event at ISA International Sign Expo 2019. The inaugural session, “WLI – The Female Leader: Passion, Empowerment and Confidence,” will be held Friday, April 26. It will feature a panel of leaders discussing solutions to the issues that challenge women in the industry. The event will be moderated by Ashley Bray, SBI’s managing editor. It also will include networking opportunities.
www.printingnews.com/21047095
Office Depot Inks New Deal with Xerox, the Latest Investment in the Company’s Print & Copy Services Office Depot, Inc., has announced the latest enhancement to the company’s Print & Copy services with the placement of thousands of new Xerox units, from walkup multifunction printers to high-end production devices and personalization software, in retail stores and regional production facilities nationwide. Walk-up customers can use the tablet-like user interface on the Xerox multifunction printers to copy, print, scan and checkout right at the device with a customized, secure auto-pay feature.
www.printingnews.com/21047090
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PRINTING PULSE
Industry Economics According to U.S. Census Bureau data, monthly printing shipments took a tumble in November—which we expected—while graphic arts employment is also down—also as we expected. Once again, PR employment remains a hotspot. Also, be sure to use our annual inflation adjustment multipliers to get a true sense of how your business has really been doing year-over-year.
Printing Industry Shipments Whew! It was touch and go for a while. When the Government shut down at the end of 2018, the Census Bureau was not updating its printing shipments series, leaving our analysts jonesing for data. Thankfully, now that the Government is open again (at least as of press time), printing shipments are again being updated, which is...
well, a bit of a mixed blessing. Shipments for November 2018, the most recent available, were down from October—but we expected that. Then again, shipments were higher than November 2017—which we had been hoping for. In keeping with what has become the new industry seasonality, November is a comedown after October’s peak. We should expect that December will be another decline, but if we stay above December 2017, we can call it a win. We continue to make up ground, shipments-wise: on a year-to-date ( January-to-November) basis, 2018 comes in at $72.8 billion, while 2017 January-to-November shipments came in at $73.4 billion (all dollars adjusted for inflation). We started 2018 slow...can we make it up in the last month of the year? Can we finish the year stronger than last year? Tune in next month...
Graphic Arts Employment As for employment, printing employment dropped -0.1 percent from November to December 2018, and on a year-over-year basis is down -1.6 percent. Production employment dropped a tad from November to December, and is down -4.0 percent from December 2017. Non-production employment is up +3.8 percent from December 2017 to December 2018. In publishing, employment dropped from 718,000 in November to 716,900 in December. Publishing employment is down slightly (-0.5 percent) from December 2017. Newspapers took a hit employmentwise: down -10.1 percent from November 2017 to November 2018. The creative markets, as ever, are doing better, especially our perennial hotspot, public relations. From 10 Printing News March 2019
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PRINTING PULSE
November 2017 to November 2018, PR employment was up +8.9 percent. Among agencies, employment was up +1.5 percent, but if we back out PR, agency employment growth drops to +0.5 percent. Graphic design employment was up a little, but direct mail advertising was down -6.8 percent.
Latest Inflation Adjustment Multipliers At the beginning of every year, we provide the latest inflationadjustment multipliers so that print business owners can get a real sense of how they are performing year-over-year. It’s easy to think that a dollar is a dollar is a dollar, but what a dollar bought in 1950 is a lot different from a dollar in 2019. Money was a lot of money in the past! Likewise, what a dollar bought as recently as a few years ago is still different from what it buys today. Inflation has been fairly tame, but even small differences can add up over time, and give a distorted WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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sense of how businesses have been performing. This table is based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), calculated for the December comparison to the prior year. The CPI are the dollars in your pocket that you and your fellow employees spend in the marketplace. Unfortunately, commercial printing prices have not kept up with inflation, but the costs of running a printing business usually have.
This means that it’s harder to keep earnings and payrolls up to this level. If past dollars had greater value, this chart could be used to adjust past financial statements to bring those data to current value. This is especially important in budgeting processes where looking for trends in prior years is one way of assessing performance and goals. For complete industry statistics and other data and commentary, visit www.whattheythink.com/data.
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PRINT FINISHING & MAILING
Hot Tech in Value-added:
Digital Print Finishing/Mailing Improved workflow and embellished inkjet output lead the way into Q2 2019 and beyond. Story by Mark Vruno
W
ith Hunkeler Innovation Days 2019 now in the rear-view mirror, what can print service providers (PSPs) expect in the digital finishing sector for the rest of this year? From more integrated and highly automated back-end workflow solutions -- even touchless workflow – to textured special effects such as foil embossing and raised UV coatings, the clock is no longer the limit in what our industry once called the bindery. In the digital world, print finishing’s worn reputation as a cost center indeed may have shifted. “Finishing is now viewed as an area of opportunity,” said Don Dubuque, marketing director at Standard Finishing Systems. “With the right equipment, [print] providers can differentiate themselves and add value to their finished products. Die cutting, embossing/debossing and other finishing touches allow greater customization and flexibility than ever before, so creativity and topquality products can shine.” Allow us to, well, embellish. Embellishing means to make something more attractive by the addition of decorative details Mark Vruno Mark Vruno, a Chicagobased business publishing professional, has reported on the global commercial print industry for more than 20 years.
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or features. In the printscape, embellishment can add value. When found in the mailstream, it can get people to open up and read items like postcards, self-mailers and door hangers. High quality trumps high quantity in today’s direct-mail arena, and the ability to create new offerings changes the game. “Everything is targeted,” said Doug Sherwood, national sales manager for print-finishing provider Rollem USA. “The equipment allows us to do more for customers. We produce fewer pieces that get better results: response rates between 10 percent and 15 percent. “We all know the days of 10 million [print] runs are over. Traditional mailing houses are down. There are not a lot of big jobs anymore. Directmail printers need more business and more customers. The end-goal for them is one-stop shopping. New technologies allow them to appeal to vertical markets, such as realtors or the medical industry.” It should not come as a surprise that direct mailers still are looking for ways to cost-effectively produce pieces that stand out in mailboxes. Such differentiation could come by way of “greater personalization, more varied and challenging substrates, embossing/debossing and other finishing touches,” Dubuque said. “Or it could come from interesting shapes made possible with die-cuts and perforations. “With these more intricate pieces, production can sometimes pose a
Andy Fetherman, VP Sales Muller Martini
Rick Salinas, Duplo
challenge. Printers who can find ways to streamline the production process from creation to finishing will be able to take on more complex jobs, provide quicker turnaround and earn higher margins.” In the direct mail arena, features such as dynamic perforating, punching and die-cutting can add significant value. Sherwood, who has been at Rollem for 23 years, remembers when “it used to be all squares and rectangles: postcards, mailers, business cards, tip-on cards -- anything that ran on a square press sheet that you could take and complete and finish it. But that has changed. Digital production allows for more creativity, because you can orient product on the back end.”
Workflow Unclogs the Bottleneck In terms of condensing production time, Duplo USA Corp. took a step in the faster workflow direction in January, when it announced a partnership with EFI (Electronics For Imaging, Inc.) at the latter’s annual Connect User Conference. The time-saving integration focuses on EFI Fiery digital front ends with workflow automation software and Duplo’s DDC-810 WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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PRINT FINISHING & MAILING
Duplo’s DDC-810 Raised Spot UV Coater
Raised Spot UV Coater. EFI and Duplo customers can now complete seven manual file preparation steps in one step, including creating separate CMYK and spot UV files, page impositioning, applying of registration marks and barcodes, and submitting CMYK and spot UV files to a Fiery-driven printer and the DDC-810, respectively. The Fiery integration also leverages existing Duplo barcode support recently implemented for additional finishing on Duplo DC-746 or DC-646
Slitter/Cutter/Creasers. PSPs can save substantial finisher set-up time by using a barcode produced by Fiery Imposesoftware to automate the set up. “We have taken the complicated step of digital finishing and simplified it through EFI’s JobFlow prepress workflow,” said Rick Salinas, sales director for Duplo’s Midwest Region. “This process can cut the steps in finishing by more than 50 percent in many cases.” Duplo invented the slit/cut/crease
market, Salinas said, “and we lead the market with over 2,000 installations -- more than all competitors combined. This new partnership will help our existing and new installations take finishing to the next level.” Outside the higher-volume book production market, such finishing innovation has been a long time coming, according to Andy Fetherman, vie president of sales and technology at Muller Martini. “Our high-speed inkjet web finishing solutions have been producing commercial-quality books for more than 18 years,” Fetherman said. “Muller Martini was ahead of our time” in what then was still a toner-based printing world. “It took time for the market to catch up. There are no more sacrifices for
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PRINT FINISHING & MAILING digital finishing,” he said, adding that some of his firm’s web-finishing devices can now operate at speeds up to 1,000 feet per minute (fpm). Standard offers the extendable Hunkeler Workflow Manager (HWM), a modular platform for workflow management, job set up, production statistics, data interfacing and service tools. HWM is a major step in the advancement of automation, according to the North American distributor, with fully automated registering and plugins for job edition and production set up for cutting, stacking and dynamic perforating and punching -- eliminating much manual set up of the line. Web inspection and item tracking features can be integrated to ensure smooth and consistent document production. Featherman refers to book finishing workflow as “the next frontier,” and Muller Martini, too, is active in this space. Its Connex system takes full advantage of automation. “There are file-to-print workflow solutions out there, but few if any are file-to-finished product,” he said. “That’s what we are offering through Connex.”
Other Tech Trends in Digital Print-finishing The dreaded “bindery bottleneck” can extend beyond workflow software and into machinery. While older equipment probably is paid for, “big mailing lines are difficult to run,” Sherwood said. Maintenance can be challenging, often requiring a “MacGyver” handyman to fix and operate vintage machinery. “It has become harder in our industry to find skilled workers,” he said. “I can hire a guy now for 20 percent to 40 percent less salary. I know a customer who hired a guy who sold cars.” 14 Printing News March 2019
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Standard Hunkeler Generation 8 Continuous Feeding and Finishing Modules
So, more commercial printers are bringing mailing in house. The postpress equipment lends itself to this trend, Sherwood points out, because print owners “can train a guy and run it [themselves]. The finishing side used to be more segmented, but now there’s a lot of cross-over.” Owners are realizing that they need to catch up with the times. “There are ways to automate and improve [operating efficiency],” Sherwood said. “Running equipment with two people versus five minimizes labor and reduces costs.” “We will continue to see trends toward shorter runs, and greater customization and intricacy in finished pieces,” Dubuque said. “On one hand, there is greater demand than ever for variety and complexity in applications, but finishing equipment must also be able to keep up with the highspeed inkjet presses on the market today. Printers must be able to handle greater personalization, a wide array of substrates, unique shapes and other challenges.” Today’s postpress hardware must keep pace with direct-mail and other production demands. To meet the requirements of digital commercial printing, Hunkeler has developed its Generation 8 (Gen8) product line, which won a “Must See ’Ems” award in 2017 and is sold in North America by Standard Finishing Systems. Gen8 machines were designed with fullcolor inkjet applications in mind, according to Standard. Its modules support substrates from 27-lb. text to 12-point card as well as the smallest finished sheet format on the market (5.5” long x 4” wide), ideal for fullbleed postcards. In addition, with the
new LS8-30, sheets as large as 22.5” x 30” (B2+ format) can be perfectly stacked. At the quadrennial PRINT 18 equipment exhibition in Chicago this past fall, Standard showed Hunkeler’s Gen8 in two unique integrated solutions. A Roll-to-Fold Solution, ideal for direct mail, featured the Horizon T-566 Folder, as well as the Hunkeler DP8 Dynamic Perforator, WM8 Web Merger and CS8-II Chipout Rotary Cutter. The second line was a combination solution showing Gen8 Roll-to-Stack in-line with the Horizon StitchLiner 6000 Saddlestitcher. Both configurations demonstrated the hallmarks of Gen8: greater automation, a wider range of formats and paper weights and increased speeds (up to 600 fpm) and web width (22½ inches). Also at PRINT 18 Rollem showed its Insignia diecutters, Mailstream inline folders/gluers and Jetream XY automated, two-directional slit/score/ perforate systems. For die-cutting applications beyond the packaging segment, its Insignia line is available in four different configurations for sheet sizes including 13x19” (B2) up to 24x30”. “We can even diecut up to 30-point stock – sticker material and laminated cards, [thin] credit cards,” Sherwood said. Die changeovers in 90 seconds are conducive to smaller runs.” In addition to integrated solutions, multi-function machines with high levels of automation and versatility have become essential. These systems can perform several finishing processes, allowing for a vast and varied range of output possibilities from a single machine. For instance, WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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PRINT FINISHING & MAILING the Standard Horizon SmartSlitter can perform slitting, creasing and perforating all in one pass. It also has advanced functionality that allows T-perf’s and L-perf’s for a wider range of applications -- even on heavier, glossy stocks. The Standard Horizon RD-4055 Rotary Die Cutter can diecut, kiss-cut, crease, perforate, slit, hole-punch and round-corner in one process, creating unique shapes on a range of substrates while maintaining cost-efficiency. “Any time there is an opportunity to eliminate or reduce touch-points and labor, there is a benefit to PSPs,” Dubuque said. “Trying to achieve this has led to multiple pieces of hardware being combined into single lines, removing the need for manual intervention between steps and
maximizing productivity.” Eliminating multiple steps is critical, Rollem agrees. The manufacturer emphasizes a multifunction concept wherein machines can have the capability of performing seven, eight or nine functions at the same time. “We ran the folder/gluer behind the die-cutter at the PRINT 18,” Sherwood said. “It’s all about flexibility, streamlining applications and offering system configuration options.” Its Mailstream solution has an eight-foot mailing table on which inkjet addressing can be done. You can even add label units. The Jetstream is available with four different feeders and three to four different deliveries.
Back on the book side, further market penetration for Muller Martini can be seen in the hard-cover space. At Innovation Days last month it demonstrated the Vareo perfect binder, configured with an end-sheet tipper, making hard-cover book blocks. Duplo, meanwhile, sees digital packaging as a large growth area in the second half of this year and beyond. “With on-demand manufacturing and short-run package mail pieces, this segment needs to automate,” Salinas said. “We see the future expanding into automated diecutting, and new introductions to our slit/cut/crease line that can fill this packaging and mailing need.” Find article here PrintingNews. com/21047324 ■
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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW
Print Business Leadership in the Digital Age
Leading by example is the most powerful way to approach challenging business environments. When the leadership is engaged in constant learning, the culture of the company is much more likely to be a learning organization. If I could pick only one characteristic of a business, it would be learning, because if you’re learning, you’re staying relevant against any future changes. Story by Jennifer Matt
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e are in the midst of an uncomfortable and pervasive transition. It is Jennifer Matt Jennifer Matt writes, speaks, and consults with printers worldwide who realize their ability to leverage software is critical to their success in the Information Age.
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so pervasive, we take it for granted. Technology is moving faster than most humans can keep up with; there is no pause to consider the ramifications as huge profits are the primary motivating factor in pushing technology as fast as possible. As a print business leader, you cannot hide from this fact. Your customers are demanding that you solve challenges that require technology as well as provide access
via software so they can interact with you in a self-service manner online. The profitability of your business requires that you continuously evaluate the workflows that drive your business for efficiency. For all business leaders, this is a steep learning curve that isn’t leveling off in their lifetimes. It is easy to assume that what you need to thrive in the digital age is a more technically competent leadership. Of course this would WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW help. But there is another underlying skill that is critical to leadership success in the digital age: compassion and empathy for the humans that work for you as they grapple with the technology changes. All organizations have a culture. In my experience, the culture of an organization is closely related to the personality and leadership style of the humans in the ownership/management role. If your management team is not technical and not empathetic to the people who work for them about the uncertainty that technology is introducing into their lives, it is a recipe for a culture of fear. The people working for you come from all walks of life and have varying degrees of technical competency. The younger people who work for you were born into a very different technology environment than those of us who attended college before the internet or cellphones. This is where our school system fails us; we are educated with a very uniform group of our peers (age, etc.) and then we are thrown into the work world where our colleagues and customers are very diverse. Where do we learn how to best interact with people two generations younger than us? As a leader, you have to think about how your business is investing in both the technology and your people. Everyone knows they have to invest in the technology; you only have to lose one big deal to a competitor with a better online system to get that lesson. What we often miss is that we have to have the people who can work in harmony with the technology. Great technology deployed into an organization that is deathly afraid of change and technically challenged is a giant frustration and a waste of money for all the parties involved. The people-side of technology 18 Printing News March 2019
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isn’t easy to measure, doesn’t fit into a spreadsheet and doesn’t have a highly motivated software sales representative taking you out to dinner. Your people are coming to work each day with the uneasy feeling that software is encroaching on what they do every day. I interviewed a customer service representative recently about how her job has changed with the successful implementation of a Print MIS and an integrated web-to-print
A culture where the business leader sets an example as a learner is the best culture to thrive in this environment. No matter your age, no matter your position in the company, you need to keep learning. solution. She was initially hired to manually enter jobs from the webto-print solution into the legacy/ non-integrated Print MIS. She did this job for a full year before the new systems were implemented. I asked her what her feelings were about the new system. She immediately said she assumed she would be laid off. As soon as she saw the integrated demo, she knew the work she was doing wasn’t going to be needed moving forward. I interviewed her
a full year after the implementation. She described her position now as an account manager who was helping customers with marketing ideas and providing valuable analysis on how the programs they are running are working. She did lose her old job to software; to her credit, she learned the technology and then demonstrated how she could be deployed more strategically. She loves her new job and can’t imagine going back to the data entry job. The culture that I’ve seen work best for dealing with the rapid change in technology is a culture of learning and personal responsibility. Nobody can learn for you. You can attend a training, but you have to learn. A culture where the business leader sets an example as a learner is the best culture to thrive in this environment. No matter your age, no matter your position in the company, you need to keep learning. Nobody is an expert, because the ground underneath everyone is shifting. You cannot rely on your 30 years of experience in print production to lead print production anymore. You must see that the tools that impact your approach have to be upgraded for the toolset you have today. Experience is important, but being a learner is even more important. Every print business has technology that is underutilized. Individual users of the technology often complain about how they were not trained properly. My question back to them is always, “What effort have you put in to learn the technology?” A trainer cannot learn for you. A trainer can simply assist in your learning. You can’t delegate learning—it’s a personal responsibility. One of the primary reasons print software is underutilized is the lack of learning by the users. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21046944 ■ WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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NEW PRODUCTS New EFI Fiery FS350 Pro Software Raises the Bar in Digital Print Integration and Productivity
▲ Brady Makes Clear, Long-Lasting Color Identification Easier to Achieve in Lab and Manufacturing Environments
Brady, a global leader in industrial and safety printing systems and solutions, announced the launch of a new color label printer designed to improve efficiency through the creation of clear, colorful identification that withstands the harshest environments. The new printer – called the BradyJet J2000 Color Label Printer – offers millions of color options to enable users to create any color they need for more engaging communications. When paired with Brady’s highperformance material, this printer creates long-lasting labels with inks and adhesives that survive harsh lab environments including liquid nitrogen, autoclaves, hot water baths, freezers and more. In industrial facilities, BradyJet J2000 labels perform well under the demanding conditions created by grease, solvents, dust and abrasion. The BradyJet J2000 Color Label Printer’s compact and lightweight design was created specifically for lab and manufacturing environments, where space is limited. The printer’s color variations benefit laboratories by reducing errors and improving clarity by easily differentiating hundreds of samples.
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Electronics For Imaging, Inc. revealed its latest digital front end (DFE) technology for advanced, high-end digital print production. New EFI Fiery FS350 Pro software will give professionals more power, productivity and versatility in digital printing. The new Fiery offering – will be available starting this quarter in high-end production DFEs for EFI partners’ new, advanced digital printers and presses. This DFE software offers new features in color and imaging, productivity, management tools and connectivity. New DFEs based on EFI Fiery FS350 Pro software will drive digital printers and presses from several leading manufacturers, across sheetfed, high-speed continuous feed, B1 folding carton and corrugated digital production systems, including both toner and inkjet technologies. Canon will be the first to launch a new DFE featuring Fiery FS350 Pro in the near future.
www.printingnews.com/21045422 Electro Optical Industries Presents the New INFRATEST Software at SPIE Photonics West 2019 Part of HGH Infrared Systems, Electro Optical Industries designs and provides IR test equipment to universities, research labs, camera manufacturers and test centers around the world. The new INFRATEST software allows for the test of visible, NIR and IR cameras, ICCDs, goggles and laser rangefinders, with an unprecedented accuracy. This innovation allows to measure resolution and ranges at the edge of FOV. Other unparalleled features on the market; the remote monitoring of the temperature of the blackbodies’ cooling fluid is now possible, and INFRATEST now automatically takes into account the background temperature data, simulated by a secondary background blackbody, into the calculations of key functions such as MRTD.
www.printingnews.com/21046029 Heidelberg-Gallus Launches New Five-Color Version of Its Highly Successful Labelfire Press Heidelberg-Gallus will offer a new fivecolor version of their innovative digital hybrid flexo press, the Labelfire E 340. The five-color Labelfire (CMYK plus digital white) provides a different entry point to those looking to produce lowest cost, digital, finished labels in a single pass on an industrial platform. The Labelfire 340 is an eight-color digital production system combining unrivaled UV inkjet printing quality with the proven inline embellishments and converting efficiency of traditional Gallus presses. The advanced inkjet system, co-developed with Heidelberg, features state-of-the-art, 1200 dpi inkjet heads from Fujifilm that exceed original expectations in terms of reliability - reducing the total cost of production for users.
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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW
Print Estimating is
Simply a Time Calculator
There are a lot of crazy things that can happen in estimating departments. But estimating is the foundation of your print business. If your estimates are grossly inaccurate, you risk the utilization of your precious resources for the privilege of losing money. If your estimates are right on target, you are able to make very strategic decisions about customer pricing. Story by Jennifer Matt
I
was sitting in a large meeting the other day discussing a Print MIS implementation. I bet you’re all wishing you could have been there. It’s always fascinating stuff. David, a consultant from a Print MIS vendor said something that really struck me. He casually said, “Estimating is simply a time calculator.” It might not sound like anything when you first consider it, but I was thinking about all the stories we have heard about the crazy 22 Printing News March 2019
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stuff that happens in the estimating departments of printers. Here are just a few of my favorite examples: 1. Our owner insisted that we change all the settings in our Print MIS so that all the estimated costs equate to our desired sale price. (Yikes!) 2. We create the estimate in our Print MIS, print it out and give it to our sales people to review. They have their sales assistants re-type it in Word, they print it out, and then we scan that back into our Print MIS as an
attachment. (Double yikes!) 3. W e know all the estimates are wrong so we handicap every single one of them—it’s OK, we’re used to it. (Yikes!) 4. We haven’t added our new machines into our Print MIS yet, so we estimate everything on a single press—we figure it’s close enough. (Yikes!) Most people think of estimating as a sales function. The sales people need estimates in order to close sales—that is true, but estimating is the foundation of your business. WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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SOFTWARE & WORKFLOW If your estimates are grossly inaccurate, you risk the utilization of your precious resources for the privilege of losing money. If your estimates are right on target, you are able to make very strategic decisions about customer pricing. The quote has stuck with me because it addresses what estimating really is: An algorithm to calculate your costs at the job level. The raw materials are naturally included; that math is easy. The real skill in estimating is understanding the hours required to do the more manuallyintensive operations in a job. This is where profits are won or lost. Hours on the press, hours in bindery, hours in prepress—what about hours in data management? Are you keeping track of that in an estimate? The estimating department is your profit management center. Estimates are calculations of costs that drive optimization of your pricing. Estimate vs. actual costs on a job is one of the most fascinating data points to evaluate in a print business. Let’s assume for a minute that all the data is trustworthy. The shop floor data collection was done accurately, the waste was calculated, and the raw material usage was right on. The estimate vs. actual report tells you so much about so many parts of your business. 1. How good are your estimators? 2. What margins are your sales people able to sell at? 3. How efficient is your operation? 4. What margin can you expect from a job like this? 5. What drives costs on this kind of job? What if you got a report every week that showed you the list of estimates where the estimated vs. actual costs varied by more than 10 percent? What if you started asking estimators and operators what happened in this job to cause this
differential? You would immediately start to change behaviors. When the perception is that nobody’s looking, people have a tendency to get sloppy. When jobs can end up on a report that lands on the CFO’s desk,
people tend to take better care. It doesn’t take a lot to change. A few questions asked intermittently can change behavior across an entire organization. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21046975 ■
For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/10004777 WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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The Year Ahead for
Catalogs and Magalogs T Story by Elizabeth Gooding
he catalog and magazine segment is an interesting one, both in terms of inkjet potential and the demand for catalogs overall. Given that this has been a market in overall decline, the future looks unexpectedly bright. Between 2006 and 2016, U.S. catalog mailings dropped by somewhere between 35 percent and 46 percent according to the American Catalog Mailers association. You may have read about major web retailers like Amazon and eBay launching print catalogs for the 2018 holiday season. The catalyst for the catalogs was the $6.5 billion hole in the market left by the bankruptcy of Toys”R”Us, which had a successful catalog-fueled business. Amazon’s foray into catalog sales essentially turned the model on its head by offering no prices, limited descriptions, pictures and QR codes to drive consumers online.
Then there are the “Magalogs” Brands may be moving more of their retail online, but they don’t want to lose the connection with consumers that brick and mortar sites allow. Hence, the mix of magazine and catalog that allows brands to tell their story while selling their products. As online retailers embrace the potential for print they are also leveraging data to customize the amount and type of content. They may target a larger catalog or magalog to a new prospect and a shorter version, or teaser, to customers who already shop with 24 Printing News March 2019
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them online. This type of flexibility is where inkjet shines. This is why I’m excited about inkjet and catalogs, magalogs and even magazines in the coming year. At the same time that retail brands are rediscovering the value of catalogs and direct mail, the inkjet industry is stepping up to close the gaps in commercial print productivity. The post “Inkjet for Catalogs and Magazines – What Matters?” talked about challenging production requirements for these applications such as thinner, lighter weight papers for inside pages and coated stock for covers. The double whammy requirement for thin paper (60 – 70 gsm) coupled with heavy ink coverage has been a challenge for inkjet. Until recently, printing on offset coated stocks was not feasible. Now printers have several options to consider: ■■ UV Inkjet Devices: For short run catalog applications with lower price sensitivity, sheet-fed UV inkjet can support thin substrates, glossy covers and other substrates in the mix such as plastic. ■■ Continuous Aqueous: For longer runs, aqueous pigment ink, drying and paper transport on several devices have advanced to allow printing on necessary substrates without curl or cockle at higher coverage limits. ■■ Inkjet/Offset Hybrid: For long runs, companies are investing in custom-built inkjet/offset hybrid devices to enable versioning and personalization at high speed. ■■ Mixing It Up: Some companies
have had success with printing portions of the catalog or magazine on offset or toner devices and a portion on inkjet blending personalization, speed and cost considerations. Maybe some of your clients pulled back from print in recent years, but now is a great time to talk to them about catalogs or magalogs. You can share statistics like the fact that 42 percent of people say they read the catalogs they receive in the mail and another 25 percent at least scan them. According to the DMA Statistical Fact Book 2018, 90.9 percent of merchants cite catalogs as a primary marketing tool and 44.4 percent reported that their circulation increased in the past year. Keep in mind that print can’t be an isolated channel in this context. Successful catalog designs must lead the buyer to easily complete the transaction using another channel, typically the web or a mobile app and possibly by phone. Supporting your print capabilities with design, augmented reality, app design and/or web marketing can also help to make your 2019 a great year for catalogs. Find article here PrintingNews. com/21046977 ■
Elizabeth Gooding Elizabeth Gooding helps companies to streamline their business process, improve customer retention, and maximize new opportunities for document design, print and Internet technology. Contact her at Elizabeth@inkjetinsight.com .
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SMART CHANGE STARTS HERE
THE OCÉ VARIOPRINT® i-SERIES IS SO FAST AND EASY TO OPERATE
that we’re able to run it at maximum capacity, as proven by our 10 million-plus impressions in a month. It allows us to serve more customers and has publishing-grade quality and color that jumps off the page.” —Adam DeMaestri, CEO and President, BR Printers #INKJETMINDSET
Océ VarioPrint i-series press
READ MORE CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES WITH THE OCÉ VARIOPRINT i-SERIES PRESS: PPS.CSA.CANON.COM/SUCCESS Canon is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. Océ and Océ VarioPrint are registered trademarks of Océ-Technologies B.V. in the United States and elsewhere. All other referenced product names and marks are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby acknowledged. ©2019 Canon Solutions America, Inc. All rights reserved.
For more information, visit Printingnews.com/11329288
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DIGITAL & INKJET
Personalization – Inkjet’s Perfect Pitch Story by Joann Whitcher
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ust as the ability to manufacture greater quantities of products faster and more efficiently ushered in mass production, “mass customization” is ushering in another paradigm shift. Inkjet print technology is playing a major role in this shift, having gone through several of its own. Continuous-feed inkjet print technology’s use in a transactional white paper workflow environment, perfect for creating and printing bills and statements with variabledata information, has been joined by webfed and sheetfed inkjet, used to produce commercial offset quality custom direct mail pieces and direct-to-substrate printers, used to add personalization to promotional products. For inkjet print providers, the new era provides a unique opportunity: ■■ 70 percent of consumers under the age of 35 who receive a direct mail will take more than two minutes to look at it ■■ The expected value of the personalized gift market by 2021 is expected to be $31 billion – up 55 percent from 2016 (Technavio + Exploring Personalization, Sparks & Honey, Sept. 2018)
■■ 2 5 percent of consumers are open to sharing their data in return for a personalized experience (HP) ■■ 50 percent of Millennials and GenZ express a desire for personalized products (HP) ■■ 70 percent of consumers are willing to pay at least 10 percent more for personalized products; between 27 percent and 51 percent are willing to pay 20 percent more in some categories (HP) “Personalization allows inkjet providers to deliver higher value at the same price as they would with toner or toner overprinting of offset jobs – and realize a significantly higher margin,” said Elizabeth Gooding, president and co-founder of Inkjet Insight. “The consultancy helps companies grow their businesses
using production inkjet.” The challenge, she added, is for print providers to avoid using the capability to simply drive down the price and perpetuate the race to the bottom. Personalization is a major element of the modern marketing strategy, considered a major driver to increased customer demand, engagement and loyalty. As one of the production tools for executing marketing campaigns, Gooding said, inkjet printers deliver a deeper level of branding for client companies on statements and bills. For example, brokers and advisor logos in color on the same document and data-driven customization of direct mail based on credit score or other personal data. For example, the real-estate market can customize based on interest rates or location. This makes mailings more efficient in addition to providing more effective and timely targeting. “In each of these cases, work that would have been broken into multiple jobs to support customization or personalization
Joann Whitcher Joann Whitcher has experience in creating audience-engaging content relating to graphic communications technology and marketing, foodservice, and general topics.
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DIGITAL & INKJET
can be completed in-line, faster, at lower cost, and with a greater level of granularity in the personalized content,” Gooding said. In the retail and business markets, personalization and customization is a growing trend, said Jay Roberts, UV product manager for Roland DGA. “What we are seeing as a common thread is that business owners are looking for ways to make their gifts a little more memorable to their clients or potential clients.” For example, when companies send gift baskets, normal stock items are personalized to that customer – offering that “personal touch” so coveted by today’s consumer. Corporate marketers are looking for personalization to be synchronized across all the touchpoints – not just the print piece, stressed David Baldaro, product marketing manager for XMPie. “This is a critical element to futureproofing the business,” he said. “If we are going to promote print as being a higher value offering, we better ensure that our personalized messaging is relevant, useful and authentic,” said Inkjet Insight’s Andy Gordon.
Technology & Market Advances HP’s Personalization Pinwheel In January, HP unveiled its Personalization Pinwheel, a new framework developed to help brands tap into the burgeoning personalization market. Led by Jose “Pepe” Gorbea, head of brand and agencies for EMEA, the framework was informed by research that followed more than 45 million global online conversations in four countries, from which HP identified six main drivers for personalization: WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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■■ Fingerprinting: drive share of market through collectability of unique items ■■ Mindful Materialism: thoughtful consumption ■■ Bringing Bonds to Life: fully customized products to drive engagement ■■ Permission to Indulge: tailoring experiences to consumers’ unique preference ■■ Finding Your Flag: personalizing products according to heritage/codes ■■ Letting It All Hang Out: celebrating consumer stories individually HP is using the Personalization Pinwheel to provide tailored recommendations for its brand clients to unlock strategic communications though digital print, to drive personalized storytelling at scale, Gorbea said. Scottish beverage brand IRN-BRU’s “Bru’s Your Clan” campaign is an example of the “flying your flag” driver. The brand created a series of labels with personalized flags of 56 Scottish clans to tie in with the country’s January Burns Night celebrations. The personalized labels helped drive stronger engagement and differentiation. Canon Solutions America’s Océ ProStream Launched last year, Canon Solutions America’s Océ ProStream series combines the high-productivity of continuous feed inkjet with variabledata versatility. “The ProStream covers the market,” said Eric Hawkinson, senior director of marketing, Production Print Solutions, Canon Solutions America. “It delivers high-coverage for the direct mail market, at a true 1200x1200 dpi, with personalization capabilities to drive consumer engagement.” With the ProStream 1000,
commercial printers are able to go after the big box retailers to create personalized postcards or specialized mailers, Hawkinson said. Canon, too, is actively involved in helping its customers market the “inkjet edge” to their customers, and how to sell personalization to primary industry segments. Most recently, it is taking its message to the road, at four regionally selected customer locations, for a two-day experience. On day one, new and potential customers can bring in their salespeople; on day two, they can bring in their customers. Canon has also been a primary sponsor of Print Media Center’s Peacock Project, visiting brands and agencies to share with them the power of personalization and the quality possible with inkjet. XMPIE’s PersonalEffect Variable-data capabilities are at the heart of the XMPie platform which can be used to power any digital print press including inkjet, said Baldaro. “With XMPie software, print providers can efficiently process a high-volume of personalized print with no compromise on creativity, delivering high-value output for the clients.” Brands are looking to print providers to lower their campaign production costs, save time and increase the return on their marketing investment, Baldaro said. “These requirements can be delivered with VDP. Instead of producing ineffective static pieces, VDP applications focus on the relevancy to the recipient. One template is created, and that template automatically produces different versions of the document based on changes in the data.” The various touch-points within a campaign can be powered by the Continue on page 43 March 2019 Printing News
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Production Printing Presses:
How Do You Compare Them? Today we have many different print technologies available, including a variety of offset, electrophotographic and inkjet presses from many different manufacturers using a variety of unique manufacturing and design techniques. Additionally, all of these at a minimum have a DFE which controls the file processing prior to print. They all have the potential to be used to produce commercial print, labels, packaging and industrial printing. So how do you determine that the press you are using or about to purchase is up to the challenge? And how do you compare it to other similar and even different presses? Story by David Zwang
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omparing identical or different production presses has always been a bit of a challenge. There is available imaging science to determine imaging resolution, color reproduction and gamut, etc., but ultimately meeting a client’s reproduction expectations is usually based around a visual interpretation of the final results. So how can you create a set of tools and a process that can capture both the measurable science and the intrinsic visual interpretation that could provide a standardized method of comparison? How about using a “Network Mediated Peer Group”? This concept has been developed and proven by a group of imaging experts and is now used by many press manufacturers and print service providers to ensure their equipment is operating at an optimal state. It was developed by Image Test Labs (ITL), a division of Technology Watch LLC, and offers a solution for comparing similar and different presses and press technologies. The experts who developed this process are Henry Freedman, inventor and founder of Technology Watch, covering print and imaging technologies for over 38 years, along with Dr. Peter Dundas and Dr. Peter Crean, each with about four decades of color and engineering experience at Xerox. This new process was built on top of years of “image
grading” efforts by ITL. It started with a set of printable test targets along with more than 600 hours of live printing plant testing on offset, toner, inkjet, wide-format and proofing systems. From that starting point, they have been able to create a reasonably-priced service that can compare presses against the results of others in their database, which is the “largest graded printed image database” in the world. Last year, they had the results of more than 300 presses added to the database. The information collected in their database is kept confidential. As they developed the service, the goal was to make the results easy to deploy and easy to understand. They
David Zwang David Zwang specializes in process analysis, and strategic development of firms involved publishing and packaging across the globe. Contact him at david@zwang.com ©Technology Watch LLC
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DIGITAL & INKJET card, which consists of five pages, shows the results of 11 attributes and about a dozen sub-attributes in 15 different grades, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. It is broken down into the evaluation of your press, a comparison of your press to other similar presses and comparison to all presses in the database. Red indicates your press results in comparison. Equipment manufacturers including Fujifilm, Konica Minolta, Xerox and many others use this to benchmark their presses. Print service providers use this as one of the criteria for testing equipment prior to product release or acquisition, as well as to align existing equipment.
©Technology Watch LLC
use a set of PDF pages that can be run on any press. The resultant prints are “dissected” into about two dozen different attributes that act as independent measures of how a customer could perceive the printed results. Then the ITL Image Grader assigns a category and overall grades based on the importance of the attribute, using a patent-pending process that mimics customer perception, giving greater import to a low score than to higher scores in related attributes. The main categories for scoring are color, solids, lines and text. Unlike standard measurement tool results that report numeric values like microns, delta-E, etc., this process uses a grading system delivered as an academic style “report card.” While instrument measurements are accurate, assuming a good device with calibration, research has found that the human eye can tolerate color mismatch differently based on the color itself. Customers can also tolerate certain print technology attributes, since they usually view their printing not under a loupe but in the context of the final use. Therefore, it is important to take this into account in any measurement system that is developed to mimic customer expectation. We covered this concept in a previous article on ChromaChecker. In order to offer a true measurement of the press, the ITL system also avoids attributes like gloss, texture and gamut, which are application-specific and under the printer’s control with ink, paper selection and post treatment, as well. Finally, the evaluation and grading were developed to be press technology-agnostic, allowing for equitable comparison of different printing technologies. The report WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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As we continue to see the growth of digital print technologies and hybrid print solution adoption, having a standardized way to compare print results is increasingly important. To date, about two-thirds of those tested are EP presses and one-third are inkjet. It has also been found useful in helping diagnose and communicate machine issues, although it was not really developed for that purpose. As we continue to see the growth of digital print technologies and hybrid print solution adoption, having a standardized way to compare print results is increasingly important. Considering that presses are priced from thousands to millions of dollars, this type of testing for hundreds of dollars can be easily justified.
More to Come… I would like to address your interests and concerns in future articles as it relates to the manufacturing of print, packaging and labels, and how, if at all, it drives future workflows including “Industry 4.0.” If you have any interesting examples of hybrid and bespoke manufacturing, I am very anxious to hear about them. Please feel free to contact me at david@zwang.com with any questions, suggestions or examples of interesting applications. Find article here PrintingNews.com/ 21047273 ■ March 2019 Printing News
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2019 Inkjet Predictions – Part 1 Story by Andy Gordon
I
t’s a time-honored tradition to look into the crystal ball and project into the future all of the industry developments we think will materialize. There are things we already know, those we can speculate, others we wish for and awareness of the possible surprises that no one anticipated. A good industry futurist looks at trends related to politics, regulation, economics, raw materials, logistics, consumer preferences, print buyer strategies, print providers and technology developments. The further out you look, the more these inputs are important. Our team has some unique insights to the market that leverage our daily conversations with all of the key participants involved with production inkjet printing. We see the struggles of print providers who are innovating with a broad array of inkjet equipment, trying to solve real world problems and push the envelope to grow their businesses. We see innovations in substrates, ink chemistries, supply chain management, workflow and business strategies. Some of the changes we have seen are incremental and some are leaps forward. We expect that 2019 should be an exciting year for production inkjet and we encourage print providers to stay informed to be in the best position to take advantage of the developments that are forthcoming. The crystal ball will be cleaned and shined in 2019 and the view of the future will become clearer. Andy Gordon Andy Gordon is a well-known advocate for the advancement and transformation of the printing industry with a passion for business strategy, market and application trends, technology positioning, and market research.
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2019 Predictions Supply Chain Challenges In 2018, Inkjet Insight documented many of the challenges impacting the availability of substrates and tightness in freight and logistics markets. We started off 2019 with the announcement that Georgia Pacific was exiting its printing and writing papers business and we don’t see these issues will lessen in 2019 unless there is a major disruption to the economy that slows overall demand. We also anticipate several more paper price increases in 2019, especially with the large reduction of supply represented by the Georgia Pacific decision. Compounding these challenges are the recent postage increases which will take effect at the end of January and impact First-Class (2.486 percent) and USPS Marketing Mail (2.479 percent). All of these issues impact the cost of print and cause tension between forces that advocate for displacement of print for electronic alternatives. At a minimum, print providers may rethink their strategies and delay new equipment purchases as they assess the impact of increasingly tight paper supply market and overall increased costs. We also expect to see offshore mills enter the U.S. market to address and capitalize on the tight supply situation. While it’s a long shot, we wouldn’t be surprised to see one of the equipment manufacturers act to help stabilize paper supply for their customers.
Competing for the Glossy Page Printing high-value high-coverage color pages on coated substrates is a requirement for many marketing, publishing and packaging applications, and this is where the industry has been innovating most recently. We are at a point where there are different approaches being WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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DIGITAL & INKJET marketed, from ink and chemistry innovations, offset/ transfer imaging versus direct to substrate, print head developments, drying strategies and paper formulations. Some approaches work great for sheet-fed but aren’t the right solution for high-speed roll-fed and vice versa. What is increasingly clear is that the manufacturers recognize the expanded market opportunity beyond those best suited for uncoated substrates and are aggressively competing to establish themselves for market leadership. We expect to see equipment manufacturers aggressively promote their ability to print on glossy substrates and look forward to learning customer success stories indicating progress in this market development.
Competing for Cut-Sheet Toner Pages The low hanging fruit for production inkjet was lowcoverage applications printed on uncoated substrates, such as direct mail and transaction documents. Much of this volume has been transferred to inkjet from legacy continuous-feed toner solutions. According to I.T. Strategies, in North America, inkjet represents approximately 41 percent of direct mail pages, and toner makes up 9 percent. For transaction pages, inkjet is 28 percent and toner is 36 percent. The remainder are most likely offset printed inserts. It’s safe to assume that many of the remaining toner pages are printed on cut-sheet engines, and competition for those pages is going to heat up. We already see document-centric production cut-sheet inkjet solutions from Canon, Delphax, Riso and Xerox, and expect to see Kyocera commercialize their technology in 2019. There are also many high-value color pages currently produced on toner equipment for marketing collateral and direct marketing. Competition for those pages are just starting to emerge. These pages will be addressed by both equipment designed for documentcentric applications and those designed for complex graphic applications with varying sizes, paper weights and finishing requirements. Expect to see more transition of black and white toner pages to inkjet including the transformation of those pages to include color elements. The high-volume color applications are already transitioning, but the lower volume applications are still primarily toner. 2019 is probably still another year of market development to compete for many of these color toner pages, but we do expect to see more success stories pointing the way for greater market adoption in the future.
Growth in Packaging, Labels, Textiles Everyone seems to be developing inkjet solutions for WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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packaging, labels and textile applications. These markets are growing and currently have limited penetration of digital print technologies. There’s a lot of trial and error, and innovation as early adopters seek to find the same benefits of digital printing that the document market has enjoyed for years. These applications will become increasingly important to equipment manufacturers who will seek to extend their experience into growth segments. Inkjet Insight fully expects to see exciting developments in 2019. It’s also noteworthy that many of the packaging solutions are non-perfecting sheet-fed presses, which may eventually be further developed for perfecting or two-sided printing. With the run up to drupa 2020, we expect to see perfecting versions of these presses designed for commercial print applications.
Trench Warfare We are currently in the period after drupa where commercialization activities are in full swing and the focus for most manufacturers is to aggressively compete for installs and market share. We expect to see competitive activities heat up in 2019, with fights for the attention of prospective customers and pricing strategies finely honed to win competitive bid scenarios, as well as the positioning of broader portfolios that enable customers to step into inkjet with pre-owned or entry-level solutions and grow their volumes into more productive solutions. This market has always practiced “creative financing,” and we expect to see more customized programs to encourage “bench sitters” to take the leap into production inkjet. One of the reasons why they may hesitate is anticipation of new announcements expected prior to drupa which should begin towards the end of 2019.
Final Thoughts This is an interesting time for everyone involved with inkjet printing. From production page printing applications to those who seek to print on virtually anything, inkjet is making headway into more and more areas of industry and our lives. 2019 will represent a transition year where production inkjet is more suitable to address more applications that are printed on paper. The technology is maturing and being implemented in a range of unique and novel solutions, from ultra-highspeed continuous feed products, near-photographic offerings, hybrid systems integrated with offset presses and everything in between. In Part 2 of this series, we will look at the landscape of suppliers providing technology solutions to the market and thoughts on product introductions we are hoping to see in 2019. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21046979 ■ March 2019 Printing News
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WATCH LIST
Quality Outputs on Mutoh PerformanceJet 2508UF & ValueJet 1638UR Mutoh PerformanceJet flatbed LED UV printer and Mutoh ValueJet roll-to-roll LED UV printer Find video here: Printingnews.com/21044636
Basics of Contour Cutting in SAi Flexi Using SAi Flexi, learn how to apply a contour path to an object or text and apply registration marks before sending the job to Production Manager. Find video here: Printingnews.com/21045560
Nigerian Prints Frank found a press item from Nigeria bemoaning the fact that electronic filings would cost many jobs. We also hear a little history about the SEC’s EDGAR. Find video here: Printingnews.com/21045721
Connect 2019 -- Connect State of the Industry Connect 2019 -- Connect State of the Industry Find video here: Printingnews.com/21045066
More Efficiency with Automation Software Press manufacturer SCREEN GP Americas and OneVision Software present a holistic production workflow ranging from prepress to post-press. Find video here: Printingnews.com/21043531
Out of Stock Frank comments about shortages of printed books. At the end of 2018, bookstores— and even Amazon —ran out of inventory for certain bestsellers. Find video here: Printingnews.com/21043962
The DB Project: The World’s First Full-Scale 3D Printed Concept Car is Ready! Watch as Takumi Yamamoto’s dream is 3D-printed and assembled before his eyes. Find video here: Printingnews.com/21045393
What to Expect from the New Congress What can the sign, graphics and visual communications industry expect from the new Congress over the next two years? Find video here: Printingnews.com/21045726
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swissQprint Announces Its First Roll-to-Roll Wide-Format Printer Mike Kyritsi, president of swissQprint, talks about the company’s first roll-to-roll wide-format printer. Find video here: Printingnews.com/21046236
Fellers Supplies Wrap and Sign Materials and Training Lisa Smoke, franchise sales manager for Fellers, talks about the “world’s largest wrap supply company”. The company offers training classes on wrap materials. Find video here: Printingnews.com/21046404
FESPA Print Census - Textile FESPA 2018 Print Census - Textile findings Find video here: Printingnews.com/21046252
Warneke Paper Box Company - Primefire 106 To learn more about the Primefire 106, visit news. heidelbergusa.com or if you would like to speak to one of our specialists, email us at info@heidelberg.com! Find video here: Printingnews.com/21046408
SGIA 2018 Canon Booth Tour Angel Georgiou, Senior Marketing Specialist for Canon Large Format Solutions, takes visitors through the company’s booth at the SGIA Expo in Las Vegas. Find video here: Printingnews.com/21046553
Print Trends UK The EFI Connect Conference in Las Vegas attracts the second largest contingent of media and analysts after drupa. Find video here: Printingnews.com/21046556
How to Wrap a Bumper with 3M Wrap Film Series 1080-GC451 Gloss Silver Chrome Learn how to wrap a bumper using 3M Wrap Film Series Chrome with these helpful Tips and Tricks. Find video here: Printingnews.com/21046565
FASTSIGNS Hosts Third Annual Community Giveback Project with Feeding Children Everywhere Franchisees, employees, vendors and corporate staff participated in the 3rd annual “Community Giveback”. Find video here: Printingnews.com/21046912
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TRADE SERVICES
Pricing Methods to Make Money
in Prepress
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TRADE SERVICES Story by John Giles
I
t is a question I ask printers at the beginning of each new year. Have you raised your prices for design and typesetting services? You have a big investment in people, hardware and software so you must be sure you’re covering your costs for that department and making money. Too many printers haven’t looked at their typesetting and design pricing in a while. You may not have had a reason to think about what you are charging in the prepress department, but you could be leaving money on the table. Just because your hourly rate for prepress is higher than your designer’s hourly wage doesn’t mean you are making money. Are you really charging the hourly rate you say you charge? Don’t blame the prepress staff if the sales for their department makes it look like they sit around most of the day. Designers have little input into the selling prices in most shops. Management must constantly monitor the selling prices for the prepress work to assure the selling price is profitable. This means monitoring the sales produced by the department daily and allowing the prepress department to give feedback to the sales staff about the prices they are charging. Too often, the prepress staff is working very hard, but the sales staff is giving away their services as a loss leader. Here are pricing methods profitable printers use to make money in the prepress department. ■■ Charge differently for typesetting and design. While it might look the same to the untrained eye, the value added by the designer to a printed piece makes it worth a higher selling price. Typesetting replicates something for a buyer. A designer communicates the customer’s message and ideas through typography, color, images and form. When you are WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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providing designing services, you are providing a unique product that has a higher value than just the time it took to “type” it. ■■ Charge for author alterations (AAs). AAs should not to be confused with correcting printer’s errors (PEs) made by the typesetter. AAs are text or design changes that the author makes to their original supplied materials or their original request. A simple request to change text can result in a new line ending that requires several pages to be redesigned. Don’t let a customer make changes or redesign the project over and over without being compensated.
When management focuses on typesetting and design selling prices, prepress sales go up. Some AAs could even require the designer to start over and increase the costs. When the customer changes the specs, you must change the price. ■■ Apply a minimum charge for handling customer-created files. Successful printers will charge at least 30 minutes of their hourly typesetting rate to preflight and fix customercreated files to assure the file will print properly. If the file requires more than 30 minutes to correct, more charges are added. It is incorrect to assume that customers know how to create a file that will print
properly on your equipment. You can automate several preflight steps with specialized software, but you must make sure you’re charging enough to pay for the software tools. ■■ Have the production manager monitor the prepress department charges daily to ensure all additional charges are billed to the customer. The production manager is the choke point between order entry staff and the prepress staff. It is the production manager’s job to make sure the department isn’t losing money. If the PM believes the price is too low, the order must be sent back to the order entry staff and the price corrected. Looking at the total dollars generated in prepress each day will help the department keep from being a money loser. When management focuses on typesetting and design selling prices, prepress sales go up. The additional funds will allow you to pay the prepress staff more and keep the software and equipment updated. Proper pricing will also contribute to the customer’s perception of your company’s credibility and quality. Price it low and the customer won’t appreciate the value of your work. Implementing the right pricing practices can make 2019 the year your prepress department stops being the black hole for profits. Find article here PrintingNews. com/21046962 ■ John Giles John Giles is a consultant for the printing industry who works with Tom Crouser and CPrint International to help printers prosper. Contact John at (954) 224-1942, john@cprint.com , or johng247@aol.com .
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MARKETING TECHNOLOGY
If Price Isn’t the Real Motivator, What Is? According to Forrester Research, price isn’t a dealbreaker for most customers. If price isn’t the deal breaker in a purchase decision, then what is? That’s where data comes in.
from the way we max out our credit cards or sell our kidneys to buy gadgets or shoes.” This is where data plays an increasingly important role, and why investment in data analysis, customer profiling and development of personas is so critical. We need to understand the real triggers for purchasing decisions. ■■ Are people buying because they have a need? ■■ Are they buying because other people are buying? ■■ Is it a spontaneous purchase because, in the moment, they just feel like doing it? ■■ Are they driven by social, cultural or other factors? While we cannot predict every buying behavior, data can give amazing insight into who, when and why customers buy. Take the nonprofit sector. Did you know Mac users give more to charity than PC users? According to QGive, Mac users give an average of $182 per donation, while PC users give an average of $137 per donation. Households earning less than $25,000 per year, also donate the largest share (16.6 percent) of their income to charity.
Story by Heidi Tolliver-Walker
I
f only 17 percent of shoppers say price is a deal breaker, according to Forrester Research, then why do 76 percent of retailers aim to sell goods at the lowest price? This is a good question, and it’s one your customers should be asking when they put together their marketing campaigns. Of course, customers still want to feel like they are getting a deal. According to Statista, 93 percent of consumers use coupons or discounts at some point during the year. It’s just that other factors are becoming as or more important than price. For example, a survey from NRF found that 75 percent of customers expect free delivery of online orders up to $50. It also found that customers are looking for things like hassle-free shopping and increased convenience, such as online shopping with pick-up of all items, prepaid, at the store. So it’s not that price isn’t important. It’s that getting the most value and feeling the most satisfied with the purchase may be more so. After all, notes Lori Wagoner, community manager of Inbound Junction, “Consumers aren’t price-conscious when it comes to spending on the goods and services that they really want. This is apparent
Heidi Tolliver-Walker Heidi Tolliver-Walker has been a commercial and digital printing industry analyst, feature writer, and author for more than 20 years. Her industry commentary can be found in national printing publications, blogs, and marketing publications.
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All of this adds up to one thing: data. It is increasingly clear that marketers can’t leave the mail house or email delivery server without it. The more we understand about consumer behavior, the more we understand that price is not always the greatest motivator, and it’s not necessarily even the most important one. Identifying the right buying triggers for each audience is going to take data—lots of data—and the willingness to figure out how to apply it. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21046980 ■ WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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MARCH 2019 44 A ll About Interior Signage
An edition of Printing News
46 R eed Between the Lines: Evolving Sign Codes Impact Exterior Signage 50 B rowzwear 3D Enhancements Bring Added Functionality to Virtual Fashion Design
Dynamic Digital Signage Primer: The State of DDs p.39
a magazine from
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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE
Digital Signage Scales Down Large-scale deployments may have slowed, but inexpensive displays, presentation software and mobile apps have brought small-scale DDS to small businesses. Story by Richard Romano
Y
ou’ve seen it in banks and in hotel lobbies. Alongside busy interstates and in taprooms. In gyms and coffee shops. Over the past five years or so, dynamic digital signage (DDS) has almost stealthily insinuated itself into many of the places once reserved for traditional signage. And while even a few years ago, DDS was an complicated application best left to professionals, today even an end user with minimal experience can create functional and effective digital signage. First of all, let’s clarify our terms. Dynamic digital signage—aka “digital signage” or “electronic signage”—is sign content or display graphics delivered not in print but to an electronic display, commonly an LCD not unlike a wide-screen TV. Indeed, some small-scale DDS deployments do in fact use consumer-grade LCD TVs. It’s not uncommon to see a spate of modest DDS deployments following Black Friday sales when TVs can be picked up on the cheap, although higher-grade “industrialscale” TVs are a better option for major signage applications that need to run 24/7. You run the risk of voiding your warranty if you use a consumer TV for signage— Richard Romano Richard Romano has been writing about the graphic communications industry for 20 years. He is an industry analyst and author or co-author of more than half a dozen books.
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although the devices themselves are increasingly up to the task. At the other end of the spectrum is what is known as an electronic messaging center [EMC]. These are large-scale digital signage applications often located outside schools, civic centers, etc., that
presentation. Indeed, many DDS deployments do in fact use PowerPoint (or a similar application) to manage signage content. And it can increasingly be handled by the end users themselves. So where does that leave PSPs or other DDS specialists?
Gunning Elite Training, a small gym based in Malta, N.Y., uses home-made digital signage to display the “workout of the day.”
provide a rotating set of upcoming events or other announcements. We will look at EMCs in a future feature. After the display, the next ingredient in the DDS menu is a media controller—the hardware and software combination that pipes the actual content to the display. Once upon a time (three years ago?), that was a separate piece of hardware, but now is either built into the display or is just a laptop computer—or even a smartphone. At heart, DDS is really little more than a glorified PowerPoint
Gunning Elite Training (GET) (www. gunningelitetraining.com) is a small gym based in Malta, N.Y. Founded in 2013 by the husband and wife team of Matt and Casey Gunning, the gym offers small group classes that focus on strength training and conditioning. Each class features a “workout of the day” (WOD) posted in the gym, which tells gym members what exercises are on tap during a given class. For years, the WOD was handwritten on a dry-erase board. Late last year, the dry-erase board was replaced by digital signage. March 2019 Printing News
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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE “I wanted it to look more professional,” said Founder and Head Trainer Matt Gunning. “I had seen other gyms do this kind of thing. It’s also easier to update and change workouts.” It’s all DIY: Gunning creates each workout as a slide in Apple Keynote, based on a design template created by his wife Casey. The slide is then wirelessly piped to a wall-mounted LCD display via Apple AirPlay. The Keynote slides can also be synced to an iPhone running the Keynote mobile app and transmitted to the display without using a computer. He also has a second display that he uses to show videos—usually from YouTube or his own website— demonstrating certain movements. What Gunning likes about this approach is that it can be scaled up as the gym expands. He has already outgrown one location and as the membership continues to grow, the current location may also soon prove to be too small. If that happens, Gunning would like to be able to have different sections of the gym or rooms that serve different purposes—with a digital screen or two in each room with specific workouts. “I might want a ‘warm-up’ room, with a specific set of warm-up exercises for a beginner and another for someone more experienced,” said Gunning. Likewise, another room might be used solely for strength workouts, with screens displaying specific strength-oriented WODs. However he expands his facility, he’s more likely to handle this kind of signage himself rather than hire someone to do a more or less traditional DDS deployment. “Gyms don’t always have the resources to hire someone for something like that,” Gunning said. “Although it would depend on the size of the facility.” 40 Printing News March 2019
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GET’s DDS is created as slides in Apple Keynote using custom-designed templates and spot art.
Users can create and deploy their own signage without needing to get a sign shop or other kind of provider involved. A small boutique gym obviously has a smaller budget than a big chain like Planet Fitness—and that budget is more likely to be spent on fitness equipment than signage. As you can see, this is an approach to digital signage that cuts out a specific signage provider, as end users can create and deploy their own signage without needing to get a sign shop or other kind of provider involved. It’s virtually identical to the phenomenon we saw a couple of decades ago in commercial printing, where office printing—letterhead, envelopes, mailing labels or even
presentation graphics—moved from the quick or commercial print shop to the desktop printer thanks to Microsoft Office or, for the more quality-conscious, Adobe InDesign. This doesn’t necessarily mean that there are no opportunities for a print service provider to offer small-scale digital signage as a service. Not all small business owners are aware that these applications can be created this easily, so the opportunity is on education—showing customers how to create this kind of signage, even if the PSP isn’t doing a lot (or any) of the actual design and development. There are also opportunities in helping out with graphic design— typeface and color choices, for example, as well as ensuring that DDS graphics are consistent with other marketing collateral the business may have. It’s more along the lines of a value-added service that PSPs can offer, —if they don’t want to get involved in larger-scale DDS deployments. A PSP can also create DDS for its own facility for self-promotional purposes—to advertise its core print services as well as its DDS development abilities. Find article here PrintingNews.com/ 21047411 ■ WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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TRADE SERVICES
You Get What You Get T Story by David M. Fellman
he back cover of the magazine featured an image of an unhappy-looking salesman, carrying his belongings out of the office in a box. “Good News,” the headline read, “he closed the deal. Bad news, he gave all the profit away.” The ad continued: “Come to the Karrass Negotiating Seminar, because you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.”
Obstacle vs. Opportunity I’ve seem Karrass ads in hundreds of airline magazines over the years. This was a new version, but the tag line is always the same. And it’s always true. The ability to negotiate effectively goes a long way toward determining whether you “win” or “lose” in business. Let’s think about winning vs. losing, though. As the ad points out, giving away all of your profit is not a win. And while “all” may not be an everyday occurrence, it’s been my experience that most printing sales negotiations do end up with the seller giving up more than the buyer. So how do we change that? Let’s start with a change in attitude. Let’s start thinking of price objections, not as obstacles, but rather as opportunities. The buyer says: “I don’t want to pay your price.” This is your opportunity to 42 Printing News March 2019
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say: “I understand, but let me tell you why you should!”
An Important Observation
Here’s an observation. I’ve found that most people will pay what they have to in order to get what they want, or what they need. Here’s the complicating factor. Most people don’t know how much it actually does cost to get what they want or need. They do know how to look at two numbers and recognize which one is lower, though, and that’s the price they generally want to pay. Let me put that another way. No one wants to pay more than they have to for anything. So the lower price is always the more desirable price. It may not be the best price, though, and that’s where your opportunity lies. Best, in this context, should be defined as the lowest price that will ensure that the buyer gets what he/she wants or needs. Quality has a role in that definition, as does reliability, dependability, the solution to a problem, the relief for pain or the insurance against risk. Here’s a key point, though. There has to be a problem or pain or risk, to make this negotiation strategy work. One of my clients recently defended his price by telling his prospect about his company’s reputation for quality. The prospect
replied: “I have no problem with the quality I’m getting now.” This might have been a whole different story if a needs/wants assessment had determined that quality was in fact a problem. I’ve never been to a Karrass seminar, but I’ll bet they teach how important it is to ask all the right questions in advance of quoting a price. Don’t stop at “How many?” and “When do you need them?” If you ever have to negotiate, you also want to know “What could go wrong?”
A Different Story That knowledge carried the day for another client recently. When her prospect told her that she was almost $100 higher than his current printer (on a $650 job), she was able to say: “That doesn’t surprise me. I rarely find that I’m the lowest price on any quote. But do you remember those questions I asked you about the quality problems you’ve been having? I took all of that into account when I calculated my price, and the solution to that problem is contained in my price. This is what costs, I think, to make sure you get what you want.” “I get it, “ the prospect said. “You’re telling me – quite nicely – that I bought cheap and I got what I paid for. OK, can you get it to me by Friday?” That’s a real win, right? Find article here PrintingNews.com/21046963 ■ Dave Fellman Dave Fellman is the president of David Fellman & Associates, a sales and marketing consulting firm serving numerous segments of the graphic arts industry. Contact him at dmf@davefellman.com .
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DIGITAL & INKJET Continued from page 27
same core platform - PersonalEffect. “This shares the data and business rules across multiple channels simultaneously, so the data is always synchronized for a truly holistic brand experience,” Baldaro said. Omnichannel campaigns can also include new technologies such as chatbots, whereby a customer can be prompted to order a personalized insurance brochure during a conversation with a chatbot. The technology not only helps deliver high-volume, high-quality personalized print pieces, but also can synchronize the delivery of personalized emails. Roland’s COTOdesign Application Roland is also going full onboard
with its message of personalization. At the 2018 SGIA, in addition to its VersaUV direct-to-substrate printer, Roland DGA showcased its new COTOdesign application, designed to bring the concepts of customization and personalization to the promotion market. The concept is similar to ondemand photo printing, except now the end-user can take that photo or other graphic element, upload it to the COTOdesign application, and print it onto a journal, book or even a giveaway for a customized product. At SGIA booth visitors were able to scan a barcode to link to a site, upload a photo, add personalized text to journal and create customized journals on the fly.
Roberts sees three different avenues for its use: ■■ Internal corporate culture, where, for example, HR can use it to create personalized items for employees. ■■ External corporate events where customers can upload a graphic from their phone and print their own unique coffee coaster or journal. ■■ In a retail environment, at a store or kiosk at the mall. The customer purchases a new phone and customizes the product on location. “The customization of the product only adds to the value of a brand name,” Roberts said. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21046960 ■
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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE
Pricing for ROI in 2019 44 Printing News March 2019
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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE If you have invested in new equipment in the last year, did you go back and change your supporting processes to ensure you are pricing your work appropriately? The ability to understand the actual cost of goods sold after new equipment is installed and put into production is essential. Despite best intentions, few organizations go through this process. Make 2019 the year that you update your understanding of your true costs and update your quoting, estimating and pricing assumptions. Story by Pat McGrew
I
f you have invested in new equipment in the last year, did you go back and change your supporting processes to ensure you are pricing your work appropriately? It is a question for in-plants and print-for-pay shops, commercial and transactional. While some work is done under contract with limited options for price changes, the ability to understand the actual cost of goods sold after new equipment is installed and put into production is essential. Despite best intentions, few organizations go through this. Make 2019 the year that you update your understanding of your true costs and update your quoting, estimating and pricing assumptions. WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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Faster! If you have upgraded the speed of existing print hardware, or installed new hardware that extends your capacity, it’s time to revisit your internal costs. Have you recalculated your cost to print your regular work based on those new speeds, or today’s ink or toner costs? You may find that your margins have grown, which gives you more room to work when its time to negotiate. Conversely, you may find that even with more speed, the cost of consumables is eating into your margin and you aren’t charging enough.
Make 2019 the year that you update your understanding of your true costs Take some time to do the calculations. Look at the programs and tools you use to set your prices to be sure they have been updated to match the equipment you have today, your working hours and any other assumptions that go into your pricing models.
More Colorful! Are you pricing for the amount of ink or toner you are using? Many companies estimate, quote and price based on an average, but if you are printing high-coverage work, you could be losing money. If you have inkjet devices, are you pricing based on the color profile used to print? In some cases, using the wrong color profile can cause you to print with more ink than is needed, costing you money.
To test your assumptions about costs and pricing, take half a dozen of your jobs and look at what they cost to print against what you charged. There are cases where, after this type of assessment, the difference between what is being charged and what a job costs to produce, consumes the anticipated profit.
Touch and Feel! The cost of paper (or other substrate) changes, and most shops avoid real-time market pricing to keep their sales less complicated. Over time, those price changes can add up and become a material impact on profitability. That impact can multiply if the substrate used changes over the life of a contract. If you have had changes in paper supplier, changed paper based on a customer request, or made changes in your house papers over the last year, but not revisited your cost of goods sold, this is the time to do it. In the final pricing exercises, consider all touchpoints a job experiences, and all components used to build a print job—time required to book jobs in, substrates, inks, machine time, finishing requirements, manual work required before delivery, storage for finished work and any special handling required. Look at margin expectations against current price lists to see if the stars are in alignment. If you find that you are not making as much money as you anticipated, get in front of your pricing before too much time passes to ensure a profitable 2019. Find article here PrintingNews. com/21047325 ■
Pat McGrew Pat McGrew has more than three decades as an evangelist for technology in communication. She is an author and regular writer in the industry trade press.
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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE
It’s not particularly hideous, but to each his own...
Reed Between the Lines: Evolving Sign Codes Impact Exterior Signage—and Potentially More
One of the most important issues concerning the production and installation of exterior signage is the ever-evolving sign codes and regulations. The landmark 2015 SCOTUS decision in Reed v. the Town of Gilbert is still impacting city planners, and, in turn, signmakers and their clients. What should PSPs know about sign codes? What are the latest issues regarding sign regulations? And why might vehicle graphics be the next frontier for sign codes? Story by Richard Romano
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t’s been almost four years since the Supreme Court decision was handed down, but the landmark Reed v. the Town of Gilbert (Ariz.) is the (often unwanted) gift that keeps on giving for city planners, signmakers, clients of signmakers 46 Printing News March 2019
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and even associations such as the International Sign Association (ISA) that work with municipal planners to ensure their sign codes are Constitutionally compliant post-Reed. ISA has a précis of the case here; in a nutshell, the Court ruled that “placing limits on temporary
directional signs that were more stringent than these other types of temporary signs was a content-based regulation of speech—a violation of the First Amendment.” Much of the Reed-related activity involves legacy sign regulations. “A lot of communities are still WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE going back and reviewing their own sign codes to make sure that they’re compliant with the court decision,” said David Hickey, vice president of advocacy for ISA. There are around 30,000 local jurisdictions with sign codes, and it’s taking some time for them all to get around to it. “That’s still going on and probably will for the foreseeable future. ISA is working with communities as often as we can to give them pointers on how to make their sign codes as content-neutral as possible.” There is a new, related case that is now before the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (Thomas v. Schroer) which, said Hickey, “will decide whether the longstanding distinction between on-premise signs and off-premise signs—billboards— is content-based and therefore unconstitutional.” There are a variety of cases around the country dealing with the distinction between commercial and non-commercial speech. “If either of these traditional sign-related regulations are found to be content-based, it should have significant implications for the sign and graphics industry,” Hickey said. The neutrality of sign content is the latest skirmish in what can at times seem like a war on exterior signage, as municipalities set often draconian rules on things like size, placement and sometimes even what colors can be used on a sign. And when it comes to electric or electronic signage, rules on brightness—or even their basic existence—can be quite strict. Interestingly, as ISA has worked with communities to make sign codes Reed-worthy, they have helped improve the sign codes in other ways, as well. For example, in Keizer, Ore., Reed-tweaking led to a set of sign codes that were more reasonable for electronic message centers (EMCs), WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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temporary signage and window graphics. And in Mesa, Ariz., ISA, the Arizona Sign Association and local businesses worked with town planners to draft a new ordinance in 2018 that allowed for more generous size requirements, and permitted neon signs in downtown districts, and reduced restrictions on EMCs. It’s easy to understand the concerns over signage. The fundamental
Last year, ISA rolled out a new educational initiative called “Sign Regulations to Encourage Creative Design” which promises to be an effective way to help local officials develop sign codes. antipathy that city planners have with signage, and especially dynamic digital signage (DDS) and EMCs, is the fear that a quaint city center or downtown will start to look like the Las Vegas Strip or Buenos Aires in the 2000s. “The difference between Keizer, Ore., and Las Vegas, Nev., is that the digital signs on the Strip are 10,000 square feet, and your typical allowable footage for EMCs might be 100 square feet. So there’s not really
much danger of becoming Las Vegas.” In 2011, in my hometown of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., the City Center installed an 8-by-5-foot exterior EMC on the main drag in the heart of what many locals consider a quaint, Victorian town. At the time, one of the local newspapers quoted the Center’s director as having received positive feedback on the sign, but the first reader comment to the online article began, “‘Hideous’ is a word that comes to mind.” Chacun a son goût. People rightly take pride in their communities, but there are better ways to improve the aesthetics of a downtown environment than by placing strict regulations on signage. In fact, signage—effective, or at least visible—is essential to a business and has a positive economic impact on businesses in those communities that city planners are trying to protect. So one solution that ISA is pursuing involves having city planners actively promote better sign aesthetics. Last year, ISA rolled out a new educational initiative called “Sign Regulations to Encourage Creative Design,” which, said Hickey, “promises to be an effective way to help local officials develop sign codes which allow for more flexibility and creativity by sign companies and designers, and which result in more attractive signs for businesses and communities.” The program was rolled out in a session at the national American Planning Association conference. Nearly 200 city planners attended the session, and ISA then presented it to two local APA chapters. It’s now part of ISA’s “Planning for Sign Code Success” workshops. Look for it to take prominence at the upcoming Sign Expo in April. “We view this as a win-win kind of topic because in addition to that flexibility and creativity, it also gives planners direction on how to draw March 2019 Printing News
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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE up sign regulations that promote good aesthetics.” As graphics and display technologies continue to emerge and evolve, there will be pressure to restrict some forms of display graphics that are perceived as especially egregious. Interestingly, vehicle graphics may be the next frontier for sign codes. “Vehicle wraps are growing in popularity and since they’re not traditional signs, they’re creating new questions and enforcement issues for local governments, and I’m seeing that on a more frequent basis,” Hickey said. Over the years, there have been anecdotes about residents lodging complaints about wrapped vans or other commercial vehicles parked in
residentially zoned areas, but what Hickey and ISA have been seeing are concerns about, say, a wrapped van parked in front of a retail location. “The community is saying, ‘Well, that’s another sign visible from the street and [the sign code] only allows a certain number of signs, so you can’t park it there.’ So that’s a new issue we’re going to stay on top of.” All of this handwringing about sign codes may seem a bit Inside Baseball for everyday sign and graphics providers, but these are issues that print service providers should be aware of and conversant in. “Every company should be familiar with what’s allowed in each jurisdiction, and what’s in the sign code,” Hickey said. “Ideally, a sign and graphics company is not going
to agree to put up a sign that they know is in violation of a code or is currently not allowed.” Granted, it’s not always easy to determine what codes are in effect in a particular jurisdiction, and a PSP that serves multiple municipalities will need to know the particulars for each of them. It can seem like a full-time job to ferret this information out, and, as we have seen, city planners are even revamping their sign codes post-Reed, making the challenge even more difficult. This is where trade associations like ISA can provide valuable assistance. “We’ve helped members ascertain that kind of information, and the Sign Research Foundation has resources that can help them.” Find article here PrintingNews.com/21046572 ■
For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/12149752 48 Printing News March 2019
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TRADE SERVICES
Employee Retention is Good … Until It’s Not Story by Debra Thompson
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n today’s workplace with its record low unemployment rate, your long-term employees have more opportunities to make a switch. Many of your good employees may have wanted to make a change for some time now, but there weren’t many choices. There is a myriad of reasons for employees to want to seek another opportunity: boredom, pay has not kept up, inconsistencies in the rules and policies within the organization, lack of recognition, lack of feedback verbally or with a formal performance review, etc... In my January article, “HR Housekeeping for 2019,” I discussed some important areas that you should address in the coming year. The intent with addressing these items is to insure you retain your top performers. But do you know what constitutes a top performer? ■■ Is this person truly a positive influence who strives to create a positive environment within the organization? ■■ Does this person reach out to the younger or newer employees to help, mentor and teach when needed? ■■ Do they strive to learn more, ask for more difficult Debra Thompson Debra Thompson is president of TG & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in “The Human Side of Business” specifically for the graphics industry. Debra can be reached at debra@tgassociates.com or www.tgassociates.com .
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assignments and ask to take additional training? ■■ Do they make every customer feel important every time they call or place an order? Do they act as a consultant and introduce the customer to new technology and new ways of doing things? I want to emphasize this last question, because employee retention directly relates to customer retention. Quite a while back I wrote an article titled, “Deb Changes Hairdressers Again.” The gist of the article is that taking care of my hair is very personal, very important to me and financially expensive. I like having my hairdresser keep me looking fresh, asking me for my input and teaching me about new products, services, styles, etc. I call this the “first-time” experience, and I want this feeling each time I go in to spend my money. However, over time the hairdressers treat me as a regular customer and assume they know what I want. As a result, that “first time” experience slowly disappears. They are content to just do the job and move on to enticing a new customer, or they have lost their spirit and enthusiasm for creating the “first time” experience. The end result is that I eventually move on and find another hairdresser. The salon has lost a customer and, unfortunately, they may never even know why. This is the reason I say, “employee retention is good, until it’s not.” Are you losing customers because you have employees who have been on the job too long? You may be thinking that this applies only to the employees
who provide customer service or manage projects, but that’s not where it stops. What about the delivery drivers, outside sales, your designers, operators that conduct press checks with your customers or anyone who answers the phone or sends emails? What are their attitudes like, and what type of non-verbal or verbal message are they sending to your clients? I would encourage managers to take the time to seriously assess the value of each of your longterm employees under a new set of criteria. If you deem that you have a very good employee and one that you want to retain, ask yourself if you are doing all you need to keep this employee happy, trained and upto-speed with the industry. Are they also paid appropriately for the value they bring, and given the feedback and appreciation they deserve? On the other hand, if you have an employee that has burned out, has a lack-luster or poor attitude, or is a total rotten egg, this is the year to separate them from your team and bring in fresh personnel who are eager to learn. It is much better for business to hire someone who is smart and has the right attitude that you can train, rather than risk the damage the long-term employee may be causing. Find article here PrintingNews. com/021046965 ■ March 2019 Printing News
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TEXTILE & APPAREL
Browzwear 3D Enhancements Bring Added Functionality to
Virtual Fashion Design Browzwear began its life as a 3D solution dedicated to fashion. While the initial concept back in 1999 was to create a virtual dressing room, a concept that was ahead of its time, the company has pivoted to create a suite of 3D solutions for fashion that can have a positive impact on all phases of the supply chain. We spoke with Browzwear’s Chief Commercial Officer, Lena Lim, to learn more. Story by Cary Sherburne
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rowzwear, founded in 1999, was the first to market with a virtual dressing room and 2D to 3D garment simulation solution. “We believed the world would be buying online and needed to be able to fit online,” said Lena Lim, Browzwear’s chief commercial officer. “While this has proven to be true, we might have been a little ahead of our time. We pivoted to building solutions that make 3D fashion design easier and more realistic, enabling designers to produce digital garments that look, drape, fit and move almost exactly like real physical garments. Browzwear’s latest software releases, including VStitcher 8.0 and Lotta 4.0, are designed to enhance end-to-end workflow from cutline design to manufacture, helping to close the digital workflow loop for Cary Sherburne Cary Sherburne is a well-known author, journalist and marketing consultant whose practice is focused on marketing communications strategies for the printing and publishing industries.
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more effective operations. “VStitcher is our 3D software for apparel design and development,” Lim explained. “It enables garment design from the silhouette through size ranges, graphics, fabrics, trims, colorways, styling and photorealistic 3D rendering. With Lotta, designers can use any VStitcher 3D garment for rapid design and styling without the need for pattern-making skills. And it syncs in real time with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and more.” As brands and retailers continue to seek ways to get to market faster with more collections, 3D design technologies like Browzwear’s are playing an increasingly critical role. What can often be an 18-month development cycle for fashion can be significantly reduced by using 3D technologies. “Eighteen months is too long in today’s market,” Lim said. “Trends shift quickly, and brands want to keep up with that pace. 3D technologies also allow better collaboration during the product development and prototyping process, less need for physical samples and can create realistic images that can be used in ecommerce and in other ways, with a more robust customer experience than
Lena Lim, Browzwear’s Chief Commercial Officer
a 2D image.” Lim points out that another goal is to shift the process from develop/ manufacture/hope-to-sell, to an ondemand, more customized process of order-pay-manufacture. This eliminates significant cost, time and waste, including reducing the need for inventories that might go unsold and end up in landfills. “The conversion rate for ecommerce is about 2.5 percent,” she said, “and the return rates can be as high as 44 percent. Increasing conversions and reducing return rates is a huge potential for brands WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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TEXTILE & APPAREL
and retailers to go after. It changes the paradigm, makes us faster and more agile and helps us rethink how we can make the industry more sustainable.” Browzwear also believes systems should be as open as possible.
Our policy is to enable a best-inclass workflow for our customers. “Openness will drive faster change,” Lim said. “We worked with Vizoo to output the U3M digital format, and we have an open API platform that makes it easy to connect other tools so that the workflow can be configured for different stakeholders, including WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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3D rendering of leopard fur.
designers, technical designers, pattern makers, product developers, etc. Our policy is to enable a bestin-class workflow for our customers. No single company can do it all, and there will always be people out there doing new and innovative things. We also have changed the user interface to work completely contextually instead of being menu driven, minimizing the need to upskill people and reducing the need to search for the needed functionality.” Browzwear offers an avatar library, as well as the ability for users to edit avatars or create their own, from scratch or body scans. The new releases also enable real-life visualization of materials increasingly used in fashion, including fur-like
materials, leather, heathers and more. Zippers and buttons is another area of innovation—instead of using images, these are smart objects in the software. “When you assign zippers and buttons,” Lim explains, “the system does the stitching automatically, reducing steps for the users. Zippers are smart by separating out all of the parts so you can even virtually zip and unzip them to better evaluate fit in motion. And when you select and place buttons, the system will automatically place the buttonhole.” These are just a few of the cool new features in VStitcher and Lotta that will help advance the analog-todigital transformation underway in the fashion industry. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21046956 ■ March 2019 Printing News
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EVENTS
EFI Connect at 20:
Perpetual Change EFI turns 30 this year, and the EFI Connect user conference turns 20. It’s been a rollercoaster of changes in technology, printing and the culture at large. Cary Sherburne and Richard Romano recap this year’s event. Story by Cary Sherburne and Richard Romano
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t was a much different world in 1999, when EFI held its first Connect. Back then, EFI was a software company. Wide-format printing was still a small niche, Google had just been founded, the economy was experiencing the massive dot-com-fueled boom, and the printing industry had just experienced its best year ever. The only downside was the looming “Y2K” glitch—and we know how that turned out. What a long, strange, trip it’s been. Connect’s—and EFI’s—long history (the company itself was founded a decade earlier in 1989)
was highlighted by new CEO Bill Muir, who gave the event keynote on Tuesday, noting that it was his 99th day on the job. Despite all the changes wrought in the past 10, 20, even 30 years, the rate of change is not likely to slow down. In fact, it is likely to accelerate. And we all have to keep up with it. “Technology changes exponentially,” Muir said, “but business changes logarithmically.” Which is to say, businesses are not always able to keep up with the rate of technology change. As a result, tech companies like EFI have to help their customers surf the wave of change.
“My responsibility as CEO is to keep the innovation machine going to allow your business to thrive.” That innovation machine is what drew him to EFI in the first place. “[EFI] demonstrated incredible managerial courage and foresight.” After all, the company that started simply as a Fiery business has grown to become a leading hardware vendor, as well. Muir said he was ushering in a new era known as “EFI 4.0”—combining innovation as well as the ability to execute and take advantage of those innovations. Another example of change that did not go unremarked amongst the industry cognoscenti was that this
CEO Bill Muir (right) has a “fireside chat” with Joe Popolo, CEO of The Freeman Companies.
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EVENTS was the first Connect since longtime CEO Guy Gecht stepped down last summer. Gecht loomed large, in both EFI and the industry, so comparisons are inevitable, even if unfair. We look forward to seeing how Muir makes his mark on the company. (Gecht still serves on EFI’s board and was at the event for the first couple of days. For a look back at Guy Gecht, see sidebar.) Not everything has to change, though. The Connect tradition of the “Fireside Chat” continues, with Muir having a sit-down with Joe Popolo, CEO of The Freeman Companies, a 92-year-old family-owned business that has grown from decidedly humble beginnings (it started decorating sorority parties at the University of Iowa) to become one of the most prominent event decorating businesses in the world, managing the “live brand experiences” at events such as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the Republican National Convention, SXSW, NFL games and so on. This includes all manner of print and electronic display graphics as well as other aspects of live shows and events. Freeman is a company that navigated the rate of change by growing largely by strategic acquisitions. “If you have the balance sheet and the willpower, you can make a step-change in the business through acquisitions,” Popolo said. It’s tempting—given what we have experienced in our own industry—to think that live events and especially trade shows are on a downward trend, but that’s not necessarily true, said Popolo. “Trade shows follow the industries they’re in,” he said. “Millennials do like live events.” How they engage with those events may be different from how their forebears did—they favor more immersive kinds of experiences and WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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Fiery Guy … Looking back at Guy Gecht, who stepped down as EFI CEO last summer Story by Frank Romano
Keeping up with CEO Guy Gecht of EFI is like trying to keep up with a whirlwind. It took a while, but I finally caught up with him by phone. I think he was on this continent at the time. EFI, or Electronics For Imaging, was founded by legendary technologist Efi Arazi in 1989. The first products were color plug-ins for QuarkXPress. EFI hovered around $2 million for its first two years, but then introduced the Fiery front end for digital printing. Guy joined EFI in 1995 as Director of Software Engineering. The Fiery came out just as digital print was growing, and today there are well over one million Fiery controllers. The company was doing well, but markets began to change after 2000. Gecht once had a presentation at one of his well-attended press conferences on EFI’s “near-death experiences” that the company faced. He told me that it was the Blackberry that changed the trajectory of EFI. He realized that users would substitute those tiny keys and tiny type for paper printout. So, in 2004/2005, the company embarked on a quest for the next big thing. The result was an entirely new market: industrial inkjet. This decision was destined for business textbooks or even a made-for-cable documentary. A company with expertise in software—software for estimating, business management, web-to-print, workflow and more—was moving into mechanical engineering, inkjet heads, xenon lamps and more. EFI acquired VUTEk and today 60 percent of EFI’s revenue comes from inkjet. The company is actually one of the 10 largest ink suppliers in the world. EFI’s inkjet portfolio integrates technology that can print on virtually any substrate. The future of the printing industry goes way beyond paper, and EFI is enabling that future. By next year, EFI will record sales of over $1 billion. EFI has accomplished this with the same CEO and the same management team, the most constant in the industry. Gecht was an atypical pick to be president and then CEO. He majored in mathematics and computer science at Ben Gurion University, not business. He works from a cubicle, not a corner office, and he is constantly on the road, visiting customers and looking at potential acquisitions. We have never seen him wear a tie. I once made the joke that “EFI, in a rare move, had acquired itself.” But EFI’s strategic acquisitions built the company. His presentations appear to be off-the-cuff, but he follows a mental outline that gets his message out clearly. He also has a subtle sense of humor, and I have been the butt of many of his jokes. Now that a new CEO has been announced, he will be less visible, but his memory will endure, because he moved the printing industry ahead. Asking him what he would be doing in his “retirement” elicited the reply, “I do not know.” This may be the first time Guy Gecht is not sure of his future, but I am positive that, whatever happens, it will be a part of our future as well. There is no doubt that he will continue to make a difference. The whirlwind is waiting.
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EVENTS of course social media—but they still like to attend them. And print is still an important part of event graphics— “Fabric printing is the biggest growth area,” said Popolo—and augmented and virtual reality (AR/ VR) are also becoming important elements in the overall event experience. “There are some things you can’t bring to a live event.” As an example, Connect featured a virtual reality tour of its digital directto-corrugated Nozomi C18000. On Thursday, our own Cary Sherburne conducted a sit-down interview with Ariel Swedroe, a 15-year-old fashion designer who already has her own line of custom-made garments and her own business Swedroe by Ariel (see Cary’s recent profile of Swedroe here.) At the age of 8, Swedroe learned how to sew, and since then she has been a whirlwind, learning all the techniques and technologies involved in fashion design and manufacturing. The interview culminated in a fashion show, as models (and EFI executives) showed off a sampling of Swedroe’s digitally printed designs for both
women and men. “Digital printing is critical to my business,” Swedroe said. “I loved learning about the Reggiani machines. I definitely want one!” Well, maybe as a graduation present: she’s still only a sophomore in high school, hoping to head to FIT or some other distinguished fashion university following graduation. One of the things she especially loves about the Reggiani technology is its low waste. “Sustainability is very important,” she said. EFI Connect was also a showcase of the latest EFI technologies. It is indicative of how the portfolio is differentiating itself; where once industrial, textile and wide-format technologies were grouped together under Display Graphics, the various application types are now broken out separately. The Industrial Printing portfolio comprises the Cretaprint and Cubik printing machine lines designed for, respectively, ceramics and flooring. The Cubik line is also designed for other kinds of building materials. Digital ceramic printing has been around for a while, such that EFI
considers it to be a “mature” market. “Digital conversion for ceramics is greater than 52 percent,” said José Luis Ramón Moreno, vice president and general manager for Industrial Printing. The drivers are, of course, the litany of factors that are driving just about every part of the printing industry today: shorter runs, personalization/customization, on-demand printing and a shorterdistance supply chain. On the other hand, the emerging digital applications are printing on wood, concrete and other building materials, which is where Cubik plays. In terms of relevance for printers at the more commercial end, ceramic printing is still very much an industrial process, where printing is done at (or very close to) the point of manufacture (that is to say, anyone looking to get into ceramics printing will need to install a kiln and make their own tiles). Stay tuned; we’ll be following up on Cubik in the not-too-distant future. Included in Industrial Printing is Continue on page 59
Fifteen-year-old fashion designer and entrepreneur Ariel Swedroe (seated, right) talks to WhatTheyThink’s Cary Sherburne. The morning session also included a fashion show highlighting Swedroe’s digitally printed designs.
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WIDE-FORMAT & SIGNAGE NEWS Scodix Strengthens and Democratizes Digital Enhancement Offering with New Ultra Presses FASTSIGNS International, Inc. Announces Partnership with Automated Sales Platform Click2Sell FASTSIGNS International, Inc., franchisor of FASTSIGNS, the leading sign, graphics and visual communications franchise, announced its partnership with Click2Sell, an online platform created to simplify, automate and personalize the process for sales professionals performing business-to-business sales. Click2Sell, a web-based application created for B2B sales professionals by B2B sales professionals, uses proprietary reply actions and email send algorithms designed to help sales professionals drive sales as a virtual assistant. “The initial results for FASTSIGNS have been some of the best we’ve seen yet,” said Amy Barcus, founding partner of Click2Sell. “Our purpose is to help FASTSIGNS re-engage with repeat customers and find new customers daily, keeping the brand top-of-mind with thousands of prospects in each market. We’re very excited about this partnership and look forward to all we can accomplish as our relationship continues to evolve.”
Scodix, the world’s pioneer of digital enhancement solutions for the graphic arts industry, announced the commercial launch of the Scodix Ultra 101 and the Scodix Ultra 202 Digital Enhancement Presses. The Scodix family of presses, including the Scodix Ultra 101 and the Scodix Ultra 202, was developed to meet the increased demand for business-generating digital enhancement and allow print service providers (PSPs) of all sizes to target new revenue opportunities. Designed as a stepping stone into the world of digital enhancement, the Scodix Ultra 101 is fully compatible with offset and HP Indigo presses. Seamless integration ensures print providers can maximize their uptime and crucially, expand their throughput. The Scodix Ultra 101 offers six Scodix enhancements including Scodix Sense, Scodix Foil, Scodix Metallic, Scodix VDE, Scodix Glitter and Scodix Cast&Cure, plus combinations of all of the above, offering users a competitive business differentiator.
www.printingnews.com/21046739
www.printingnews.com/21046234 Roland DGA Introduces New DGSHAPE DE-3 Rotary Engraver
FUJIFILM Launches New Acuity LED 40 Series Flatbed Printers
Roland DGA, a leading provider of digital fabrication tools, including a complete selection of advanced 3D milling and engraving machines, has announced the launch of the DGSHAPE DE-3 rotary engraver. The next-generation DE-3 continues the legacy of Roland engraving, incorporating advanced laser-pointing technology, ethernet connectivity, automatic depth regulation and other intelligent enhancements for unsurpassed overall performance. The DE-3 is ideal for a wide variety of engraving applications ranging from signage and industrial nameplates to personalized awards and gifts.
FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division announces the new Acuity LED 40 Series with instant-on LED curing, the newest addition to the highly successful, renowned Acuity platform. The new Acuity LED 40 Series of mid-volume UV flatbed printers are an innovative solution for customers in the sign and display graphics industry, offering superior print quality and application versatility with rigid or flexible substrates. Designed to be a cost-effective printer for growing print service providers as well as existing Acuity customers considering an upgrade, the Acuity LED 40 Series provides production capacity speeds up to 538 square feet per hour. The standard model enables users to print on media or objects of any size up to 49 x 98 inches, while with the X2 (double bed size) model, increases to 98 x 121 inches. The 40 Series also features an added benefit of instant-on for immediate printing, eliminating the need to wait for the printer-to-warm up, which is an added benefit to customers who are not involved in all-day production runs.
www.printingnews.com/21045435
www.printingnews.com/21045859
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TEXTILE & APPAREL
Pete Santora, Softwear Automation’s Chief Commercial Officer
Sewbotics: The “Last Mile” in Automated Apparel Technology As brands look to take time and waste out of the apparel design and manufacturing process, there is a strong focus on automation. Much progress has been made—yet the sewing stage has provided challenges. Softwear Automation is tackling that challenge with SewBots—robotics designed to automate the sewing process. Senior Editor Cary Sherburne spoke with Softwear Automation’s Chief Commercial Officer, Pete Santora, to learn more. Story by Cary Sherburne
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he “last mile” is a phrase widely used in the telecommunications, cable television and internet industries to refer to the final leg of the networks that deliver telecommunications services to retail customers. It’s a phrase that comes to mind when 56 Printing News March 2019
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thinking about the apparel design and production supply chain, which is becoming increasingly automated. In this case, the last mile would be the sewing process, which heretofore has remained minimally automated and still quite labor-intensive, often requiring skills that can be hard to come by in developed parts of the
world such as North America and Europe. But that will all change if Softwear Automation has its way. We spoke with Pete Santora, Softwear Automation’s Chief Commercial Officer, to learn exactly what that means. WhatTheyThink: Pete, tell us about Softwear Automation. WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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TEXTILE & APPAREL Pete Santora: We think of ourselves like Tesla for sewing. We use machine vision to map fabric, and robotics to steer the fabric through the sewing process. We spun out of Georgia Tech after seven years of research and development working on projects with DARPA and the Walmart Foundation. SoftWear’s fully autonomous SEWBOT® allows manufacturers to SEWLOCAL™, moving their supply chains closer to the customer while creating higher quality products at a lower cost. WTT: I can understand Walmart, but why would DARPA be interested in this? PS: This is due to the Berry Amendment. As you can read on the U.S. Department of Commerce site, this is “a statutory requirement that restricts the Department of Defense (DoD) from using funds appropriated or otherwise available to DoD for procurement of food, clothing, fabrics, fibers, yarns, other made-up textiles, and hand or measuring tools
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that are not grown, reprocessed, reused or produced in the United States. The Berry Amendment has been critical to maintaining the safety and security of our armed forces, by requiring covered items to be produced in the United States. With respect to textiles and clothing, the Berry Amendment has been critical to the viability of the textile and clothing production base in
the United States.” The big issue here, in terms of apparel, is the risk associated with the relatively small number of seamstresses in the U.S.— only about 140,000. That spurred DARPA to issue grants for companies to look into this issue, and we were beneficiaries of some of those grants. WTT: Aside from DoD, what other factors are driving adoption of sewing automation?
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TEXTILE & APPAREL PS: Brands are looking to move to a Made to Measure or On-Demand production model where possible. This means that goods are ordered, paid for and then manufactured, turning the current process on its head. That eliminates the waste and cost associated with large inventories, and it also enables reshoring of apparel manufacturing, enabling faster time to market, an increased number of collections each year, and even cost-effective customization down to the individual level. WTT: What products are you focused on? PS: We started with the home goods market. Northern Georgia is the carpet capital of the world, and the vast majority of home goods consumed in North America are manufactured there. And we have now started to move into apparel— which was always the focus, but we had to work up to that point. The first is T-shirts and later we will move into jeans and pants, then dress shirts. We are more focused on adult attire than children’s since there are additional complexities to children’s clothes. WTT: And what are those complexities? PS: Smaller turning radiuses and tighter angles, among others. WTT: Do you do anything with the cutting process? PS: No, just sewing. Cutting has already been solved. WTT: Was home goods selected first because they tend to be more regular shapes? PS: It’s not so much the shape. We do a lot of automotive mats and they have a crazier shape than T-shirts. But with T-shirts, you have two layers to manipulate, and the fabric distorts more than an automotive mat. So it’s more about managing stretchier, lighter materials that distort more, and sewing in two layers. 58 Printing News March 2019
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WTT: Talk a little about the process for a T-shirt. PS: You can find a good video of the process on YouTube, but basically, the SewBot takes one piece off of the stack from the cutter, and then the second piece. We use heat transfer in partnership with Avery Dennison to put the label on the back of the T-shirt. Then we sew the shoulder seams on both sides and now it is attached. Next the piece is picked up and flattened, the sleeves are attached, and we close it up all the way with side seams. The sleeves and body are hemmed, and the collar is attached. The final step is to put on shoulder tape as a reinforcement.
Our goal is to make 100 million T-shirts in the U.S in the next three years. WTT: How long does it take to sew a T-shirt and how many humans are involved? PS: We do a T-shirt approximately every 25 seconds, and the only human is the one managing the line. Making a T-shirt involves 10 different operations, and normally you have 10 to 15 people involved. That model simply doesn’t work in developed regions like the U.S. and Europe. We take it from 10 to 15 down to one. WTT: What made T-shirts attractive as a first stop for apparel? PS: There are about three billion T-shirts consumed annually in the U.S., and the vast majority are produced offshore. Our goal is to make 100
million T-shirts in the U.S in the next three years. Over the next seven to 10 years, we want to do a third of the market, a billion T-shirts annually. We think that goal is achievable. We announced a partnership with Li & Fung, a global supply chain leader for U.S. brands, and Tian Yuan has opened a factory in Arkansas. We give them the missing piece for a full end-to-end solution for garment manufacturing. We also have a series of other factories we will announce in the next couple of months. WTT: Those are aggressive goals and require more than just sewing to accomplish. PS: Yes, it requires a fully automated manufacturing facility. We still have the supply chain here to be able to do it, but we need to increase investments in the supply chain and we are seeing that happen. There are some new Chinese-run textile mills starting up, and we have the cotton here. The supply chain is starting to focus not just on automated sewing, but on how all of these pieces come together to enable fully automated manufacturing of goods. That’s the only way we can be competitive with offshore manufacturing. In Europe, if that happens, they will be at a slight disadvantage because they don’t grow their own cotton. Yarns mostly come from Africa. To be the most effective, it all needs to be under one roof, from farm, to gin, to spin and weave, to knitting—profit margins are better if it can all be managed under one roof by one operator. WTT: Speaking of Europe, congratulations on your recent award there. Tell us about that. PS: WTIN named us for Best Innovation: Machine Digitalisation. We were very pleased to receive the award and have our achievements recognized by the industry in this way. Find article here PrintingNews. com/21046577 ■ WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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EVENTS Continued from page 54
the Nozomi platform, which has been increasing its global installs over the past two years. Nozomi is also getting some enhancements and add-ons, such as additional printing modes for users who don’t need top-notch image quality or 97 percent Pantone matching, white ink for printing on brown boxes, a top feeder and more. An emerging corrugated application is “micro flute,” such as shoeboxes, for printers who want to get a foot in the door of Foot Locker. If digital ceramics is a mature market, then display and wide-format must be heading for retirement. You would think so, but EFI is still selling $3.4 billion of hardware and ink per year, despite all the increased competition in both roll-to-roll and flatbed equipment. Still, print service providers see more and more opportunities in those high-value print applications that today’s inkjet devices enable, and new ones are emerging seemingly every week. Ken Hanulec, vice president of marketing for Inkjet Solutions, cited one example of a customer printing direct to leather. “They spend €40 on printed leather and sell it as €1200 leather shoes.” (Can direct-to-cow printing be far off?) Hanulec summed up EFI’s mission as: “Inspiring the world with spectacular imagery on any material.” Textiles and apparel also played an increasing role at Connect. This is another industry where the analogto-digital transformation is in its early stages. Industry analysts report that only 5 percent to 6 percent of printed textiles worldwide are printed digitally, with a projected 20 percent plus growth rate, surely providing significant opportunity for EFI and other manufacturers of digital textile printing. Connect featured 14 break-out sessions dedicated to textiles ranging from businessWhatTheyThink - Printing News
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oriented sessions to product-focused, including a session on the new EFI BOLT digital direct-to-fabric printer which can print at up to 90 meters per minute. For more information on BOLT, check out Cary’s article following the BOLT launch in Bergamo, Italy. EFI’s ecosystem approach to its various businesses was also on display at Connect. Its microfactory concept was front and center in many of the sessions, covering design, print preparation, printing, pre/post treatment and cut-and-sew. EFI now has offerings in all of these areas (“cut” through a partnership with Zund and “sew” is still in the works, likely through partnering). Experts from both Optitex (2D/3D software for textile and apparel design) and Fiery DesignPro (color, design and fashion toolsets, highly integrated Adobe plug-ins) were touting new capabilities under development that will make these solutions even more powerful and capable than they are today, especially as it relates to the ability to use 3D rendering to streamline design, minimize the need for costly physical samples and even allow brands to use 3D imaging for ecommerce and promotional images in lieu of expensive photo shoots. The pricing structure for Fiery DesignPro has also been revised to address the needs of its various users—with modular availability of its 15 tools, the most expensive being $4,000 for an annual license of all modules. Fiery DesignPro is also following in the footsteps of its Fiery big brother, with the development of a range of elearning courses that will be available soon. The exhibit hall featured a range of textile printers as well, both Reggiani and FabriVU, including the new FabriVU i340, a 3.4-meter dye-sublimation printer that offers
production-level speeds, outstanding image quality and inline fixation capability, an ideal solution for businesses entering the textile fray, whether for apparel and home goods or signs and display graphics. Its compact footprint incorporates both ink deposition and heat fixation for an all-in-one dye sub printing solution. EFI was printing some of Ariel’s designs during the show. EFI also gave attendees a peek behind the curtain at a new ink system: Dyrect Dye Sub for direct printing on polyester and polyester + Elastan for fashion and sportswear. EFI also offers pigment inks with a binder that can print directly on all substrates and blends for fashion and home décor. Another great event highlight was the keynote by members of the Cirque d’Soleil Costume Workshop: “Juggling with Creativity and Technology.” Presenters shared great stories and images, and talked about how digital design and print strategies, including 3D printing, have revolutionized their business. The Costume Workshop, located in Montreal, is an EFI Optitex user. Cary had the opportunity to sit in many of these sessions and experience the demos with Ariel—it was exciting to watch her learn about all of the technologies that will play an increasingly important role for her as her business continues to grow. After 30 years of EFI and 20 years of EFI Connect, the company does not seem to be losing any momentum. EFI Connect 2019 was chock-a-block with new product announcements, enthusiastic attendees and EFI experts and partners ready and willing to share their knowledge. More than 100 members of the press and analyst community also attended. Find article here PrintingNews. com/21046947 ■ March 2019 Printing News
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EVENTS
Another tradeshow. Another week out of the office.
Is it really worth it?
I
SA International Sign Expo 2019 is not just any show and April 23-26 is not just any week. It is the one week of the year that will pay dividends throughout 2019. Here are five ways in which attending ISA Sign Expo 2019 will grow your print business.
their companies. “What you will remember is not what your installer remembers. You bring two people - one remembers something, the other something else. Then you go back to your shop, go over the notes and you get a solid game plan going forward.”
Expand Understanding of Print
Build a Solid Business Foundation
Today’s print landscape continues to expand, and ISA Sign Expo 2019 will allow printers to capitalize on the many growth opportunities. Wraps continue to grow as another offering for printers, and ISA Sign Expo will bring some of the best experts to help companies increase their market reach. Wrap stars Justin Pate and John Duever will host the day-long “Business Boot Camp for Wrap Professionals by Avery Dennison,” where they’ll share their tips for managing the business side of vehicle wraps. The two bring their full complement of skills, with Pate as a freelance installer and Duever as head of a multi-million-dollar company. Additionally, Duever and Pate bring their personal experiences to the boot camp. The two have been friends for five years and have developed the curriculum for the boot camp based on their diverse backgrounds and expertise. The result is a day’s worth of education applicable to anyone interested in exploring graphic installations or expanding their business in the wrap market—freelance or wrap company, start-up or expert. Duever recommends that attendees bring more than one person from 62 Printing News March 2019
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Business-boosting pre-conference sessions target areas that will propel growth in a big way. “Strategic Business Management,” presented by Wayne Peterson of Black Canyon Consulting Group, will help tailor specific business development processes to attendees’ unique business and customer base. It is offered as a daylong session. Peterson also offers a half-day event, focused on sales management techniques, “Strategic Sales Management.” Another half-day session, “Print Boot Camp: Essential Skills for Success,” will bring together industry experts to showcase new revenue generators for printers. Josh Culverhouse of ORAFOL, Matt Richart of EFX Wraps and Molly Waters of Avery Dennison will provide information on market opportunities, applications, effective sales techniques and revenue expansion. Ryan Cahoy of Rise Vision, Jim Nista of Almo and Wayne Rasor of FASTSIGNS host a daylong “Digital Sign Masterclass.” Like the business management offering, it is broken into two halves: The morning includes digital signage fundamentals and the afternoon delves into
specific case studies, how-tos and examples that include building content for menu boards, corporate environments and educational settings. Those who have a handle on the basics can just attend the afternoon session, if they prefer.
See Products in Action No website or promotional flyer can substitute for seeing a product in action, demonstrated by someone who understands all that it is capable of. If you’re in the market for products to enhance your offerings in digital signage, a new printer or anything in between, some 200,000-squarefeet of tradeshow floor will provide the opportunity to see it in person. Ask questions of the demonstrator or simply sit back and watch. ISA Sign Expo remains the only tradeshow covering the breadth of the sign, graphics, print and visual communications industry. It is the perfect place to explore ways that you can better serve your customers in new areas—all while seeing the latest enhancements to streamline operations. And while you’re there, make time for the Lounge & Learn area, which offers free 30-minute express education on current issues and new products.
Develop a Winning Mindset Any change must start from within, and the Game Changer sessions always offer a spark of introspection. Take advantage and leave a changed person—one who is better at life and career. This year’s Game Changer speakers WhatTheyThink - Printing News
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EVENTS know that intimately. Siri Lindley, a triathlete, had to outrun fear and failure to become a winner. In “From the Depths of Self-Doubt to Winning Big and Living Fearlessly,” she will discuss how to transform great struggles into life’s greatest gifts, all while unleashing passion and fueling inner fire. Seth Mattison will offer a roadmap to navigating the changes ahead in “Future Forces: Digital Transformation Shaping the New World of Work.” Mattison will look at how digital transformation is changing all aspects of business, including forcing us all to be more agile, innovative and customer and employee-centric. Take the insights learned and transform your business to compete in today’s environment.
Make the Right Connections New this year: an event aimed at women leaders in the sign, graphics and visual communications industry. “Women Leading the Industry,” a new ISA initiative, will feature a panel of industry leaders discussing solutions to women’s biggest challenges in the industry. It will also include networking opportunities. In January, the International Sign Association marked 75 years as an association, and ISA Sign Expo 2019 is the perfect place to celebrate the organization’s milestone. ISA’s 75th anniversary celebration will take place at ISA Rocks: THE Industry Event, with all registered attendees invited to the party. With some 20,000 in attendance, there is no better place to meet that potential client, vendor or peer. ISA Sign Expo remains the only industry event that includes key influencers, like planners and local officials, architects and designers and end users—all at one event.
Take advantage of any one of these areas and come away with ideas to push your business ahead in 2019. Tackle them all to explore just how big and bold your company can be. ISA International Sign Expo 2019 will be Wednesday – Friday, April
24-26 with the Pre-Conference Workshops on April 23. Learn more or register at www.SignExpo.org. Use the code PRINTINGNEWS for a free tradeshow pass to the one event that has everything you need. Find article here PrintingNews.com/21046972 ■
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