Big Picture - October 2015 - (Page 14)

inside output How to Ace Interiors As a digital printer, the decorative market is yours for the taking - if you have the right facts, and friends. | by Craig Miller BIG PICTURE October 2015 I f you want to grow your sales for your wide- and grand-format digital printing business, you have two options. You must carve out a bigger piece of your existing market(s), or you must find or create new markets. In other words, you either scrap for a bigger piece of cake, or you bake a new one. Almost 22 years ago, our company started out exclusively printing interior casino signs. That market quickly became jam-packed with print vendors. We evolved into vehicle, exhibit, and events graphics. But these have slowly become saturated as well, and the more competition in a market, the more pressure to follow a supply- and demand-driven downward price spiral and the harder to capture more market share. But there are other markets out there, ones that have become more accessible in recent years due to developments in technology and the gradual recovery of the economy. At the risk of oversimplifying, I am going to lump three emerging opportunities into the decorative market: interior décor, art, and architectural. Industry analysts predict a rosy picture for decorative environments through 2020. Because of evolving dynamics in residential and commercial spaces, decorative products seem to be experiencing a renaissance - one that has and will continue to increase interior and industrial designers' and architects' interest in our industry. In hyper-competitive industries like hospitality, retail, restaurant, and entertainment, companies are looking for ways to differentiate themselves. One powerful way to do this is to accentuate - beautify, if you will - their environments. At Pictographics we have been selling these types of products for quite a while, and as print technology and media have evolved, so has the breadth of our product line. Today, we utilize UV-cure, dye-sublimation, latex, and eco-solvent processes, and have added multiple sewing, CNC, and laminating options in our finishing department. Sixteen years ago, we began offering our first product for this market, wallcoverings. Wallpaper or coverings can be digitally printed with UV, eco-solvent, or latex. (Notice, I didn't mention solvent. There are a number of problems with using traditional solvent printers for wallcoverings. The first is the presence of VOCs and the smell of the finished product. But the biggest issue we had was that the solvent would cause the panels to shrink over time, leaving an unsightly gap in the butt seam.) Wallcoverings are easy to print and, when printing with a UV machine, require very little finishing to meet Type II certification (for high-traffic graphics enduring medium to heavy wear). With latex and some eco-solvents, a liquid clear coat must be applied to meet this architectural standard for commercial installations. The only other finishing step is trimming. These three technologies can also be used for stretched canvas prints. We recently installed pneumatic canvas stretching and underpinning machines to automate the CRAIG MILLER is a principal shareholder in Las Vegas-based Pictographics, (pictographics.net) where he is also director of military and law-enforcement projects. Contact cmiller@pictographics.net. 14 http://www.pictographics.net

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Picture - October 2015

Big Picture - October 2015
Contents
Insight
Wide Angle
Upfront
Inside Output
Business + Management
Money Magnet
No Time to Waste
SGIA Expo 2015
R+D
Job Log

Big Picture - October 2015