I can't help but think of movie “standees” when I see a “backwall” display at a tradeshow. These large format print products are most often composed of a stretch fabric that has been printed using dye sublimation technology and then stretched over a collapsible aluminum frame.
In an earlier blog I mentioned that among other things my fiancee and I install displays for a major cosmetics conglomerate. What that has done for my print brokering work is open my eyes to the plethora of signage options (print and digital) as well as the variety of packaging and product design options that are out there. It also has been an education in itself in cross-media marketing, given the selection of wall and floor displays, large format print banners, walls of digital signage, and screen printed cosmetic bottles.
It has been years since I've been on a commercial printing press inspection. Between the computerized consoles that constantly monitor conditions within the press and adjust for any ink density variance or problems with register, to the on-screen proofs that allow multiple people at a client's office to check proofs online, it is rarely necessary to check a job on press.
As a commercial printing broker, and a student of offset and digital printing, I was pleased to read “Students Prefer Print,” (The Hays Daily News, 2/17/14) and “Students Prefer Print for Serious Academic Reading” (The Chronicle of Higher Education, Wired Campus, 7/17/13, by Sara Grossman). I had heard a lot of “buzz” over the past several years about how colleges were going to replace printed textbooks with digital textbooks on e-readers, and I was surprised to read that this wasn't happening as planned.
Commercial printing reps can provide a veritable fountain of knowledge and information. However, when you start asking the same questions of different vendors, you'll soon see that different printers offer different skill sets and often approach jobs very differently.
I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about a print brokering client who wanted 1,000 sets of book covers to GBC bind or plastic coil bind herself. The covers are for a convention handbook. They are diecut, and my client's logo will be embossed into the printing stock. Interestingly enough, there will be no offset printing involved, unlike most of my other jobs.