Two associates of mine are a husband and wife print book production team. They do a lot of work for the World Bank and NATO, which means their publications go around the world and are printed in a multitude of languages, from English to Spanish to French to languages I’ve never head of.
As a commercial printing broker, I look for trends. I’m always studying. Always observing all things related to custom printing. And over the last several years I’ve been noticing that the majority of my clients have been entrepreneurs. I think that’s rather exciting.
Ever since I studied karate in my late teens, I’ve had a penchant for things Japanese. I like the exotic. So when a colleague mentioned that his commercial printing company had just produced a print book with an “obi strip,” I was intrigued. So I did some online research.
I’m starting to see a lot of articles on digital décor in recent weeks. It doesn’t surprise me. I had read about digital custom printing on floor tiles and even on glass in prior months, but this now seems to be a tsunami of expanding market interest, an unstopable force.
I had a bit of a crisis today installing a large format low-tac wall cling at a movie theater. The problem was that I tried to do it myself. I also learned a lot about low-tac wall clings.
When I think about substrates for large format printing, I don’t usually get excited. It’s not a sexy topic.
Granted, I understand how paper substrates for print books and brochures can make a huge difference. I know that the roughness or smoothness of the paper, and even its color, can dramatically affect both the look and the feel of a printed product. It can even reinforce or detract from the tone of the piece. For instance, a textured, uncoated paper just “feels” more environmentally sensitive.