Big Picture - May 2019 - 8

on
the ISA Sign Expo 2019:
road Imagining the
RECAP

Future of Print

When it comes to wide-format digital print, "you're only
limited by your imagination."
Agfa Graphics' North American Director of Marketing
Deborah Hutcheson stated this during a meeting with Big
Picture. It sums up the feeling of the 2019 ISA Sign Expo to a T.
More than 600 exhibitors presented equipment, products,
and applications at ISA Sign Expo, showcasing what can be
created with the hardware and software on display for the
show's 20,000-plus attendees. The tradeshow floor spanned
more than 235,000 square feet of booth space at Las Vegas'
Mandalay Bay Convention Center, April 24-26.
WIDE FORMAT SPOTLIGHT
The ST Media Group booth was packed Thursday afternoon
as Big Picture hosted the first-ever Best of Wide Format
Awards Ceremony and Cocktail Hour, in partnership with ISA
and sponsored by Fujifilm and HP. Twelve print shops were
honored for their ground-breaking large-format digital print
work, including tropical plane wraps, creative bathroom vinyl,
a resimercial transformation, customized concert graphics, a
soft signage boombox, Taylor Swift exhibit, dimensional bus
wrap (with a car inside!), all-encompassing entertainment
center signage, LeBron James building wraps, famous
photography turned wall murals, a stadium revamp, and a
ginormous T-shirt wrap for Tulsa's 75-foot-tall Golden Driller.
"The 12 winning projects demonstrate how today's print
service providers are really pushing the boundaries of
wide-format digital print," said Big Picture Editor-in-Chief
Adrienne Palmer. Representatives from a number of the
award-winning shops were onsite to accept their prizes
(soft signage banners imaged by Big Picture Women in Print
Award winner Pam Richards at Color Gamut Digital Imaging
[cgdi.co]) and network with members of the industry.

BIG PICTURE

March 2019

THE RISE OF TEXTILES + SOFT SIGNAGE

8

Overheard at the Orbus Exhibit and Display booth: "Fabric is
the future."
Textiles and soft signage were much talked about on the
show floor. "Soft signage is one of the fastest growing
applications in the marketplace," said Ken Hanulec, VP
marketing, EFI, discussing the company's continued
expansion in the textile space.
Hutcheson noted the growth in the UV printing of textiles,
and Top Value Fabrics' Product Marketing Manager Michael
Compton commented on the continued demand for digitally
printed textiles. "Textiles have expanded from the interior
décor and fashion market to the signage and graphics industry,"
said Ken VanHorn, Mimaki USA VP marketing and operations.
With more digital textile printers hitting the market, plus
benefits such as reduced shipping costs, high-quality look, ease

of installation, reusability, and compatibility with myriad
applications, the popularity of textile and fabric printing for
signage applications should come as no surprise.
HP entered the textile market at ISA with the release of
the Stitch S dye sub printer series, designed to print directly
to fabric as well as on transfer paper for the signage, interior
décor, fast fashion, and sportswear markets. The dye sub line
is HP's first step into the market, with additions to follow
over the coming years.
REDUCING WASTE
As millennials and Gen Z gain more print buying power,
sustainability and waste reduction become major factors
for consideration.
PrintFactory has added new features to optimize materials,
minimize waste, and maximize profits, based on feedback from
its workflow software customers. A dynamic nesting feature
allows sign shops to create deadline-driven automated
workflows for maximum media usage and minimum waste.
"We don't keep our portfolio very static. We're always
changing because it's all about being relevant," said Bill Podojil,
Avery Dennison VP of graphics solutions, label and graphic
materials North America. Podojil and Molly Waters, senior
technical specialist, graphics solutions, note the industry's
emphasis on sustainability: Non-PVC substrates are on the rise,
as well as water-based adhesive technology and aqueous inks.
Vycom is addressing waste reduction head on: The rigid
substrate manufacturer's parent company, Azek Company,
recently opened a 100,000-square-foot recycling plant in
Ohio to transform polyethylene-type plastics into building
materials. The plant is expected to recycle 100 million
pounds of garbage annually. What can we in the wide-format
industry do to match these efforts?
TRUE COLORS
"The challenge customers have in the wide-format space is
matching colors," said Hutcheson. With more and more brands
Continued on pg. 10
http://www.cgdi.co
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