Big Picture - March 2020 - 21

Those weren't the only problems. The placement of
these vinyl murals and banners was very laborious and
expensive. The staff of most stores had no clue how to
mount such a big piece of sticky plastic. Even if they figured
it out, bubbles, scratches, and deformations were something
you had to accept. Banners were easier to work with, but
how do you hang a banner straight? Walk into any shopping
mall and you'll see what I mean. All those rings and tunnels
don't look very nice in a store, not to mention the reflections
of the store lighting system. It was always a hassle to
prevent wrinkles on the paper posters, and placing them
correctly was a challenge. Retailers ended up paying
installers to come in and place the new images, which was
a huge cost factor.
The retail marketing departments wanted to know how
they could get their message delivered and mounted in the
stores in a professional, yet easy, way and at a low cost. This is
where fabrics came in. They're lightweight and easy to
transport, as large tubes and containers aren't needed to carry
the textiles. Sending the fabric in a small box via UPS or
FedEx typically does the trick at a low price point with
consistent delivery times. Plus, it's simple for local store staff
to mount the frames themselves. Using this strategy, the
installation cost decreased dramatically. Sending mounting/
installation teams around the US to customers is now a thing
of the past. The beauty of it all is the amazing amount of color
coming off the images. There's no glare like there is with
tarpaulin. The matte fabric finish is so nice it could be used at
any location in a store without the ugly lighting issues. The
local TV stations even understood this benefit; TV backdrops
for shows like X-Factor and The Voice are all printed textiles.
Back to the big retail companies in Europe. H&M and
Mexx Clothing were the first ones to start using this new

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Let's take a look at SEG's history to understand the importance of its development. When the first print service
providers started working with textiles, it was a very special
proposition. Most PSPs were printing their posters and
banners with solvent, water-based pigment or this new ink
called UV. With some of these inks, the color wasn't popping
on the textiles, which was a problem. It looked great on
banners and posters, but not on fabric. The reason for this was
simple: the inks would seep into the fabrics, creating a dull
effect. Drying the solvent and/or water-based inks on fabrics
was an accomplishment itself. The only technology left that
worked was UV ink, as it would dry directly on the fabric
after curing. Back then, UV was not very flexible, so ink
cracking on the fabric was just something you had to live with.
Adoption of this process was slow because the benefit of using
fabrics just wasn't substantial enough. UV inks looked great
on canvas and other pre-mounted media, but not on the
flexible fabrics that were put in frames. Dye sublimation
technology was just starting to become digital, and there was
still a lot of experimenting going on.
At the end of the '90s, cardboard, paper, banner, and vinyl
were the dominant carriers for most of the retail outlets. Why
use a new technology, new equipment, and new workflow? It
seemed as though it would only complicate things. In the US,
the volumes of retail prints were a lot larger than their
European counterparts. Europe has 24 languages, a plethora
of different cultures, and more than 40 countries to supply.
Local PSPs creating prints for their country could work faster
with smaller orders in textiles. Dye sublimation looked nice,
but you needed new equipment and knowledge to be successful. You had to know how to preshrink fabrics, print on paper,
and transfer them to the fabric. A lot of investment and work
for a new market, right?

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Big Picture - March 2020

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