Screen Printing - October/November 2019 - 36

SHOP TALK

IT STARTS WITH YOU
As Printing United evolves, let's reflect on the past,
present, and future of the merging world of print.
ANDY MACDOUGALL, ASDPT

ust as printing has transformed itself, so goes our little
silkscreen show. From 1949 on, this convention was about
innovators: men and women who got enthused about printing
in a whole new way, spawning industries far beyond the
narrow confines of regular print shops and newspapers. The
SGIA Expo has continued to be about bringing innovators
together, as digital processing and printing joined the party and
turned our cities and buildings and vehicles into immense,
multicolored canvases. Garment and fabric decoration
exploded - "no square foot of cloth shall go unprinted or
unbranded" is a universal mantra these days. And screen
printing somehow never seems to go away. Just when one
pioneered business area gets taken over by digital technology,
two or three more innovative applications are discovered, and
bingo, you have consumer electronics, cell phones, solar cells,
or some other little niche market that needs our process to
exist. We ain't dead - we're different. Again.
Printing United is finally here, and by the time you're reading
this, you might be walking the show floor. The more worldly
readers will recognize the concept - kind of a mini drupa. And
it's not a bad thing. Ford Bowers and the SGIA brain trust like to
call it convergence. Some would call it an opportunity to expand
into new areas. Others called it quits. You can call it what you
want. I call it messin' with the squeeg.
Kidding. But 70 years on, it should make screen printers
proud, a bit like a parent or grandparent watching their kids
grow and start their own print families. Think of Printing
United as a Thanksgiving dinner, with a whole bunch of
in-laws from the Offsets and the Packer families showing up
for the first time. "Could you pass the press wash? Would you
like some more ink? We've got fabric, water based, digital,
UV, offset, conductive, and more..."
The future is on display in Dallas, spread over a number
of rooms loosely organized into industry sectors. This is
printing 2019. What better time to get the so-called specialty
side of printing - our core processes being screen and digital
- together with the larger-but-on-a-serious-diet offset and
packaging printers. Their traditional markets have shrunk as
the demand for legacy offset printed products - newspapers,
magazines, books, and business forms - has dropped. At the
same time, people and companies producing wide-format
digital print displays, wraps, and signage, garment printing,
industrial/functional products, and packaging are growing,
here and around the world. The internet of things needs
interfaces, clothing is becoming electronically active, and
print - all print - carries us forward.
36

SCREENPRINTING

The convention has always been a place where we gather
to look at new machines, processes, and materials, to learn
new methods, and to see old friends and make new ones. I read
some coverage of the first SPPA convention (Screen Process
Printing Association, the original group that morphed into
SGIA), and this is pretty close to the same script. [Editor's note:
head to screenweb.com to see pictures of the news articles.]
The dates have changed, the people have changed, printing
has changed, but the core idea - getting together with fellow
printers, getting over the secrecy that hinders advancement of
the overall industry, and, above all, education - is still relevant
in the age of webinars and 10-minute YouTube videos that make
you an expert in your own mind.
The unique thing is instead of screen and digital heading
to Chicago or Orlando to some offset printing convention,
they're coming to us. And with a rethink of the get-it-cheapfrom-China mentality that has twisted the world economy,
it's more important than ever for local manufacturers to step
up their game, especially in electronics, medical, packaging,
and emerging alternative energy systems and products.
If we can truly unite with the broader printing industry, we
can form a common voice to tell our story to government, the
education system, and the general public. What's the story?
And why is that important?
There is way more to print than words and pictures on
paper. We're part of a manufacturing process comprised of
segments that people within the industry don't even know
about. And we're a keystone industry; If you want any kind of
manufacturing happening in North America, printers will be
intersecting the supply chain more than once. We are makers.
We work with designers and artists to turn imagination and
ideas into real tangible products.
Here's the rub. If we don't know what all the uses and
products made by print encompasses, then how the hell will
the government or the public? When the US Department of
Labor writes your industry off as statistically irrelevant, when
those ever-so-polite-and-inclusive Canadians don't include
printing as a trade, we have a problem.
We need young, skilled, enthusiastic people coming into
this industry if it's going to continue to grow and supply the
public with locally made products, future products, and
the hardware of a digital world. We can't attract people if
they don't know printing and all the allied jobs that exist
as a career path. As presses and processes become more
sophisticated, it will take education and new skills to run
them profitably.
It starts with you. Don't be afraid to walk the floor, stick
your nose in a booth, or take a seminar on something you
know nothing about.
Andy MacDougall is a screen printing trainer and consultant based on
Vancouver Island in Canada and a member of the Academy of Screen
& Digital Printing Technology. If you have production problems you'd
like to see him address in "Shop Talk," email your comments and
questions to andy@squeegeeville.com.

http://www.screenweb.com

Screen Printing - October/November 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Screen Printing - October/November 2019