These days everything can be personalised. So how useful is this HP solution? Nessan Cleary asks those who have bought it.
Home furnishings and interior decoration are rapidly becoming popular wide-format print applications, with wall coverings high on the list. There’s a good range of wallpaper substrates available now and HP has built a complete solution around its latex printers that also includes design software, called Wall Art.
Vivodecor, which is primarily a design agency, actually bought the solution to expand into wall covering printing. The company was already working with interior designers and wanted a way to build on this and as Andy Morrison, managing director, explains: “We had wanted to get into the personalised bespoke wallpaper for quite a number of years.”
Vivodecor looked at different options before deciding to buy a HP latex 26500 printer (see On Test, March 2014 issue) on the advice of dealer City and West End. Morrison says that he liked the ease of use of the latex printers, adding: “We weren't going for a high-end production machine; we wanted something more affordable. And it seemed like HP was really focusing on the wallpaper market and was really keen on developing the paper range.”
The Wall Art software itself comes free with HP's latex printers. Morrison says that it was easy to learn to use and he appreciates HP's willingness to adapt it according to feedback from users. Thus, there's now an iPad app and its now possible to access an image library from directly within the application. The software can also be integrated into a website so that it appears to be part of the Vivodecor offering.
Customers can choose to use their own images, or choose from a selection of royalty free images on the Vivodecor website. But Morrison says that many customers use it to match a particular colour or pattern. He says that many designers have a particular theme they are working to and use the bespoke wallpaper to create a signature look as part of that theme that's flowing through the room, noting: “They might want a particular colour or shape that you can't buy off the shelf.”
Customers can work through the design process online, putting in the dimensions of their rooms and choosing the colours, patterns and images they want to use. Morrison explains: “We process the design through the Wall Art software, which then creates a proof for the customer to sign off.”
The software takes into account the dimensions of a wall, and any peculiarities such as crooked walls, door frames or other fittings. Customers can see how the finished design will fit into their rooms, and can even place furniture such as sofas in front of the design. There's an option to send customers a link to see the design, or to send an editable version so that customers can move the design around to suit their needs. Once the customer is happy, the software creates a PDF, which can be sent to the Onyx Rip that came with the printer.
Morrison says: “We try to print them in 28in wide panels. But we have made wider panels - up to 54in - where the fitters have asked us to.”
Vivodecor doesn’t fit the wallpaper though it is looking at setting up a database of fitters that customers can contact.
Vivodecor uses two different types of papers, depending on the type of customer. Home users are generally happier with prepasted papers, which just have to be submerged in water to activate the glues in the paper, which Vivodecor sells as VivoUltramural. But commercial decorators prefer paste-up paper, which the company has branded as VivoSmooth. There's an overlap between the panels to help locate the patterns. The paste-up panels can be spliced together, with the overlap peeled away for a perfectly smooth finish. This can't be done with the pre-pasted papers but Morrison says there's a smaller overlap, which is barely noticeable.
For now the market is mainly corporate, which can include everything from offices to hotels. But roughly 30% of the business comes from home customers, often through interior designers, and Morrison believes that this will grow further. He thinks the biggest issue is that many potential customers are not aware that they can order bespoke wallpaper, noting: “It’s going to take a few more years to take off.”
He says that there's a good range of papers but that effects such as gold flecks are still too expensive and he would like to see some metallic papers. Morrison has also found that it’s best to rotate each alternate panel through the printer to get a better match between the panels when they're hanging side by side.
Morrison accepts that bespoke wallpaper can be expensive but says that there are people that will pay for this because “it's about having something that no one else can have”, and the cost is comparable to some of the more expensive branded papers that are available.
Vivodecor hopes to be involved in the actual design so the cost per square metre of the wallpaper is only a small part of the overall job. That’s a sentiment echoed by Martyn Young, managing director of First4Print, who’s just invested in a HP LX600 latex printer and set up a new business, Your Walls, specifically for bespoke wall coverings. This will allow customers to design their own coverings and order direct from the website. It uses augmented reality so customers can see how the artwork will fit into their rooms and play around with different designs.
First4Print is a general commercial printer that uses a mix of offset and digital presses, and is already producing shortrun wall coverings on these devices for the commercial market. But Young says that it’s a growing opportunity and that the Wall Art solution will help him expand into the domestic home market as well, adding: “I believe it’s the best solution out there. It’s very user friendly”.
Indeed, it’s the ease of use that sets the HP solution apart as it can be used directly by home customers, which are likely to provide much of the growth in the next few years in this market.