There are people making good margins printing inflatables. Dan Vandevoorde of Dutch-based specialist printer X-Treme Creations is proof of that. So should you be getting in the swing and joining him?
Inflate your print prices and make more profit. It can be done if you print 3D inflatables, especially if you integrate them with other types of print and audio-visual special effects according to a man in the know - Dan Vandevoorde of specialist printer X-Treme Creations.
Speaking at the last Fespa Global Summit and during the conference programme at Fespa Digital, Vandevoorde made it clear that this is a market waiting to take off, thanks to the current demand for “branding with character”.
“The drive to realise unique and exclusive concepts is impressive,” he says, “and creativity is not only equivalent to sparkling concepts but also to the flexibility where tight deadlines and magnificent designs are combinable. At X-Treme we make the impossible possible.”
Vandevoorde looks back to 1783 when the Montgolfier brothers succeeded in airlifting a sheep, a duck and a chicken by a hot air balloon made out of paper for the roots of what he expects to become a growing inflatables market. A successful balloon flight carrying three humans prompted the evolution of the technology and the rise of the hot air balloon for military purposes. The crash of the Hindenburg in 1937 announced the end of that era. But from 1960 onwards, airtight and giant inflatables captured the imagination of the design and fashion world in Europe and the US, with the Pop Art movement boosting the development of inflatable furniture. In the 1970’s some US production companies started to provide tailor made inflatable shapes to the advertising world and by the late 1980’s inflatable bouncy castles had become a common party attraction. It’s a sector that remains buoyant and a high volume market with widespread appreciation says Vandevoorde.
But it was the impact of inflatables on the promotional and marketing worlds in the mid 1990’s that really got him thinking. “The quantity of beer cans, product replicas, archways and animation costumes that played an important role in the development of field marketing is legendary. At the end of the 1990’s multinationals in the FMCG like Coca-Cola - an excellent example of an early adopter - shifted big budgets towards below-the-line marketing, and global events organisers like Amaury Sport Organisation of Tour de France, applied complex inflatables designed by architects Patrick Mellet and Martin Francis on the departure line of the time races and as archways.”
Vandevoorde insists that recessionary times are again boosting the demand for inflatables, they being temporary yet durable structures with a great deal of impact but lightweight, cheap to transport and store, easy to install and quick to dismantle.
“There are many things to think about when it comes to providing inflatables,” says Vandevoorde. For the market to really move forward we need to see five things:
- Textile materials improvements: they need to be stronger/lighter
- We need to see high-speed and other technical development regarding print kit
- There’s a need for innovation in software design
- Finishing/assembly of products needs to move forward for decreased lead times
- And there needs to be innovation in terms of integration of 3D inflatables with 2D print, LED screen, illuminations, fireworks etc.
“There is a perfect fit between the production of tailor made 3D inflatable structures and 2D wide-format printing. Once you open up this creative pallet there are hardly any creative limits. And creative combinations will help you to obtain more and better business.
“If you are inspired by this idea feel free to contact us. We are prepared to share our know-how and experience with you as PSP and can provide images and presentations of successful projects all over the world to show potential customers. We work globally as consultants for our business partners towards win-win-win situations. Air your views! United we print and … innovate.”