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What a great way of sparking the creative communities’ interest in large-format print. Let’s hope the winning work from this year’s ‘Who Are You?’ competition, run by the Arts University Bournemouth and backed by JC Decaux, really makes a ‘wow’ statement when it appears on billboards across the UK.

What is good for the printer vendor isn’t always what’s good for the print provider. How many of you have seen customers buying their own wide-format inkjet printers and taking the work in-house?

That commercial small-format printers are moving into digital wide-format is an oft mentioned trend, but how many large-format print providers are going the other way in a bid to offer a broader portfolio of services in-house? The Eyes Wide Digital move in that direction has me pondering the question once again, so This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you’re made such a directional change, via investment in kit, acquisition or merger. 

The champagne corks are a poppin’. Yes, it’s the New Year, and what’s more, it’s Image Reports’ 20th anniversary year. Which is why we have a bumper birthday issue landing desks! But it’s not all about size. We’re celebrating this publishing milestone by bringing you new editorial content, campaigns and special reports. As you will have noticed before you even reached this page, there’s also a new design. Plus we’ve increased the magazine’s staff, bringing on board Stephanie Sutton as staff writer with a remit to grow Image Reports’ online presence. And all this coincides with the magazines’ seventh annual Widthwise Survey of the UK/Ireland wide-format sector currently being conducted here.

I’ve just heard that the number of people taking part in the 2014 Widthwise Survey has already surpassed the number that did so in 2013, and we’ve still got three weeks to make this the biggest ever poll of the UK and Ireland wide-format printing community. So if you run a large-format digital inkjet printer for commercial purposes and haven’t already taken part, please do so – your data will be analysed (anonymously) and used to compile the seventh annual Widthwise Report, which will appear earlier than usual this year so that you have up to date state-of-the-market trends information before the major trade shows open their doors.

Now that the January/February joint issue of Image Reports has been put to bed, I can come up for air – and ask for your help. In that issue, which lands on desks at the end of this month, you’ll see that we’ve made a number of changes to the magazine, and what was the In-Situ gallery of work has been renamed Think Bigger as part of a wider project to catch the attention of creatives. You’ll hear a lot more about the initiative as time goes on, but right now can I ask you to make a mental note that I will be requiring (printable quality) images of wide-format jobs that really push the envelope and could get the design community sitting up and taking notice of just what’s possible with digital inkjet technology and the product/project nouse of those that use it. You have my email – please keep the good work coming in. 

The keynote talk at the weekend’s BAPC Conference, given by economist Dennis Turner, certainly buoyed the audience. Shame there were so few printers in the audience to hear it! As one of the other speakers — sales, marketing and funny man Marc Hogan pointed out – “we’re often so busy with the day job that we miss opportunities. We’re so busy with the day job that it affects our wider knowledge and how we communicate and present ourselves.” So what kind of seminar content would get you out of that day-to-day physical and mental space and actively seeking wider business input?

Both Sign and Digital UK and Fespa Digital have announced significant increases in 2014 show floorspace over the last few days, so does that tell us something about the way vendors hope to attract new business? Indications were that increasingly, manufacturers and suppliers were beginning to eschew big trade shows for more regionalised ‘open day’ type evens and their own specialised ‘demo’ events. Is there a swing back?

Yes, we’re hardly into the New Year and the trade show build-up has begun, with event organisers and industry suppliers all beginning to beat their drums to grab your attention. So it must be time to ask, where will you be spending your money in 2014? That’s one of the questions on the Widthwise Survey currently being conducted by Image Reports (click here to take part) so by the time Sign and Digital UK comes round we’ll know where the investment is being made. In the meantime, are there specific areas of development you’ve earmarked as crucial to your competitiveness? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

A glimpse of an enewsletter from Cestrian this week had us clapping our hands here at Image Reports because it showed that PSPs really are starting to become much more astute when it comes to how they market themselves to potential clients in specific vertical markets. Cestrian really is ‘thinking bigger’, and as such will be featured in our new ‘Think Bigger Report’ for creatives, due to be published this spring. The report is part of a campaign by Image Reports, supported by Fujifilm, to improve the dialogue between the creative and the wide-format sector to establish how print, large-format in particular, can be an innovative medium within mainstream communications' projects, as well as for less well-established – indeed absolutely new – areas of design. If you’ve got something to say about how we can be better doing that as a sector, let me know.

How are you feeling about 2014? Confident I hope. But hoping isn’t enough is it? Which is why Image Reports is again conducting its annual Widthwise Survey – to find out exactly how those of you involved in wide-format digital print output are managing and to use that data to show the real shape of the market. The poll is now open so click here to take part.

I kid you not, I have just seen the ice cream van parked up outside my house, playing ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas’ and selling ‘snow cones’ with hot white chocolate sauce to bemused neighbours. Talk about thinking outside the box! We’ll have a major focus on creativity in the New Year so if the festive season has inspired you to give something new a try, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Yes, the in-store concession model is really starting to take off for companies using wide-format digital printers to offer while-you-wait bespoke product offerings to the shopping masses. We’ve seen it work well with canvas prints, but the Yr Store initiative at Liberty and Topman suggests the expansion into other areas is finally taking a hold. Make consumerism work for you and get in on the act now.

Well, with InPrint in Hannover in April, Fespa Digital 2014 in Munich in May and Viscom in Frankfurt in November, it looks as if it’s destination Germany for large chunks of 2014. Exhibition organisers are doing more and more to entice your end customers to these events so if shows on foreign soil have not been your thing, perhaps it’s not too early to make a new year resolution that they become so.