Category: Think Bigger Blog

Interior designer Michaela Reysenn acknowledges that it can be hard for a printer to differentiate themselves in the creative market in terms of the products and services they offer. So in her view much of it comes down to customer service. When interviewed for Think Bigger this month, the managing director of Kai Design, talks about the value of her long-standing relationship with printer and wallcovering specialist Forrest and Jones with whom she has collaborated on the interior design of a number of restaurants and bars.

Anyone from the print industry who attended the 100% Design exhibition at London’s Earl’s Court last year would have been left in no doubt as to an interior designer’s appetite for new ideas, techniques and inspiration. Stand after stand paraded a vast array of different products, designs and technologies. Large format digital printing had every right to be among them since it has an increasingly big part to play in the interior design world but only a handful of suppliers from the printing industry attended.

Designers are often accused of failing to understand what printers can bring to the creative discussion. Environmental graphics designer Pat O’Leary couldn’t be more different from this stereotype. In the ‘Think Bigger’ video interview this month she explains that she sees printers as part of the bigger collaborative team on a commission and tries to bring them into the creative process as early as possible. “Talking to them early on also means that I know whether something is possible and importantly if it is possible within the budget,” she says, adding that suppliers have grown used to her coming in with ideas to print on all sorts of surfaces. “They’ll give it a go and if it doesn’t work, we do something else.”