Applications

How its latest investment in an Agfa Anapurna M2050 is expanding Key2 Group’s service offering and client list.

You know the score. There are marvellous examples of digital wide-format work out there that a service provider has produced but is unable to flag up and shout about because the client doesn¹t like it. Key2 Group, based in Portsmouth, is no exception when it comes to having this specific problem. A really lovely job undertaken for an end client of global, cosmetic, blue-chip stature will sadly have to remain off limits, but Mike Keating, the affable managing director of Key2 Group continues in an enthusiastic vein. 

Green interior design makes perfect child's play for a thriving family centre in Singapore.

Singapore: a tiger economy, a city synonymous with big business and high finance, but amongst the gleaming steel skyscrapers is The City by Littlez - a children’s play and discovery centre that is pretty unique. Everyday settings, such as a supermarket, a hairdresser’s, street scenes and more, have been attractively recreated to enhance children’s educational experience through role-play - a concept created by Smadar Ron, a designer and business partner at The City by Littlez.

Wide-format offers enormous potential to the growing market for personalised home décor as OPG highlights.

One of the fastest growing applications in wide-format at the moment is that of interior decoration in general and wall coverings in particular. OP Graphics, based in Lanarkshire in Scotland, has had more than a little success with this, producing wall coverings for a variety of clients, for uses in areas such as offices, restaurants and people’s homes.

Melony Rocque-Hewitt looks at Icon’s branding production and overlay solutions for the UN Conference on Climate Change.

Over here we’re all slightly jealous of Icon, the southeast London-based global event-branding group. The reason? Well, while the rest of us have been psychologically damaged by months of freezing temperatures, biblical rains, alleviated by the odd week of raging artic blizzards, members of the Icon team were packed off to Doha in the Middle East for three months to help oversee the branding production and overlay solution for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change.

Ltd Ltd is known for its high-end creative work. Melony Rocque-Hewitt spies on some of its more ground-breaking work.

They’re a restless bunch, the crew at Learn to Dream, or Ltd Ltd as its more commonly known. This restlessness is not a phase but a defining condition that has been part and parcel of this London-based, wide-format, digital printing company from the off.

CS Labels is the largest Xeikon site in Europe specialising in short-run colour labels. Melony Rocque-Hewitt finds that amidst this, is a trio of wide-format printers producing decals for children’s wellies.

Our unpredictable and unseasonal weather of recent years has meant that the humble Wellington boot has been elevated to almost iconic status. Wellies are everywhere and have become a portable canvas (albeit a rubber one) for children’s cartoon characters, spots, stripes, Union Jacks, vegetables, flowers et al.

Melony Rocque-Hewitt finds out how Press On Digital Imaging created stunning chrome effects for a well-known London department store’s windows.

Every year during the build-up to Christmas, I would be taken to London specifically to see the Oxford and Regent Street lights and to view the glittering, fairytale shop windows of the capital’s most famous department stores. Three decades or so on, the Christmas windows beckon still, spreading their own brand of magical glamour and consumer seduction. 

How does wide-format digital print put consumers in the mood to shop ‘till they drop? Melony Rocque-Hewitt investigates.

When Halloween is finished and the last sparkler has gone cold from Bonfire Night, the cascading rush for all things Christmas explodes.  For many PSPs, the week commencing 5 November is often one of the busiest of the year as clients ready themselves for their Christmas campaigns.

The skies the limit when it comes to wide-format digital printing. So, as the countdown to Christmas begins, Melony Rocque-Hewitt looks at some of the niche products that have caught the imagination of the public.

Not so long ago, I was having lunch with a sales director of a London-based, wide-format, digital printing company who told me that when he went to see clients, one of his party tricks was to take an empty portfolio with him to demonstrate the ‘no limits’ characteristics of wide-format digital print. 

Can wide-format printers in our sector make the most of the boom in demand when it comes to digitally printed textiles? Melony Rocque-Hewitt investigates.

The textile and apparel market is in love big time with digital printing and it’s serious. By 2015 the textile and apparel global market is forecast to be worth somewhere in the region of $1,557.1 billion, an increase of 32.5% since 2010. There seems to be little doubt that where the printing of textiles is concerned digital will be the future.

Why sustainability coupled with amazing design makes digitally printed furniture a niche to watch says Melony Rocque-Hewitt.

In the Image Reports ‘Widthwise 2012’ survey – now in its fifth year – over 50% of respondents said that despite the unstable economic conditions, recruitment was high on the agenda. From these respondents, 42% said that they would be looking to appoint design staff.

Melany Rocque-Hewitt finds that walls have never looked so good, thanks to the growth in bespoke digitally printed coverings.

Excuse the pun, but digital wallpaper is on a roll. Digitally produced, bespoke wall coverings (wallpapers or feature wall murals) are gaining momentum not just in the commercial sector but have segued their way into the domestic, consumer zone.