Entering the third diminution

Curved creases? Heard of these? Well, don’t worry, you will. In fact, you’ll be seeing a fair few of them dotted about your local supermarket, favourite retail spaces et al.
According to Paul Bates, EskoArtwork business manager UK and Ireland, these are the next big thing – and just happen to be part of the new functionality of the latest version of ArtiosCAD and Studio 10.1, Esko’s interactive, 3D packaging design suite.
“Why have a corner with a straight crease, when you can have a curve?” Bates asks. Quite so. “A fold on a curve changes everything,” he continues, “Wide-format print providers often install POP work as well as producing it so, in the past, 3D structures have tended to follow an established proven formula. Now, with the new functionality of our Studio software, you’ll start to see more experimental, more intelligent and funky 3D work,” he predicts.
EskoArtwork has long been an established presence in packaging industry, but focussed attention on the graphics market about five years ago with the introduction of its Kongsberg i-cut, digital cutting tables. While its presence in the traditional packaging market remains strong and constant, the digital wide-format finishing market is now the company’s fastest growing market sector (expected to be about 30% per year) and the expanded version of the Studio suite is squarely aimed at this market.
“A lot of people in the industry are seeing this as a gold rush,” says Bates, adding, “Many people in traditional packaging and screen-printing are also moving into this area because they can see the benefits.”
Peter Giddings, sales director at Zund, manufacturer of printers, digital cutting tables and 3D software, concurs.
Last year Zund filed a record year for sales, and this year is set to overtake that. At the back end of 2010 the company introduced its first 3D structural and cardboard engineering software Packz, designed to enable its core customer base of wide-format digital printers the ability to offer its clients conceptual and structural design.
According to Giddings, between 70 - 80% of Zund cutter table sales also include the purchase of Packz software. From where he sits, Giddings can see how some of his customers’ mix of work is changing. Eighteen months ago, for many customers the mix between 2D banners and poster work to 3D was 80/20. Now, its changing – in some cases to 50/50.
Suddenly 2D print is well, a bit last year. He cites a well-known clothing brand – a customer’s customer – who rather than printing its distinctive logo on to 2D, opted for large scale standalone 12 feet high, cut-outs on 35mm Dufaylite that graced the store fronts of its stores across the country.
So how is it that while seemingly, the rest of the UK is floundering in grey economic gloom, the wide-format market has such pockets of golden ambrosial sunshine?
Over at Océ, Derek Joys, UK display graphics programme manager, highlights what many others also take to be the case - that the general economic downturn has forced print service providers (whatever their flavour) into taking a long hard look at themselves and doing the necessary to ensure a competitive edge when the tide turns.
Last month Océ and Zund held a two-day workshop showcasing the combined technologies of both companies. Package sales (i.e combined UV printer, cutter and 3D software) is strong – whether these be to existing digital printers looking for more capacity and flexibility, packaging companies, novices, or offset, commercial and screen printers wanting to make the move into digital. Systems purchased are used for a wide range of applications from prototyping, through to exhibition furniture, boxes, stand-alone structures and everything else in between.
“There is a lot of blurring going on,” says Joys. The combined functionality between printers, contour cutters and 3D software can open doors into vertical markets, but it also allows PSPs to service their existing customers to a far greater degree.
Mark Thompson of Stafford-based Print Designs is experiencing first hand how this heady combination of printer, cutter and 3D software translates into business on a daily basis. Recently, Print Designs installed a Zund GXL3200 CVE cutter along with the Zund Packz software. The company decided to invest in the digital cutter to ease a bottleneck in converting product, following increased production speeds having upgraded to a Vutek QS200 UV flatbed earlier in the year.
Life has very quickly become easier with human error being virtually eliminated and time scales for large jobs in some instances being cut by half.
While the company was receiving enquiries for 3D work, it was an area it usually shied away from, as it wasn’t viable to undertake any of this type of work by hand. However, in just two weeks of promoting the new in-house capabilities of its flatbed and cutter, Print Designs has already created a number of 3D models of houses promoting solar energy for a number of nationwide showrooms, created a number of life-sized free-standing cut outs for a major sporting event, as well as being asked to create a 3D race track with city scape backdrop around, around which children can drive model cars.
Each week, in response to promotional e-mails the company is sending to its existing customer base promoting its new 3D capabilities, e-mails are coming back asking about new treatments and innovative solutions.
The investment in the printer, cutter and software is key to the company’s continued good health. While the cutter had to hit the ground running to improve efficiency on existing print throughput, it forms a central tenet for new services and products.
At present, Print Designs is developing a number of 3D cardboard, foldable, stand-alone, prototypes, which it hopes will become an alternative to the popular small, portable, banner display stands. “Everyone uses these,” says Thompson, “but their popularity is their own undoing. Many customers want a unique display. You see these types of displays everywhere at exhibitions but they all look the same, nothing sticks out - it’s like wallpaper.”
All new 3D products will be available on the company’s website as and when it is ready. Customers with their own in-house graphics studios will be able to take the 3D files and add their artwork to it, or can send artwork that will be applied to the 3D structure of choice. They’ll be able to see a 3D mock-up and will be able to proof online.
Until this point the company’s 3D output has been zero, and while Thompson is reluctant to put growth figures on this new area of his business, just the presence of the printer, cutter and software is catching the imagination of his customers – who as we all know are always on the look out for something new.
“It’s a leap of faith,” says Thompson. “The cutter was a considerable investment but we knew from the off we had the work to feed it. We are getting enquiries on a daily basis, what we can offer has ignited the creativity of our customers. They can really go to town now.”
Forty miles or so up country, Manchester-based Kingfisher Graphics is two and half years further down the road with its flatbed/cutter combo. The company bought its 3x2m digital cutting table to handle the cutting of print coming off its flatbed printer; 3D cardboard engineered work was a side-effect of this. The company included 3D cardboard engineering as part of its service offering, advertised it on its website and the calls started coming in. We tend to do very short to medium run work, says Armstrong, as over a certain quantity, big packaging with capacity on their machines can do the work.
For Kingfisher, the ability to produce 3D engineered work has opened up new market areas and accounts for about 15% of business. So what sort of work does this involve? “We do so much that nothing surprises us anymore,” replies Armstrong.
However, he believes that the true driver of this non-flat world is the designer. Once a designer gets in front of the machines and really starts to understand what they are capable of, then says Armstrong, the ideas really start to flow.