Chris Green, director of visual communications at Antalis, shares his thoughts on the importance of pushing the boundaries of print and seeking out new opportunities within new markets.
In 1974, an interstellar radio message carrying basic information about humanity and the Earth was transmitted to a destination 25,000 light years away. The ‘Arecibo message’ was a demonstration of human technological achievement; effectively humanity had taken its first step in advertising itself to a new market - and we all know how important than can be for our continued existence.
I have seen the benefits of exploring new possibilities within creative visual communications - where clients have developed opportunities with creative communities such as hoteliers, cruise liner operators, restaurateurs, luxury brand owners, architects and interior designers.
For many, real opportunities can be grown in terms of sensory marketing - the power of sight and touch means that surfaces have become significant areas of print opportunity. Refit and refresh has also been very relevant to many of these sectors, where they are looking to repurpose and revamp existing spaces.
To support this ‘voyage’ into vertical markets, Antalis has been looking at how to demonstrate the possibilities and educate a wider audience about them. Our attendance at the recent Surface Design Show, is a good example, and this has become an important event for us to demonstrate the potential of visual communications products - both creatively and environmentally - to a wider audience.
Shows like this allow the industry to enter a dialogue with a creative design community that will be involved in projects that transcend the traditional print market. Through engaging and educating this community, the door is then unlocked for creative, innovative and sustainable materials to be used in many differing applications.
The ‘mission’ for our industry is to educate and inform end-users about the possibilities of digital print, and also for us at Antalis to empower our customers to ‘seek out’ these new markets.
Interior decoration offers up opportunities to an ever-expanding diverse audience of end users, designers and up-cyclers who are open to understanding new approaches, techniques and opportunities. The harmonisation of print and interior decoration provides designers even more freedom to explore and innovate within their field to meet increasing demands for faster changing environments while delivering high quality projects that continue to meet visual expectations.
The versatility of print technology allows for the customisation of a wide range of materials for use across domestic and commercial spaces. This creates an exciting opportunity to experiment with texture, pattern and scale, as well as customisation, allowing the creation of something unique that truly speaks to end users.
Our recent show stands have demonstrated that exhibition design can be easy to build, sustainable, reusable, fit for purpose, modular and recyclable at end of life. Last year, we created two exhibition stands, both produced using Xanita, a closed-cell fibreboard manufactured with a part-recycled Kraft core that is 100% repulpable in standard wastepaper streams. Both stands - which can be fully recycled at end of life - have been re-homed in our showroom.
Our Sustainable Street exhibition stand at the 2022 Visual Marketing and Display Show had sustainability at the heart - the entire stand was manufactured from sustainable materials and went on to win a Platinum Award at the World Exhibition Stand Awards.
Antalis is here to support customers in using sustainability as a USP. A great example of this is Leeds-based wide-format printing and signage specialist Imageco, which used lockdown to refocus the business to become an expert in sustainability. The interactive new Dr Martens test and learn concept store on Carnaby Street, London, exemplifies impactful, sustainable retail display, showcasing impressive POS imagery and interior branding using a range of large-format environmental substrates.
At the recent Surface Design Show, our concept was to engage designers and brand owners by displaying beautiful geometric art deco window panels and shapes covered - using our Coala branded range of interior décor materials - to replicate marble, stone and terrazzo. Demonstrating the power and importance of creative visual communication is a passion for us at Antalis and we can help harness this power for our customers.
Another great example of diversification is from Antalis’ client MM Wall Graphics, which recently undertook a project for its customer Highfield Park Hotel. MM Wall Graphics showed the hotel the samples of Coala Interior Film, along with images of the revamped office kitchen. Impressed, the hotel commissioned the company to wrap the hotel’s reception desk and lighting gantry on which the existing oak veneer was beginning to lift. Within days of completing the desk, the hotel commissioned the revamping of the residents’ lounge area followed by another wrap to a coffee making area in the corner of the room… and so it goes on.
Exploring new territories brings uncertainty, but it also brings huge opportunity. It is critical that we all, as a collective, help to grow awareness of the visual communications industry among the many different sectors for whom our products and businesses can be a real game changer in terms of creativity and sustainability. After all, it is to everyone’s benefit to explore new worlds to showcase what digital print can achieve.