Bigger Printing represents UK in international wallpaper print challenge

The Bigger Printing Company has represented the UK in an international project devised by Canon and Oce to prove the colour consistency capabilities of the Oce Colorado 1640.

Ahead of SGIA Expo 2018, Canon and Oce chose five companies - one each from the UK, America, Canada, Japan and Australia - to take part in a ‘Wallpaper Challenge’ in which each PSP would produce one section of artwork on their own Colorado 1640 machines, with the aim that all five sections would line up perfectly in one wall display and show consistent colour across all of the drops. Each of the PSPs received the same file to print onto a Canon wall covering material. Bigger Printing was one of the first in the UK to order an Oce Colorado 1640 (which uses UVgel print technology) and has been producing significant volumes of print on the machine since November 2017. In early September 2018, Canon visited Bigger Printing’s HQ in Cheltenham, and filmed the production team producing a section of the final design, as well as interviewing Bigger Printing MD Sebastian Stanley. The print was then signed by operations manager David Bowen - to prove that it came from Bigger Printing - and was dispatched to the Las Vegas Convention Centre in the US to be installed alongside the prints from America, Canada, Japan and Australia ahead of SGIA Expo. Bowen said of the project: “We were thrilled to be asked to be part of this international project back in August, and it’s been so exciting it’s been difficult to keep quiet about really. Having embraced the UVgel technology provided by the Oce Colorado 1640, we haven’t looked back. The Colorado provides us with so many benefits including consistent colour on blisteringly quick prints, so to be asked to be the UK representation on this project was an incredibly easy decision. This project proves just how special this machine is - the fact that five different companies, in five different countries, using different Rip software, using different set-ups, working in different colour spaces, can all produce identical prints is unheard of.” You can also watch short videos on this project at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKVCvc5FHpo and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWk5m_vWT5Y