IPG Imaging Professionals, Irvine, Calif., worked with GapMaternity to produce boxes used in 27 storefront Christmas window displays. The printing firm operates one of the country's largest state-of-the-art, digitally integrated custom imaging facilities.
IPG relies on its PressVu® 180/600 digital press from VUTEk Inc., a Meredith, N.H.-based supplier of wide-format ink jet equipment and other direct digital output devices. The PressVu is an 8-color, industrial-strength machine that prints on a wide variety of substrates.
Printing firms targeting growth markets regard digital printing as ripe, low-dangling fruit. When a technology firm needed a company to provide an attention-grabbing project, IPG Imaging Professionals, Irvine, Calif., was ready to gain juicy business.
In October 2003, the client needed brilliant, large-format building banners to hang at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where it planned to launch a new product.
To cope effectively with increasing levels of competition and the swift pace of technology, companies seek ways to stand out immediately. To be first in the minds of customers, firms need printing that's impressive at first glance. That's why more end users--and print providers--are realizing the value of large-format applications such as banners and signage, exhibition graphics, backlit displays and bus wraps. Companies providing such printing literally can help firms make it big.
"The idea today is to have creative color and dramatic size," says Rick Farrell, president and CEO of IPG. The company was founded as a commercial photo printer in 1980 and now operates one of the country's largest state-of-the-art, digitally integrated custom imaging facilities. "The point-of-purchase market is visual, and most buyers are very concerned with visual stimulation." IPG aims to provide one-stop shopping for visual merchandising services, and mainly targets corporations, retail outlets, graphic designers and commercial photographers. "The trend in sales and marketing is to think about applications instead of just taking orders," Farrell says. "Customers bring us concepts, and part of our job
is to provide the technology to improve upon those concepts. We consider how can we make them more different, creative or unusual."
The technology firm emailed IPG a file of its banner design, and the printing company used its PressVu® 180/600 digital press to produce a couple of 44 x 12-foot banners on Celtic cloth. IPG folded the banners for shipment, and workers at the Moscone Center hung and stretched them on a truss before installing them at the show.
VUTEk Inc., a Meredith, N.H.-based supplier of wide-format ink jet equipment and other direct digital output devices, makes the PressVu. It's an 8-color, industrial-strength machine that prints on a wide variety of substrates, including rigid PVC, Lexan®, polycarbonate, card stock, foam board, textiles and most flexible signage materials. Farrell says there's a "huge movement in the marketplace" toward digital printing on non-conventional materials such as cloth and canvas. "The PressVu is flexible, and it's the leader in the UV substrate market," he says.
When IPG uses its PressVu and Zund digital cutter for projects, the company can print on and contour-cut any shape from almost any substrate, Farrell says. The company can use both rigid and roll media, and materials up to 84 inches wide "can be cut with unmatched speed and precision," he says. "The die-cutting process is so affordable that cutout images can be made from customer snapshots or any desired image" and used for corporate events, birthdays, family parties or other occasions.
In December 2003, IPG worked with GapMaternity to produce boxes used in 27 storefront Christmas window displays. Each box included separate marketing campaigns on two sides. IPG used its PressVu to print distinctive GapMaternity Christmas images directly onto a 24 pt. C1S substrate, then scored and creased the boxes using its Zund digital cutter.
"Wide-format ink jet devices are becoming more popular, and I expect that industry to grow significantly in the coming years," Farrell says.
--Darin Painter
