Editorial
Are tiles and water bottles really print?
Filomena Tamburri
A new trade show makes the case for the affirmative
Last issue I wrote about how Print 17 pointed to a new defin-
ition of print and indicated that SGIA a few weeks later would
perhaps have keener insight to offer about that proposition.
And so it did.
The SGIA Expo in New Orleans was the largest trade show I
have attended in North America in more than a decade. The
energy and a good mood on the floor were marred only by the
dense October humidity. But more than its sheer size, SGIA
clearly indicated how print is being redefined and expanded.
A spin around the show floor – I walked more than 18,000 steps
one day – turned up lots and lots of inkjet devices printing just
about everything: wood products, wallpaper, flooring, furniture,
ceramics, plastics, glass, car wraps, thermoformed creations,
promotional products, metal and all manner of textiles from flags,
to dresses, to pillows, to couches and so on. If someone had
figured out a way to hold a cat still, one of the exhibitors could
have printed on it.
No one had an offset press, and no one – at least I couldn’t find
one – had a toner-based press. Neither of these technologies,
nor the market segments they serve, has been part of SGIA in the
past but in a nod to the evolving industry that is about to change.
One of the most buzzed-about announcements in NOLA was
new alliance between SGIA and NAPCO, U.S.-based publishers
of Printing Impressions and In-Plant Graphics, to create a new
one-stop event that brings all those technologies and market
segments together – offset, digital, inkjet, commercial, pack-
aging, mailing, industrial etc. Such a show does not, in practice,
exist in North America and many think it’s a change that’s long
overdue.
6 | November 2017 | GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE
Over the last 20 years, the graphics industry has seen huge
consolidation, particularly in the U.S. where almost a third of
printing establishments closed between the heyday of 2000
and the post-meltdown of 2015. Faced with a constricting
market and shrinking margins on offset work, print shops had
to expand their offerings to stay afloat, never mind protect
their profits.
And so segments, functions and technology began to con-
verge. The new show, Print United, will focus on the
possibilities that arise from this convergence. Its first outing
will be in Dallas in 2019.
This convergence has been taking shape for at least the past
decade. Print United and the players behind it did not create
it, but this new venture crystallizes the concept and puts some
marketing muscle behind it. Whether the show is a success
or a failure will depend on many factors. But the idea that the
print and graphics industry has redefined itself is now firm
and tangible.
Putting ink to substrate isn’t simply about communication
anymore. It’s that plus finding functional ways of engaging
with our surroundings and often creating those surroundings.
Many of us have struggled to put a name to this convergence
– is making pillows really printing? Tiles? Water bottles? SGIA
made the case that yes, it is all print.
Filomena Tamburri is editor-in-chief of Graphic Arts Magazine.
She can be reached at [email protected]
graphicartsmag.com