Despite fears that the UK economy may be slipping into another recession—the latest GDP figures showing a 0.6 percent drop in output—I can say with real assurance our industry seems to be weathering the storm.

I have come to this view as our team have been talking to both sign-makers and suppliers of all sizes and from every corner of the industry over the last month, reporting back a guarded yet solid optimism that sales figures will continue to remain steady. The consensus seems to be that despite sectors such as retail being effected by slower than expected sales during the Christmas period, this has not effected signage buying—with business seeking to use re-brands and sales displays to outbid the competition for shoppers.

I also have had the real joy this month of reporting on the design and production software sector and exploring how it is taking shape for SignLink February. More so than ever before beautiful and seemingly impossibly complex commissions are now being manufactured, such as the 3D bas relief used for our cover artwork this month—kindly supplied by Melissa Jones of  Nice Carvings in the USA.

The trends coming out of the sector in the UK are very interesting, as CAD/CAM software developers report rising sales of both their systems and CNC machines—thought to be driven by sign-makers looking to diversify out from the increasing saturated wide-format digital print market.

Another particularly interesting trend, reported on by our own Pádraig McGarrigle in this months Industry pages, is the increasing interest of commercial printers in our market place. As Pádraig reports this has been motivated by margins on long-run print commissions being severely eroded. The result has been a rapidly increasing number of companies in the sector developing a wide-format sign and display print business to try and maintain capacity. As always we would welcome and thoughts or news you have on any of these or other issues which are effecting your business.