With creativity and an element of performance at the heart of every good sign design, it is little wonder that Sign and Digital UK’s exhibitors always put on a colourful extravaganza to showcase the capabilities of their technology
As a sign industry journalist, every year I look forward to Sign and Digital UK with a sense of real anticipation. And for 2014 it is the energetic and carnival like atmosphere combined with the variety of technology on display from LEDs and built-up letters, through media and digital signage, to wide-format print and CNC cutters that inspired our show issue. Like the big top at a circus, you can see a diverse range of talent on show all in one place, while the atmosphere built-up by the crowd elevates the experience to something that is possibly greater than the sum of its individual ‘acts’.
In addition to it be a great social and networking platform, it’s a showcase for the sign industry and what you will find at the show are a lot of new product developments, launches, and you will be able to see a lot of the kit working”
So, without further ado, roll up! roll up! And let’s have a look behind the curtain at the range of talent due to perform at Sign and Digital UK 2014 from April 29th to May 1st.
The ring master
Exhibiting almost its entire range at Sign and Digital UK, Perspex’s Spectrum LED Block uses SlaonLED as its light source. The combination of high-quality acrylic and high brightness makes for one classy looking letter
Organised by publisher and exhibition organiser Faversham House, the man pulling all the strings at Sign and Digital UK is its event director Rudi Blackett (see p58 for his full interview). Coming from a background in the music business, he has certainly brought this flare to the show he has steered to year-on-year growth. Explaining what the attraction is for visitors, he marks out its broad reach as a key factor: “In addition to it be a great social and networking platform, it’s a showcase for the sign industry and what you will find at the show are a lot of new product developments, launches, and you will be able to see a lot of the kit working. It will also give you an indication of the new trends, marketing opportunities, and revenue streams that are emerging.”
With this in mind, another major attraction is that the show is a unique opportunity to make an informed choice on buying materials and products, and choosing your supplier. And this is especially important at the moment, following the announcement in the budget that manufacturers can offset the tax on capital equipment purchases against profits (see p6 for more news on this).
The atmosphere means you can really get into serious discussions with people who fundamentally understand the challenges that sign-makers are faced with today, and the next investment or business move they need to make”
This point about informed choice is one that Luke Martyn, marketing manager at Perspex Distribution, weighs in on: “A big thing for us, and what our stand (J40) will be shouting about, is that our products are manufactured in the UK. We will be flying the flag for being able to produce top-quality and cost-effective products here and being able to provide customers with the completely transparent information they need to make a choice about suppliers, based on the specific needs of their business.”
He continues: “We will also be using the show to announce that one of our key suppliers Multipanel UK (more info on p16) who we are exhibiting with and produce aluminium composites, has moved all its product sourcing from China back to the UK. In addition to that, we will focus on showcasing how our product dev-elopment such as Spectrum LED Block, which uses 33m perspex which can be routed out and provides an alternative to traditionally built-up letters, reflects the developing needs of the UK sign industry.”
No clowning around
Launching on the Hybrid Services stand, the Mimaki JFX200-2513 LED UV (2.4 x 1.2m) offers white, clear and primer ink options, which allows coloured or clear substrates to be printed to
Blackett focusses on this point from Martyn and explains it is part of a key service the show performs: “The atmosphere means you can really get into serious discussions with people who fundamentally understand the challenges that sign-makers are faced with today, and the next investment or business move they need to make.”
With that in mind, there are also a lot of seminars and workshops at the show that cover a range of topics such as software for e-commerce and work-flow, as well as the design and manufacturing of signs, vital advice on new legislation, the potential of markets such as wall graphics, textile printing, vehicle wrapping, and direct-to-garment printing.
With a focus on showcasing the full breadth of our portfolio, we will also use Sign and Digital UK to launch the new JFX200-2513 LED UV, which perfectly suits the prevalent demand in the UK and Irish markets for the 8 x 4' (2.4 x 1.2m) rigid sheet size”
These latter areas of technology are all of course underpinned by the gold mine that is wide-format digital printing. A sector that Sign and Digital UK was a pioneer in embracing in the 90s, the show exhibitor list is now a real VIP list of top manufacturers and suppliers from both the UK and around the world. One of these is Hybrid Services (stand F10), the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor for Mimaki. Its national sales manager, John de la Roche, comments on the biggest trends since the 2013 show and how it has driven product development: “There has been a real focus and drive for innovation from Mimaki. In addition to advances in areas like textile and SUV inks, the development of areas such as flatbed printing is hugely exciting. With a focus on showcasing the full breadth of our portfolio, we will also use Sign and Digital UK to launch the new JFX200-2513 LED UV, which perfectly suits the prevalent demand in the UK and Irish markets for the 8 x 4' (2.4 x 1.2m) rigid sheet size (see p30 for more info).”
Top stuff: Demonstrating the latest evolution in its Super Orbis ultra-bright LED series at Sign and Digital UK, Oshino is confident that this market segment will continue to grow. Pictured: This 10 x 4m commission for Topps Tiles uses 270 Super Orbis modules (6.75 per square metre)
Indeed, with a complete overview of Hybrid’s sales activities, he goes onto explain that the machines development is also responding to the demand from sign-makers for kit that is environmentally-friendly. In addition to that, he confirms another key trend that is seeing manufacturers intensify the development of new digital print innovations. This is reportedly in response to sign-makers, designers, and wide-format print specialists that are having to continue to push the creative boundaries of their output from branded pens to vehicle wraps, in response to growing demand for highly-personalised and unique products.
In the spotlight
With the talented acts of signage materials and wide-format print now covered, two other rising stars that are performing well are LED illumination systems and digital signage, with the latter using LCD, LED, OLED, and digital projection as its graphics output method. A key player in this area at Sign and Digital UK will be One Digital Solutions (stand G70), which will bring to bear a myriad of new developments at the show.
Trades such as letter manufacturing and wide-format print are motivating the LED developers to look at how their products are being designed. For example, light boxes are more frequently being made using textile print, which means their construction can be a lot slimmer, down to 30mm”
“The NANO screens for example are at the border of print and digital, offering retailers a cost-effective, quick-to-deploy, and simple marketing solution. The POP touch-screens are more sophisticated, resonating with a different type of user,” says managing director Richard Westhead.
Moving over to LED illumination, John Wiggins, head of the National Accounts Signage division at Oshino Lamps UK, makes a key observation about the connection across the varied sectors of the sign industry: “Trades such as letter manufacturing and wide-format print are motivating the LED developers to look at how their products are being designed. For example, light boxes are more frequently being made using textile print, which means their construction can be a lot slimmer, down to 30mm.”
The biggest digital signage exhibitor at Sign and Digital UK, One Digital Solutions will be demonstrating the ease with which sign-makers can diversify into providing this technology as a common place service to customers
Wiggins continues: “The result is LEDs that need to perform in a much tighter space without light spotting, so advanced lenses and specialist solutions such as our Super Orbis LEDs (120lm/w) are becoming vital. Our core message is that our products, used by the likes of Jaguar for their cars’ interior illumination, are of premium quality and efficiency. The main focus will be to continue to innovate to get higher lumens per watt, wider dispersal angles, and create solutions that give sign-makers real flexibility, the ability to be highly creative, and reduce their overall fabrication costs.”
Quality performance
Turning to built-up letters, one of the sectors that has perhaps been the longest leading light of the sign industry, Haylee Benton, operations manager at Tring-based Trade Signs UK (stand F44) has some key findings. She picks up on this point about an intensifying drive for innovation from across the sign industry. She explains her company’s experience of the last twelve months and how it will show through at Sign and Digital UK: “Demand for built-up letters really has increased significantly as the economy recovers and brands look to refresh their image. Our customers are asking for finishes and designs that are a bit more special and stand out. Rather than standard items like brushed stainless steel, we are seeing requests for brushed stainless steel, gold, and a lot of brass as well as bronze.”
Demand for built-up letters really has increased significantly as the economy recovers and brands look to refresh their image”
Benton continues: “Our stand will showcase all these products in action and we will be able to help visitors with how they can integrate them into jobs and improve their business. A key new product will be LPFlex, (see p30 for more information) which are really high-quality 3D illuminated acrylic letters. Without exaggerating they just provide perfectly even and ultra-bright illumination. The engineers in our factory are always developing and sourcing products that are on the cusp of technology development.”
The grande finale
Tring-based Trade Signs says that the increasing demand for signage systems that incorporate LEDs is driving the development and creative scope of both letters and lighting technology
An important point to draw from Benton’s comments is that to some extent sign-making has, without forgetting its roots, moved from a cottage industry using analogue tools to one that is firmly in the digital age. So it is perhaps fitting to finish this variety performance feature by looking to the end of the product line in the form of CNC cutting and routing. One of the UK industry’s fastest growing lights is AG/CAD and its range of Korean-built DYSS machines.
“On our stand (E30) we will be showcasing the large-format heavy-duty X7 with an improved drive system and control software. And in addition to that we will be bringing our new X5 machine, which has a robust 250-watt spindle, and a slightly smaller head on it. With that we can get much higher acceleration and throughput. It also has a smaller footprint for companies that want to bring this capability in-house, but have a smaller floor space,” explains Paul Andrade, AG/CAD’s general manager.
The way we look at it is to really give high value for visitors and exhibitors, a tangible return on investment for being at the show”
He continues, explaining how the challenges faced by sign-makers are driving development: “They are no longer just sticking to traditional products; everyone wants to diversify. We are able to help them do that by drawing on our 28 years of experience in the packaging and point-of-sale display structural design in paper-based materials. People want more out of their equipment, and it also needs to be about the software that drives it, which is a specialist areas of ours.”
This point about, ‘wanting more’, is something that Blackett says he is very aware of. He concludes: “The way we look at it is to really give high value for visitors and exhibitors, a tangible return on investment for being at the show.
The DYSS X5 digital cutter series from AG/CAD will take pride of place on its stand. Able to process material upto 1.6 x 2.5m and thus not able to process the same large sizes as its X7 cousin, it is faster and less expensive with no loss in application scope
“Rather than just saying there is a lot of new products, we think of it from a point of view that every visitor to Sign and Digital UK is considering how they can improve their business. We strive to fit the show to that aspiration. Going forward we also of course want all the major product launches and new technologies, and so it really is a case of remaining fresh, engaging, keeping close to the market and reading it—ultimately we have to work with the industry to give it what it wants.”
