Three Steps beyond

Walking around Sign and Digital UK, it is easy to head straight to one of the larger stands to catch a glimpse of the latest big technology you have read so much about in the pages of SignLink. However, while these launches and showcases are certainly ones not to be missed, what about some of the smaller stands at the show that may not be everyone’s first stop?

This year, in addition to checking out the larger stands, I spent time at some of the smaller booths to see what was on offer from other parts of the industry that offer fun, quirky, wacky, but above all, profitable products for the sign-maker to invest in.
 
Photographer turned artist

There is a chunky looking iron chain hanging from a stand in the vast reaches of the NEC hall, where wide-format printer suppliers compete with wide-format printer supplier cheek by jowl. A passer-by looks at the iron chain and gently touches the rust covered surface. “I knew it,” he says, “it’s not metal, it’s polystyrene.”

The man behind the non-iron iron chain is Graham Sweet, who started the company 46 years ago after a stint as a ship’s photographer on a cruise liner.



His firm, Graham Sweet Studios, service, in the main, film and television studios, and he admits there is a difficulty in which trade show to exhibit in as sign-makers often use him as a subcontractor due to his ability of making three-dimensional letters. Should he go to The Media and Production Show with its craft-focused special effects companies, or pursue sign-makers at the NEC?



“We’ve had a huge amount of interest, because we are different and the chain has certainly caught the eye of a lot of people,” he says, adding: “I’m an artist and I literally put a new facing on lettering. Clients include big television shows and film studios who want something specific so we make it from scratch. One wanted lettering that had been covered in what looks like volcanic ash and another wanted built-up letters in a particular typeface that looked as though it was covered in rust.”

Sweet says he began his working life as a photographer’s assistant on a cruise liner, but became the ship’s photographer when the senior photographer jumped ship with one of the passengers. Following that he became a designer back in Britain, before starting work making models and lettering out of polystyrene in Cardiff.

Magnetic appeal

Next up was what appeared to be another display of wide-format printing with a huge blow-up image of a model’s face on a small corner stand. Except there was no wide-format printer on Bisbell’s stand, as this was about promoting a product that has been around for decades if not centuries: magnets.

Stewart Lees of the firm explains: “Our customers are mainly printers and also shop fitters. A lot of people don’t know about the product, but we’re just introducing it now in the last few months. It’s got many applications and uses in doors.”

So what is he talking about? The product is a magnet film that can be printed on and then placed onto a window or any smooth surface. It contains no glue, is free of PVC, it does not smudge and it can even be recycled. And it all works by magnetism. And the best thing is it is infinitely repositionable.

Lees adds: “It has thousands of little suction pours all over it, and that creates the adhesive aspect, it’s easy to remove and reposition so if you’ve got lots of promotions you can peel it off and reuse it again.”

Bisbell has been making magnetic products for industry since 1971 and the magnetic ferro sheet is sold to printers and sign-makers for use in window graphics, vehicle graphics, and signage in general. It is a magnetic flexible material akin to a flexible steel but made of rubber. Easy-to-cut to shape, it comes in white, plain of adhesive backed. And it is not the only product Bisbell makes for the sign industry. There’s card-coated steel for robust displays and point-of-purchase, foam white magnetic tape, and HD digital steel film amongst other products.

O Factoid: One of the first applications of lightweight sculpted 3D models for commercial use was for travelling circuses, which used them to trick onlookers into believing that their strong men could seemingly lift huge cast-iron weights many times their size.  O

 
He adds: “It gives another option for sign-makers and it is not very expensive. There are two ways to go about it with regards to magnetics, you have got the ferro backing and you apply the magnets to it, and the reverse where you’ve got a magnetic wall or surface and the film is attracted to it. It comes in different thicknesses but the thicker it is then it can adhere to a more uneven surface.”

Heart of England

With his ponytail, beard, and distinctly hippy-like dress, Eyal Meyers is not the usual corporate looking dude you will find on the larger stands at Sign and Digital UK. Eyal fronts up Award Crafters of Romford in Essex or as he says “the heart of the country.” Although his geography is a little out, his signs certainly are not, since they are virtually indestructible. The company make anodised aluminum nameplates and panels onto which the graphics are permanently embedded. And for good reason—as they are designed for the harshest of environments such as pylons, ships, submarines, aircraft, and heavy machinery. They include nameplates, control panels, and barcodes in applications where service life expectations exceed 20 years for the part. While Government, the military, and aerospace extensively specify the products for demanding applications that require resistance to the effects of weather, abrasion, heat, and most chemicals. And it all started with the Korean War.

Meyers says: “The signs are durable in salt water and the US Navy needed signs that wouldn’t come off in the sea and when exposed to salt water. That was how the original idea came about, and from that a company was started, and Award Crafters has come out of that.



“The company was started by me 21 years ago, but the process has a lot more history. The main process we use for black and white imaging was developed during the Korean War. It was developed by US Navy ships which came into port and found their signage was damaged. They put out a tender to find a product that wouldn’t curl, peel, or fade, and this was what they came up with.

“There are also stories that it is used for storing recipes for Coca-Cola and Heinz. The theory is if their building ever burns down the one thing that will survive are these recipes printed onto the metal products.”

It’s a great story along with the idea that the signs are used in space where they have to resist radiation and meteor attack, but on a more mundane level the signs are the unsung heroes of the signage world.

He adds: “Although we are sub-contracted by printers and sign-makers in the main, we also do some work with the general public. We work with artists for their shows where we reproduce their artwork in aluminium and it gives a beautiful finished product. And we also do wedding albums, printing the photographs in aluminium.”


As a result of my approach at the show, I can only recommend that you adopt a similar strategy when visiting upcoming events such as The Print Show later on this year. It is incredible what you can find on the stands that are often overshadowed by those run by the giants of our industry. By spending perhaps even a whole day just investigating these stands, which are often no more than 3 x 3m, you will open your eyes to a wonderful world of exotic trade products that could help you start a healthy little side line for your business and help push that bank balance further into the black.

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