Louis Vuitton’s pop-up shop in Sydney was constructed using 3D printed supersized panels
Time for a makeover?
The high street has to bring something special to its customers
these days to compete with online shopping. This represents a fantastic
opportunity for sign-makers to produce spectacular signage that will
make the retail experience worth dragging yourself away from your
computer for.
Retail Design Expo, which took place at Olympia, London, from May
2nd to 3rd, is a fantastic showcase of the latest retail solutions. Many
sign companies that often feature in the pages of Signlink exhibited at
this year’s show such as Sign of the Times, CJ Retail Solutions, Contra
Vision, Celloglas, Neschen, Signwaves, and Tecna UK.
For Perspex Distribution, it was the company’s first appearance at
Retail Design Expo this year and Luke Martyn, marketing manager of
Perspex Distribution, says the show proved to be a “great success” as it
launched its new range of Perspex acrylic colours, Perspex Royals.
Perspex’s new metallic shimmer ‘Royals’ range appears to gradually change colour as the angle changes
He says: “The range offers a Royal Flush of six colours aiming to
feed our customer’s imagination. With a luxury silk texture and metallic
shimmer effect, the range emphasises our passion for pigment and focus
on the latest colour trends. Its metallic shimmer creates an effect
whereby the surface of the sheet appears to gradually change colour as
the angle of view or illumination changes.
“Retailers and designers were clearly using the show to find new
products to help them stand out and this new range instantly appealed to
those looking for unique effects to liven up their signage, POS, and
displays.”
Perspex’s stand also featured its full range of acrylic colours and
effects, and in conversation with visitors, it was clear that there was
a lot of interest in bespoke colours for illuminated projects.
Martyn continues: “Looking at the wider retail signage industry, we
are responding to market demand by continuing to evolve our Perspex
Illumination range with acrylic optimised for LED illumination. Our
Spectrum LED range offers eleven colours and opal acrylic up to 30mm
thick with diffuser properties formulated to eliminate hotspots and
enable slimmer designs.
“We recently used Sign and Digital UK to demonstrate Perspex G-Lux,
a newly developed cast acrylic sheet designed for optimised edge
illumination, and its ability to create a light guide panel without the
need to first engrave or print the sheet, making light sheet production
quicker and easier. Ideal for shop window signs and displays. Not only
is the sheet developed primarily for edge illuminations, but the sheet
is available in four different grades, each tweaked for specific panel
sizes.
“Our Sloan LED Prism range complements our Perspex acrylic range
for shop signage with the recent addition of coloured modules and mini
modules driving ever increasing usage and specification. Sloan LED Prism
mini can be used in applications as shallow as 50mm.”
Beauty spot
We caught up with CJ Retail Solutions not long ago for our ‘Ahead
of the Curve’ section of the magazine, speaking to its head of group
marketing, Jane Ball. She told us that the company took home a gold
award at the POPAI Awards for its work on Boots’ Beauty Emporium, a
project she is particularly proud of.
CJ Retail Solutions implemented its all-in-one solution to provide Boots with a more streamlined process
“One project that stands out in particular is our recent work with
leading high street retailer, Boots,” Ball says, adding: “Working across
over 100 major stores nationwide to introduce its much-anticipated
Christmas Beauty range, we implemented our all-in-one solution to
provide the client with a more streamlined, efficient process. This
included taking care of the crucial design stage, manufacturing,
installation, and maintenance—overseeing every stretch of the project.
CJ Retail Solutions was involved in the design, manufacturing, installation, and maintenance of Boots’ Christmas signage and displays
“I’m particularly proud of this because each team member worked
effectively together over five months, showcasing their individual
expertise to produce a stunning, fully compliant solution in time for
the Christmas rush.”
Ball highlights the importance of a well designed and installed
signage solution in the retail environment as it contributes to the
success of the brand.
She explains: “By delivering, installing, and maintaining a brand’s
display at maximum compliance level, we are ensuring that the consumer
receives the very best possible experience from that brand. A poorly
designed and installed solution can often lead to damaged and missing
products, resulting in loss of profitability. Naturally, if products are
not there, hidden or even damaged, a shopper simply will not buy.
A poorly designed and installed solution can often lead to damaged and missing products, resulting in loss of profitability”
“We aim to maintain our client’s brand image, drive forward sales,
and ultimately, keep them coming back time and time again with our
uniquely-designed concept solutions and organised POS installations. Our
real-time reporting technologies also give clients the freedom to
oversee the whole process throughout.”
Pop-up profits
When you think about the amount of competition clothing brands
face, whether it is high street names like Topshop and Zara, or designer
brands like Chanel and Dior, standing out from the crowd in retail is
crucial. Louis Vuitton recently impressed in Sydney with, what is
believed to be, the world’s first 3D printed pop-up retail store.
The store was open for a month in Westfield shopping centre,
Sydney. It consisted of a 9m wide, 10m long, and 2.7m high structure,
and was produced on the Massivit 1800 3D printer in just 18 days by
Australian large-format 3D printing house, Omus.
Omus was the first in the country to install a Massivit 1800
printer and uses it for bespoke large-format 3D printed applications in
retail, staging, events, and architectural design sectors.
Omus used the Massivit 1800 3D printer to 3D print supersized panels for a pop-up shop
“Our customers are always seeking ways to push the boundaries and
create promotions with stopping-power,” Grosso explains, adding: “Our
Massivit 1800 3D printer is fundamental to achieving this. From a
production perspective, the very nature of building from the ground up
not only enables us to exactly replicate our customer’s complex designs,
regardless of the scale, it is also an efficient and cost-effective
solution.
“Utilising the Massivit 1800’s large build-tray, we were able to 3D
print supersized panels in record time. These large-scale parts allowed
us to substantially accelerate our production time compared to
traditional methods.”
Omus called on the help of a few other companies for the innovative
project, working closely with design agency Gold Coast Displays and
enlisting the support of another Massivit 3D customer, Composite Images,
so two printers could run around the clock to finish the mammoth task.
Omus 3D printed several panels with thicker walls while inserting
support ‘ribs’ to ensure they did not collapse. The pop-up shop was then
covered in chrome mirror self-adhesive vinyl and adorned with Louis
Vuitton-designed animal prints, reflecting the theme of the menswear on
display within the shop.
Grosso says the designer brand was delighted with the result,
concluding: “3D printing completely exceeded their expectations in terms
of its wow-factor and ability to realise their original vision and
radiate the opulence of the company’s new line.”
Under control
So, we have looked at retail design installation specialists and 3D
printing companies, what about the software working tirelessly behind
the scenes to make retail signage solutions as efficiently as possible?
SAi’s software solution, Flexi, is certainly a popular choice, with
no less than 75 percent of sign and print shops in North America using
the software. The company sells the software in two different ways, as
standalone software that you can buy for between £1,500 and £3,295, and
on a subscription basis for £50 a month, which still includes every
single feature and capability offered.
SAi’s Flexi software can be used to easily design display and signage concepts from scratch, with a focus on enabling sign-makers to produce bespoke systems with the same confidence as specifying off-the-shelf products
Dean Derhak, product director at SAi, tells me there are three
components to the software: “One is that it has a full-blown design
package that makes it very easy for sign or print shops to design
signage from scratch. It’s much easier than Corel Draw or Adobe
Illustrator and it’s been designed from the ground up for the sign
market.
“The second component we have is a RIP software. We have a RIP
package that drives just about every wide-format printer and cutter you
could imagine. The third component we have is a cloud system for the
licensing and a whole bunch of cloud tools. The software installs on a
PC, like normal, but it also has a window with cloud tools such as job
archiving, web-based artwork approval, and two companion mobile apps.”
Flexi is most well known for its print and cut applications and
Derhak explains how while its competitors have a separate print workflow
and cut workflow, Flexi’s print cut workflow is integrated into one.
“The applications possible include labels and stickers—a lot of
print and sign shops do stickers. We make it insanely easy to, for
example, add a contour path, a kiss cut or a perf cut onto a design. As
we have a design tool, we also have step and repeat variable data. If
you are doing a lot of name tags or parking stickers for permits, we
have software that automatically prints barcodes and names.”
Unique offering
Derhak highlights how SAi is unique in what it offers to sign and
print shops. He explains: “We’re the only ones that offer a RIP software
on subscription. We’re the only ones that have cloud-based tools that
come with it. The artwork approval tool, just in itself, can shave days
off getting jobs approved to a print or sign shop so it gives them a
competitive advantage, giving them tools that just don’t exist anywhere
else in the market.
“We’re the only ones that have companion mobile apps. So, there are
a lot of unique things that we do that make us very popular in the sign
and print market. Our software was designed from scratch to get a sign
or print shop employee up and running very quickly without a lot of
training or no training.”
Have a flatbed cutter? SAi’s Display Genie allows print shops that
have a flatbed cutter and printer to design and cut out boxes or POP
displays. “Display Genie is a fantastic product, it makes it insanely
easy to select and design a custom box and you can change the dimensions
very easily,” says Derhak.
O Factoid: SAi has an active install base of 40,000+ in the US and 100,000+ worldwide for its software. O
SAi is also piloting the re-launched Sign.com currently in the US
and will bring it to the UK later this year. He explains: “The consumer
buying public goes to Sign.com to buy signage then we route that to
local sign shops with Flexi software registered to the Sign.com network.
This can bring sign shops new customers and additional revenue.”
Having a practical and aesthetically pleasing retail signage solution
ensures customers have the best experience possible, and the brand does
not lose out on any profit that could be lost through shoddy,
uninformative displays. Brands are also turning to forward-thinking
technology like 3D printing to engage customers and give them a unique
experience. On top of this, software is now available that makes it so
easy and affordable to start making signage, making it an exciting area
of the market to get involved with as a sign-maker.
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