Look Outside Your Own Hula-Hoop

Maia was facing the same problem most creatives do these days. She wanted to express her creativity, yet her print runs were more on the smaller (read: digital) side.

“Are there ways in which I can spruce up and add to the digital print aspect?” she asked. Always helpful, I pointed her to one of our PaperSpecs Webinars about new aspects of digital printing—with the expected result. Maia was over the moon about the possibilities.

Not wasting any time she called her local printer, who had not one but two Indigo presses. I felt all warm and fuzzy and content inside, assured in the knowledge that Maia was in good hands, and I had helped another designer to create an even better printed project.

But—and you saw this one coming, didn’t you?—not even 24 hours later, I received an SOS from Maia. Her printer with the two Indigo presses had never heard of the processes we featured in our Webinar and—shame on him—doubted they were even available on our shores.

First up, the Webinar was more than a year old at the time, featuring technology that had been launched at the last drupa. Granted embossing, raised ink and some of the other aspects we touched on are not available on all digital presses, but there is something to be said for looking outside your own Hula-Hoop—as a printer friend of mine calls it.

“It is not enough to know what your press can do,” she claims (and we will give her some anonymity here). “But you have to know what is happening in the industry. What is next. What your customers might be interested in. So you can get them all excited about the opportunities.”

We are doing our customers, and our industry, a disservice by claiming something is not available just because we do not offer it.

Take a leaf out of the "Miracle on 34th Street" book—if you do not have it, send your customers to Macy’s—or in our case:

• a) Outsource it (and let’s face it, this is not a new concept to our industry), or
• b) Get your client in touch with a printer who has said capabilities.

But at any rate, make it your business to know what is available, what is new, and what will be happening next.

Digital is a huge part of our industry’s future. You should know by now that digital presses can run metallic inks (well, gold at least), offer tactile results with raised ink, create spot gloss varnish effects, emboss inline, add high gloss textured patterns and...oh so much more.

Think outside your own Hula-Hoop; don’t be caught out by your clients knowing more about what is available than you do.