Anyone from the print industry who attended the 100% Design exhibition at London’s Earl’s Court last year would have been left in no doubt as to an interior designer’s appetite for new ideas, techniques and inspiration. Stand after stand paraded a vast array of different products, designs and technologies. Large format digital printing had every right to be among them since it has an increasingly big part to play in the interior design world but only a handful of suppliers from the printing industry attended.
Interior designer Brian Lawrence, who runs Brian Lawrence Limited and is a director of the British Institute of Interior Design (BIID), reckons there a growing need for education from the print industry but is frustrated that it is seldom forthcoming. “Unless you study digital printing, which none of us have, you simply don’t know its full range of capabilities,” he says. “We try to stay ahead of trends and developments through magazines and the media but as we all know education on product is a moving feast. I know how it can help with my china and fabric collections but what about wooden, metal and glass?”
Lawrence suggests that some form of continuous professional development by BIID or face-to-face workshops could help to progress the sector’s knowledge but input from printers as well product manufacturers would be required. “The good printers are the busy ones so it is a challenge,” he says, adding that increased competition for services to the interior design sector may help jolt them into action. “I know of one London company which has only done screen-printing and rotary printing in the past and which is moving over to digital so competition may help. But what we really need is more education.”
You can watch the interview over on the Think Bigger site by clicking here.