Wide-format offers enormous potential to the growing market for personalised home décor as OPG highlights.
One of the fastest growing applications in wide-format at the moment is that of interior decoration in general and wall coverings in particular. OP Graphics, based in Lanarkshire in Scotland, has had more than a little success with this, producing wall coverings for a variety of clients, for uses in areas such as offices, restaurants and people’s homes.
One typical example was a woman who wanted a Lego-themed wall covering for her children's room. Alan Watson, general manager at OPG, explains: “She got the artwork over to us. We suggested a discussion with Lego regarding the use of the images and it was were happy to do that. We explained that it was a commercial enterprise but Lego was very gracious and said it would be happy for us to produce that.”
One issue with producing personalised wall coverings from customer artwork is that sometimes the photographs have quite low resolution, and this job was no exception. Watson was concerned that the file would be quite pixelated but adds: “We have some tricks up our sleeve.” He explains: “We take the bitmap and we process that though Adobe CS6 and essentially vectorise the bitmap and then it becomes resolution independent and so we can enlarge it to any size.”
Naturally, converting pixels to lines is not quite such a straightforward trick. It doesn't work so well with fine art images where there might be a lot of detail but in this case OPG’s designers were able to tidy up the image and enhance the colours and the customer was pleased with the result.
Currently OPG is using a HP L26500 latex printer, but recently installed a larger LX850 and will switch the wall covering production to this as the volumes increase. Watson says that he’s tried several different media but finds the HP wallpapers to be the best, explaining: “It’s a great product to work with and it offers great value for money. People are getting decorators in to hang it. When we talk with corporates it’s an easy conversation when I explain that the paper has a fire rating and is FSC approved and partly recycled.” The HP wallpaper comes ready-pasted so it’s easy to apply and is also easily removable with a damp cloth should customers want to change it in the future.
Clearly, having bespoke wallpaper printed is more expensive than buying something off the shelf at the local DIY store. But Watson points out that cost is relative as to what customers are prepared to pay and that nobody seems surprised at the prices he quotes. He adds: “People are prepared to pay a premium for something they have invested emotion in.” He also points out that people only pay for the material that goes on the wall so there’s no waste.
Watson says confirms that he sees huge potential in interior decoration and that digitally printed wallpaper will be an enormous trend. OPG is currently setting up a website that would allow customers to key in the dimensions of their walls and get an idea of the price at the start of the process. The company is also considering other products that could be sold as alternatives, such as very large wall art and even double-sided roller blinds that would allow people to display one image out to the street, with a different image on the inside.
Watson sees that digital printing has the capacity to reinvent the whole concept of wallpaper: “I'm finding that people are genuinely excited at the thought of becoming so close to the design and creative process. I think it gives them a sense of ownership.” The results are certainly spectacular and genuinely have the power to transform a room – and perhaps your bottom line.