Wide-format Blogs

I was checking out print events to update my 2024 calendar when I came across a ‘Print and Prosecco Night: Lino Printmaking’, a workshop on 25 Jan at Lavender Leonardos art school in London apparently. Just in case you need more fizz….. and think you can get away with this as a ‘work event’. Welcome to a new year all!

Here’s hoping you all have a wonderful festive break and return re-energised as the show season will be upon us before we know it - fast-track entry to SDUK 2024 (25-27 February) is already open! Wishing you all you wish yourselves. Happy days.

As we draw towards the end of 2023 I’d love to hear from you on what you consider your most ‘creative’ job of the year - and why. What has pushed you to develop new techniques when it comes to the options you can now offer? Looking forward to getting your feedback - with pictures where possible!

Last Friday BPIF members joined German Sacristan, group director and principal analyst at Keypoint Intelligence, for the findings of research project ‘Print Buyers Purchasing Trends’. The findings were interesting, but not particularly relevant to the large-format print sector. Are there specific figures you’d like to get your eyes on?

So, the Pantone colour for 2024 is 13-1023 Peach Fuzz, ‘a velvety, gentle peach whose all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body, and heart, bringing a feeling of tenderness and communicating a message of caring and sharing, community and collaboration’. Let’s hope for plenty of that in the new year!

A reminder that the BPIF led annual ‘Carols for Printers’ service will take place at 6pm at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street, London, next Wednesday (13 December) so get along it you want to make merry -  there’ll be mulled wine and nibbles afterwards.

I spilt some water on my keyboard. Not a lot, it popped up when I opened the bottle. I wiped it away immediately, even gave the entire laptop a (to be honest, well overdue) clean and tried to get back to work.

OK, so COP 28 is in full swing. With that in mind, how do you think we can better come together to discuss the environmental impacts of the print industry as a whole, and work out a cohesive strategy for the future?

BIG news alert - here at Image Reports we’re delighted to be looking forward to 2024 under new ownership. We’re now part of Datateam Business Media, which took over SDUK in the summer and which will run the next iteration of the event alongside its Printwear and Promotion Live! exhibition at the NEC in February. Datateam has also just bought Sign Update so as you can imagine, there are exciting plans - more later...

Congratulations go to Dominion Print in Bradford for winning one of the Yorkshire and Humberside Family Business Awards. The company clinched the gong in the manufacturing sector - which has me again pondering over whether most firms in the print ‘industry’ consider themselves manufacturers, or service providers. Which best suits your offering?

How was it for you? The IPIA seems pretty chuffed with what Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had to say in the Autumn Statement yesterday, and on the face of it, the measures look like they should help PSPs grow business, but what’s your grassroots take the situation?

Do ‘you’ - by which I mean anyone in your company - attend many conferences? If so, is there a specific type of event/focus? If you don’t, why not? I’m just trying to get a handle on who’s hungry for what type of info - it’ll help me shape the mag’s content as we move into 2024. Thank you.

I’ve just been reading a piece in The Times about Ofgem coming under fire for issuing inaccurate advice to SMEs about their legal rights in relation to being able to reclaim fees paid to energy brokers. Are you taking any actions under the redress scheme?

The UK comes top of the ranking in Europe’s top 100 for profit per employee according to new research by global fintech group Plus500. Do you use your own profit per employee data to any strategic end?