...Sign and Digital UK: Where the Wide-Format industry does business
2012 IS SET TO BE an exciting year for events here in the UK. The world will look on in great anticipation at the world-class sporting achievements of the Olympic athletes and in June one of the biggest (and rarest) celebrations in the world - the Queens 50th Jubilee celebrations. Another event perhaps even closer to our hearts is the 25th anniversary of our own industry event - Sign and Digital UK. The organiser is planning a show-stopper of an event with more competitions, workshops, product launches and seminars than ever before. Preregistration for the event is already climbing fast and you can also pre-register for free entry at www.signanddigitaluk.com. Pre-registration only takes a minute to complete and is essential to find out the latest news, but here’s an idea of what you can expect at Sign and Digital UK 2012.
25TH ANNIVERSARY GALLERY With exclusive access to the sign making and digital printing industries' latest innovative products, technologies, services and applications, Sign and Digital UK is your opportunity to drive your business forward in 2012. To celebrate 25 years serving the industry, Sign and Digital UK will host an Anniversary Gallery, where visitors and exhibitors will see a whole host of pictures and historical signmaking products on display. You are encouraged to get in touch with the organisers if you would like to make a contribution to the gallery or have historical photographs from 1987 onwards of the show itself or of you signwriting, early vinyl cutting days, printing or installations – or even funny hairstyles or clothes. Please get in touch by emailing signanddigitaluk@favhouse. com with the subject heading ’25 year gallery’. Rudi Blackett, show director, comments: “Sign and Digital UK is the meeting place for the UK wideformat market, where visitors can catch up not only with each other but also on the latest equipment, consumables and services on offer in the UK. Since its inception, the aim has been to service a community of creative professionals and we’ve kept these aims alive in a number of ways including introducing a free educational programme, signmakers workshops and product trails in addition to providing a great platform for businesses to launch new products and showcase their talents. We’re very proud to play a central role in such a creative and dynamic industry and look forward to celebrating our 25 years with everyone at the show.”
BOOKED EXHIBITORS Booked exhibitors include an impressive list of suppliers to the industry, covering a diverse range of signmaking and display graphics applications including Hewlett-Packard, Oce, Fujifilm, Hybrid Services/Mimaki, Agfa, Roland DG, Mutoh, Epson, EskoArtwork, Zund UK, William Smith, Grafityp, Hexis, GPT (Graphic Print Technologies), Inktec, Drytac, Antalis McNaughton, GDL Colourlink, DPI (Digital Print Innovations), Printmax and many many more. With exhibitors like these, it’s no wonder that the likes of Boots, Adidas Group, Ikea, Jaguar, JC Decaux, Macro Art, Service Graphics, Signs Express, St Ives and Bezier and thousands of others return to the show year after year.
Janice Fairfield, marketing director of Fairfield Displays and Lighting, has exhibited at Sign and Digital UK for over 20 years and feels the event is still very much the central point for the industry: "Sign and Digital UK has been instrumental in building our sign trade business. At our first show, then called Sign UK, we only took a small stand but had over 400 enquiries and that was really the beginning of things for us in this market."
PRODUCT LAUNCHES AND DEMOS Hands-on demonstrations will be available on most stands and, in addition, there will be a ‘Green Trail’ this year highlighting products from exhibitors that can display either an eco-friendly, environmental or ethical element. Information on products being launched in 2012 has started to come through to the exhibition team so be sure to follow us on twitter for the latest news and updates @signanddigitaluk. Technology has really driven the industry and the show has undergone many evolutions. Phil Kneale, sales and marketing director at Graphtec, comments: “The industry and technology has changed over the years. The sign industry is now predominantly graphics orientated and the development of digital printing has changed both the industry and the show. Digital goes into so many areas and the show is much more diverse than in the past. “When we started, everything was hand finished,” Kneale continues. “Ten years ago, vinyl cutting was only just being introduced and now it’s standard. I’ve had the benefit of attending the show as both a sign writer in the early days and then as an exhibitor. Graphtec has exhibited for the last 15 years and the show has always worked for us, especially since Faversham House Group took over. It tries to do something new every year to make it successful and we are sure that in 2012 there will be even more of a buzz because of the 25th Anniversary.”
FREE WORKSHOPS AND SEMINARS The ever-popular Adobe seminar series is returning for a tenth successive run. This interactive event is essential for designers and production professionals who want to understand the benefits of CS5 and also offers you an insight into tools and functionalities that will transform your world. The Signmakers Workshop is also back with Paul Hughes of Western Signs and Printing and the popular ‘Price it Guide’ to share the experience and knowledge that he has gained from running a successful sign making business for over 13 years. Full details and timings of the workshop ad seminar series will be published in the next preview issue.
COMPETITIONS Last year saw a great number of exhibitors run competitions for visitors to the show. This year is no exception - with many still to be announced Hybrid will be offering one lucky winner a VIP Premier League Football Experience and GDL Colourlink has three Dream Car Race Days to give away. For more information on competitions on the day or in the run up to the show, follow us on twitter @signanddigital and register for free entry online at www.signanddigitaluk.com.
25 YEARS OF SIGN AND DIGITAL UK
When, in 1985, a man called Harry Bowers first successfully reprogrammed a 128k Mac to do colour separations for fourcolour graphics on a dot-matrix printer with coloured ribbons and created the first digital colour print, no-one could have foreseen just how massive the industry would become. The world of visual communications changed forever. Two years later and attended by many now very familiar faces, the first Sign and Digital UK - then known as Sign UK - was hailed as a showcase for new and innovative products, skills and techniques to help the signmaker and promoter create and deliver visually stunning communications to all areas of the market.
It provided a platform for discussion and a place for the industry to finally meet and discuss issues important to them. And accordingly, was one of the best networking events to go to (well, for those who remembered them!). Sign and Digital UK (then Sign UK) like many other trade shows of the time helped to build a community of creative talent that could discuss with their suppliers what their needs were and could actively engage with them - and visitors were in turn helped and encouraged by the exhibitors and organisers to push the boundaries of their creative output. It was the merging of minds and markets, and the buzz was palpable. The nineties saw the golden age of innovation and delivered a whole raft of new machines, vinyl cutters and technologies and these dominated exhibitions across the globe and Sign UK was no exception. Up until then, all of the large-format printers were for CAD, with no dedicated graphics machine. This all changed with the introduction of the Raster DCS 5400, a 54in five-colour digital printer supporting CMYK, the Xerox 8954 and in 1993 Gerber launched its breakthrough printer, the Gerber Edge thermal transfer printer, which could print onto vinyl. This age heralded the explosion into full colour outdoor durable graphics and made it possible to create vehicle graphics, truck sides, truck curtains and vehicle wraps. Since then, Sign and Digital UK has been the launch pad for all major advances in the industry.
Roger Hinchcliffe, signmaker and industry guru, remembers the show in these early days. “It was exciting, technology was moving so fast in those days. You’d go from stand to stand looking at different machines and your head would be swimming with information at the end of the day. By the midnineties, big brands dominated so it was difficult getting smaller, more innovative companies on board but this seems to have changed again and in recent years there’s been more diversity.” Sign and Digital UK runs 27 - 29 March at the Birmingham NEC, Halls 3 and 3a.
For free admission, pre-register at www.signanddigitaluk.com and follow us for the latest news on twitter @signanddigital