Graphispag 2015 show how to adapt digital printing to create new boundary-free ambiences

Architects and decorators are adopting digital printing to create new boundary-free ambiences and save costs. In the Print All Experience space at Graphispag(Barcelona, 24-27 March 2015), visitors will have the unique experience of entering an apartment, a bar and a store where absolutely everything is printed. Digital printing + interior design = unlimited creativity.

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“Above all, it's about freedom.” That's the definition of digital printing given by Daniel Pérez, the interior designer and co-founder of the studio Egue & Seta. “It offers us the whole gamut of existing wall and floor coverings without cost being the primary concern. Concrete and marble produced by inks look exactly the same as the real thing but cost less and weigh less, though they also last for less time. But at the same time,” he adds, “they represent a challenge: The technical considerations are different, they have different installation and maintenance requirements, and thus the sales pitch has to be adjusted. You can’t sell the smell of fresh wood any more, or the time-honoured toughness of stone, or the clean coolness of steel. We have to convince with their appearance, convenience, affordability, logistics and environmental reasons.”

At EGM, they have been watching the opportunities opening up in this field for years. Having started out in 1971 as a photo processing laboratory, the firm has evolved into an integral graphic services company offering extensive experience in high-quality image processing and printing on any support, surface or format, its main clients being interior designers and decorators. “This is a segment that is developing very positively,” says general manger Enric Galve, “but even so, the possibilities of printing and cutting need to be more widely disseminated to the associations of designers, architects and interior designers, and they need to be shown a good sampler of materials for printing.” The benefits, he asserts, are evident: “Personalization and the ease of reusing images and designs at very competitive prices and with very clean application systems.”

Everything is printable

Glass, walls, furniture, ceramics... At Miansa, for example, they print bespoke doors for customers and at Floorart they can imprint any image onto a rug. Everything is printable and there are very few materials still resistant to this technology, which opens up infinite possibilities for creating ambiences.

At Egue & Seta they use these systems for hotels, offices, stores and one-off promotional spaces. Retail, in fact, is one of the areas where its use has grown the most: “Every year, retail spaces have to upgrade more radically, more often and on a lower budget. If they had to do all this with ‘real’ products, it would be challenging, expensive and ridiculous from an environmental point of view,” says Daniel Pérez. In his opinion, people who choose this technique “get 90% of the look (you lose 10% in touch, smell and the sense of authenticity) yet for 60% of the price. Apart from which, it simplifies your life: fewer suppliers, shorter installation time, lower maintenance costs, and so on.”

At Graphispag 2015, dozens of specialist printing companies will be showing interior designers, architects and creative professionals the benefits of incorporating digital printing in their respective sectors. In the Print All Experience space at the show, visitors will have the unique experience of entering an apartment, a bar and a store where absolutely everything is printed, from floor to ceiling. As in real life, every printing technique will coexist at the service of creative professionals. Bringing together the graphic industry and creative professionals is a win-win situation which interior designer Daniel Pérez defines as “a long, open marriage, never exclusive but very free, both demanding and exciting. A marriage that will force both sides to understand and trust each other yet also to remain forever young, attractive and flexible. And destined to produce some gorgeous children!”

Source: Graphispag

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