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id-19, he catered for an evenly dispersed mix of small items like business cards and flyers, and a few larger items like posters, banners and vinyl prints.
But orders for these dried up when the pandemic hit, and he had to adapt to suit new demand, prioritising wide-format printing for social distancing signage and floor graphics. He invested time into SEO and became num- ber one on Google for ‘social distancing floor graphics’ and ‘social distancing floor stickers’.
Now he receives thousands of orders for social distancing graphics every week and has printed a whopping 30,000 floor graphics since April.
Social distancing print requirements don’t just stop at floor graphics, and CMYK has become something of a one-stop-shop for anything a business could need: 2 metre, 1 metre, directional arrows, no entry signs, signs that go on staircases, the list goes on. The business’ TrueVIS
VG-540 printer and cutter has seen them through the increase in demand, printing nearly 100 metres a day.
Face Masks
One of the biggest trends of the pandemic has of course been face masks, now man- datory in shops, public transport and other enclosed spaces across Europe. This has prompted a shift to sublimation application for many print businesses, who saw an opportunity to support their local commu-
nities (as well as identify alternative sources of revenue) by manufacturing face masks.
Costaest in Sardinia, Italy, used to specialise in signs and promotional items, but has pivot- ed its business during the pandemic using the Roland VersaSTUDIO BT-12 to create face masks for the local community. Currently, Costaest personalizes around twenty masks per day and combines this with the produc- tion of other items created with Roland’s TrueVIS VG2-640 large format printer/cutter. The company is negotiating with seamstresses to increase production to around one hun- dred units per day.
Meanwhile, the Professional Vocational Centre “Colegio Hogar” in Vigo, Spain, has used the Roland Texart to produce more than 40,000 adult face masks, 1,500 childrens’ face masks and a further 15,500 protective face shields. The initiative began at the end
of March when “La Cocina Gráfica”, which has a leading digital printing workshop in Spain, received the safety validation for the prototype mask they created.
Investing for Success
Despite the economic uncertainty that Cov- id-19 has created in the market, there are examples of companies that have invested in new technology during the pandemic and reaped the benefits as a result.
BrandingHub transformed from a sign-only company into a full-service branding agency last year, providing
logo design, social media set-up, vehicle graphics, signage and more. The company has been busy since the pandemic, not only as a result of demand for social distancing signage, but also because many brands took the opportunity to refresh their graphics and rebrand in the natural pause period that lockdown created.
The demand prompted BrandingHub to in- vest in cutting-edge technology, installing the UK’s first Roland TrueVIS VF2-640 to speed up processes. The company can now accom- plish same-day prints in stunning quality, such as Scotland’s racecourse operator’s new unusual logo that combines red and pink. With the new productive printer, Managing Director, Graeme Speirs, is now hoping to expand across south-west Scotland.
Looking Ahead
Covid-19 has well and truly re-shaped
the print industry since the outbreak
of the pandemic. But forward-thinking businesses are finding entrepreneur-
ial opportunities to modernise their offering, identify new revenue streams and contribute to their local communi- ties. Not only will they be in a stronger position financially as a result, but their service offerings will have been positively transformed and their relationships in the community extended and strengthened.
Rob Goleniowski, Head of Sales at Roland DG.
Sponsored feature: Roland
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