No, not the presses themselves. They all do their jobs well enough. I mean their skins. The Ferrari-red of Xeikon's big boxes and the blacks of IBM's and Kodak Versamark's machines makes them stand out on a shop floor. So does the deep green of Nipson's VaryPress 400. But the majority of machines on the market are clad in shades about as visually compelling as the inside of a cloud.
Some colleagues and I were talking about this recently and all agreed some color would be a nice change from the relentlessly bland hues used on most machines. With all the fuss vendors make about the excellent color and print quality of their presses, you'd think that putting some color on the outside would make a statement, brighten up a few print shops and, what the heck, be a bit more fun.
Is it lack of creativity, fear of offending someone or what? I can understand having neutral colors for office copiers and printers that need to blend unobtrusively into multiple environments, but that's not the case for big print engines.
We don't limit the colors for houses, cars, trucks, airliners, and buildings to a handful of plain colors, so why should high-performance digital color presses be wrapped in skins that look old the moment they are bolted to the frame of the machine? Printing is a colorful business: let's have some fun.
Discussion
By David Watson on Feb 23, 2007
The industry should take a lesson from Steve Jobs and Apple, design matters.
By Maria Falaschi on Feb 23, 2007
They sure are in the right industry to have the ability to create their own custom skins to wrap these devices with (such as buses do to advertise). Makes me wonder how many have chosen to do so. And, If I remember correctly, a few manufacturers (both offset and digital) have showcased skins on devices at trade shows - wouldn't that give those who have attended the idea to ask the manufacturer about this - or the idea to create their own to highlight in their printing facility?
By Andrew Tribute on Feb 24, 2007
The most ridiculous aspect of this is how major manufacturers don't practice what they preach. One of the key applications for super-wide format ink jet presses used for display graphics is in producing wraps for buses, trucks, buildings etc. Why then do we not see innovate color wraps on HP Scitex, vUTEK, Nur, Inca, etc presses. Surely such suppliers could even off as a part of the sales process offer to custom wrap a press in a design chosen by its buyer. At the same time why do we not see the executives and sales and service reps of these companies driving around in cars wrapped in innovate designs to sell the ideas of digital color printing and their companies. I have never seen a large Mercedes or BMW wrapped as yet. Which company or company CEO will be the one to start this fashion?
By Patrick Henry on Feb 24, 2007
"Skinned" presses are a great idea, and I agree that the manufacturers are missing a bet by not encouraging the use of customized machine wraps with contests, trade show exhibits, trade media advertising, and other promotions aimed at demonstrating that a press can look as good as what it prints. But a couple of questions come to mind: • After a press is skinned, who gets to see it? Who's touched by the marketing message? Once installed in a plant, the press stays in front of pretty much the same small and somewhat jaded set of eyeballs every day. Maybe skinning will work best as a marketing tool for printers accustomed to hosting customer tours, school trips, and other events that regularly bring outsiders to their facilities. • A wrapped digital press will retain its good looks in the controlled environment of a digital production department, but what would happen to wraps on the units of a conventional press in the rough-and-tumble, ink-suffused setting of a litho pressroom? Skinning, as the post suggests, probably is something that belongs strictly in the digital world. But in any case, we've all seen enough gunmetal grey, off-white, and institutional beige on graphics equipment to induce permanent color blindness. A digital press with a dash of CMYK truly would be music to the eyes.
By Henry Freedman on Feb 25, 2007
One thing to think about is how the color of the press itself impacts the press operator's color perception. Depending on the size of the pressroom the light reflecting off of the press may have an imapact during print inspection.
By Dimitri on Feb 26, 2007
I agree with Patrick and Henrik makes a well-thought, real-world comment. Even Apple switched to a perfectly neutral gray after experimenting with colored monitors for awhile. Plus, I see no point in having a fancy engine in a print shop. This is a production environment. We care about what we sell, not about how our machines look. No real value here. If there is a digital printshop that the presses are within view of the customer who steps in to order and print 100 business cards or sthg equivalent, then yeah, it should be an option to paint the press or wrap it or anything else. I can see some marketing value there. Otherwise, we are confusing production with appearances. By the way, did you know that you can order your conventional 6 or 8 color press to be any color you want. I know KBA does it. I've seen it. Don't know how much it costs though.
Discussion
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