NEW YORK - November 1, 2005 -- TrendWatch Graphic Arts today released its special report titled "Creative Forecast 2006: The TrendWatch Graphic Arts Perspective on the Challenges and Opportunities for Creative Firms in the Next 12 Months and Beyond," TWGA's fifth annual forecast of graphic communications content creators. The past two years have seen a resurgence of business for these markets, and at the same time a veritable explosion of new ways to disseminate content. Cultural changes in the way people access media are having profound effects on traditional advertising and publishing models. Easy-to-use desktop publishing software has made it easy for business and individuals to do their own graphic deign work. How have these societal and technological changes affected the creative markets-and what will 2006 bring? This special report provides complete snapshots of the TrendWatch Graphic Arts creative markets-graphic designers, ad agencies, corporate Internet departments, publishing companies, and Web design and development firms-and details how they fared in 2005. How was business for these companies? What did they identify as their biggest challenges? What did they identify as their biggest opportunities? And what hardware and software do they plan to buy to pursue those opportunities? The report also looks at the current state of the creative markets against the backdrop of technological changes, both in terms of the culture at large (how do people get information?) and the graphic arts in particular (how are digital and variable-data printing changing the graphic arts workflow?). TWGA reports are available for online purchase at the TWGA eStore in PDF format (http://www.trendwatchgraphicarts.com). Researcher's Comments... "2005 has been an exciting year for media development and deployment, and we expect that 2006 will be even more so, and will provide creative firms across all markets with new business, new opportunities, and, naturally, new challenges. We expect 2006 to be the year that many new media technologies-and some old ones, too-finally come to a head." According to the Report... -- In Summer 2005, 36% of design and production firms expected business in the next 12 months to be "excellent, better than the last 12 months," up from the 33% who said this six months earlier; -- In Summer 2005, 64% of publishers cited "printing costs" as a business challenge, the highest this challenge has ever charted in the 10 years we have been surveying the publishing markets; --In Summer 2005, 56% of Web design and production firms cited "database development projects" as a sales opportunity, the highest this opportunity has charted in the six years we have been surveying the Web design markets; -- In Spring 2005, 28% of printers cited "design/creative capabilities" as a sales opportunity, an all-time high and a sign that print clients may be increasingly competing with their printers; -- In Summer 2005, 42% of design and production firms said that "jobs designed for color digital printing" were increasing, while 27% said that "jobs designed for traditional offset printing" were decreasing. Availability... The TrendWatch Graphic Arts "Creative Forecast 2006: The TrendWatch Graphic Arts Perspective On the Challenges and Opportunities for Creative Firms in the Next 12 Months and Beyond" report is available for purchase by visiting the secure TrendWatch Graphic Arts eStore online at www.trendwatchgraphicarts.com or by phone at 866-873-6310. The price for the 170-page report is $995. TrendWatch Graphic Arts eStore customers can download this report in PDF Acrobat format immediately after purchase.