Issue 1 available now!
Last year, WhatTheyThink, the graphic communication industry’s leading news and information resource, launched the WhatTheyThink Quarterly Journal, an online publication designed to provide in-depth commentary and analysis on printing industry trends. Every quarter, the Quarterly takes a deep dive into the various aspects of a single topic. The Quarterly Journal is a standalone publication on the WhatTheyThink platform, with content written specifically for the Journal. Contributors to the Quarterly Journal include expert contributors from both inside and outside the industry as well as WhatTheyThink’s regular stable of writers and analysts.
The 2026 edition of the Quarterly kicks off with Issue 1—online now—called “The Keeping Up Appearances Issue,” and is all about “appearance,” with an emphasis on embellishments, one of the hottest and growing ways of improving the appearance of printed materials. A few of the long-form articles in Issue 1 include:
- Kevin Abergel provides a highly detailed tutorial on “Crafting a Winning Business Plan for Print Embellishments,” which will also be the topic of a complementary (and complimentary) webinar on March 31.
- Don Carli explains how e-commerce sites wrestle with merchandise returns—clothing, furniture, etc.—due to inconsistent color or other elements of a product’s appearance—and thus the introduction of new standards for “appearance management,” perhaps best thought of as “the new color management.”
- Paper Specs’ Sabine Lenz explains “Why Embellishment Technology Struggles to Gain Traction—and What’s Really Getting in the Way,” specifically identifying the communication gap between designer and printer and how it can be overcome.
- The latest installment of Cool Tools with Mary Schilling rounds up some exciting tools available that let “designs come to life with shimmer, texture, and light, empowering designers to design with confidence!”
- And much more.
The Quarterly issues for 2025 were:
The Intelligent Automation Issue (Q3)
The WhatTheyThink Quarterly Journal is available to read for free, and does not require a WhatTheyThink membership, thanks to the vital support of our sponsors. If our work matters to you, help us keep it going by becoming a member or sponsor today.
Become a WhatTheyThink member at https://whattheythink.com/join/.
Become a Quarterly Journal sponsor by contacting Adam Goldman at [email protected].
