Holland is a market were digital printing has led to innovative offers. For that reason, PRINTODECO staff visited Amsterdam and Brussels between 22 and 23 September. The objective was getting in contact with new products possible thanks to digital printing.

The targeted products were digitally printed wallpaper. The companies to be visited were DROOG and NXLX. Both are Dutch companies that are well known worldwide. By means of this visit, it was possible to have a deeper contact with the product. In addition to this, it was also possible to get a better image of successfully business model and also a clear image of the marketing and commercial strategies.

In both cases, the product offered is a premium quality product. Both of them are also available in the internet. None of the companies considered are producers, and both of them are open to changes and adjustments suggested by the final customer.

Although the two companies follow a similar strategy, there are differences. DROOG is focused on premium product design, has a physical shop and has developed it´s wallpaper because of a collaboration with the Rijksmuseum. Meanwhile NXLX is a company that only offers wallpaper and sales via internet or by means of resellers.

Digital production of images is a completely new work environment. By means of the new possibilities, new ideas come up to the light and new products are possible as unexpected effects and are possible.

This week the creatives at PRINTODECO project launched some nice and innovative decorative surfaces. The work started considering a basic design: a traditional wood surface. As a first step, some rustic Oak boards were selected and digitalized. Then, a digital effect was developed and placed over that virtual wood surface. Therefore, different filigrees were used: from vegetable motives to lingerie. Those patterns were digitally treated to suggest 3D effects, gold incrustations and other eye-catching motives.

That pictures will be printed within the next days. By means of this, they will be checked in terms of product graphic quality and market interest.

Within the cycle of «A Contracorriente» organized by the Seoane Foundation in A Coruña, The head of R&D at SEISTAG shared their experiences in designing products and processes. The conference took place on July the 6th, at 20:00 pm. At the event more than 30 experts were present, and a large debate was held at the ending of the presentation.

Along the public presentation, the attention was focused on the collaboration between designers and the industry. In the talk the market uptake was recognized as the main item to be considered in order o develop new products and processes. Also a debate on 4.0 inustry was opened. The public presentation featured designs of the lecturer and was accompanied by a final cocktail.

Fundación Luis Seoane is a Public Museum with a very intense activity in the field of product and graphic design. It is placed in A Coruña in the north west of Spain. The institution offers public activities and exhibitions. The aim is to project itself as an active entity that supports the mainstreaming proposed contents. To this end, invites the public to become active collaborator, seeking empathy of the city and also offering numerous courses and workshops. It aims to provide activities and exhibitions.

In the search of newness for melamine boards, creatives at PRINTODECO have found inspiration in unexpected patterns such as aerial landscapes of Antartica and satellite photos from the moon.

Digital printing shortens time to market of new products, specially when there are high resolution images available. Thats the situation with NASA and USGS. Both institutions provide high quality free images of the earth and the moon. Using that pictures the creatives of PRINTODECO have prepare some new references: abstract patterns made with aerial and satellite pictures.

From the planes of Talikaman landscape to the irregular cracks of the ice in the Antartica, the landscape becomes a decorative pattern by means of digital manipullation. Therefore, the pictures ought to be transformed. Firstable the images are transformed into endless images. Then they are edited to look as an abstract pattern. The result are beautiful, and also huge images with more than 100Mb.

On wednesday the 8th of june, LOSAN  took part at the International Prescription Meeting. This meeting was an opportunity to share the PRINTODECO project with influencers and prescriptors from abroad as companies from 28 different countries were present.

The ceremony was held in Galicia (north wst of Spain). It was attended by the president of the Xunta de Galicia (Regional Goberment), Alberto Nunez Feijoo, who accompanied by the Regional Minister of Economy, Industry and Work, Francisco Conde. During the acts of the envent, the spanish designer Tomás Alonso was recognised as Honour Member of the Galician Cluster for Wood and Design.

At the meeting attended representatives from 56 companies from 28 countries from the four continents (except Oceania). The PRINTODECO project ambition interested to most of the people who attended to the event.

Carrefour international du bois is an event on wood industry. It is unique in Europe with its concept: 100% wood. The tradeshow is organised every two years in Nantes (France).

In 2016, the show was held between 1 and 3 of June. SEISTAG was present during the three days by means of STGWOOD stand. The company used the stand (H1-B6) to show its commercial offer, but also to explain the PRINTODECO project and the upcoming products to be developed by means of this collaborative project.

Carrefour international du bois is a Europe’s leading timber tradeshow. It groups over the 3 days more than 500 exhibitors and 10 000 visitors coming from 60 countries. Sawn timber, boards, parquet, specialized trade, and timber construction solutions… all the products and innovations are available under one roof. SEISTAG took advantage of this forum to give general information and technical details of the PRINTODECO project.

The show offered a cycle of conferences showing the tendencies of the industry. Experts from France and around the world shared information related to markets, constructive systems, interior design and innovation. For this occasion, SEISTAG designed a flyer that was printed by TORCULO. The flyer displayed the general concepts of the project: it´s main objectives, the partners and the EASME support. The document was free for all the visitors of the stand. Following this link it is possible to get a copy of it.

The organisation of events during the show (conferences, general assemblies, meetings…) has made this show, the event that is not to be missed. Business centre, place of exchange and marketing, the Carrefour is an excellent barometer of the market and the trends. As expected PRINTODECO interested to many visitors.

The members of the consortium have prepared a brief leaflet to inform about the PRINTODECO project. The document is a triptich where the basic information is detailed. A description of the objectives and background of PRINTODECO, and also some pictures of «people at work» and innovative products.

The flyer aesthetic follows the comunication rules and shows the logo of the project for the very first time.

That new document will be presented at the internaitonal wood show CARREFOUR DU BOIS, to be hold in Nantes (France). This flyer will also be used in incomming public shows and comunications. Initially 500 units of the leaflet have been printed. It is also possible to download the PDF document by menas of this link.

It is today at the local newspaper: the first images of digital printing for deco papier have been produced at real scale. By means of this trials, the quality of the raw images can be supervised and aprobed by commercials and specialist.

The pictures have been produced scaning real wood and editing it. By this means the companies are able to produce a wood surface free of fails with the highest quality. The result are huge graphic files with more 100Mb.

In the first batch, a groupe of five different images have being realised. This pictures will help to identify the most accurated technology for image production and will also state the minimal quality level suitable for commercial purposes.

Coordinators of the projects selected under the COSME program met in Brussels on Monday the 25th of April. It was a large meeting from 10:00 to 17:00. Bad weather and problems at the airport did not prevent the normal development of the meeting.

The session was hold at Covent Garden building in Brussels. It was an opportunity to get direct information from COSME, the EASME program for SMEs. During the talk, all the presents agree about the compromise of boosting small and medium sized companies and also shifting creative economy in the EU.

The meeting made possible to share objectives and experiences between innovative European companies. We learned that the EASME program only selected four projects, although the total number of solicitudes reached 27.

According to kick-off meeting, TORCULO and SEISTAG held the representation of PRINTODECO project. SEISTAG explained the PRINTODECO project by means of a presentation where main technical and economic data where showed. The companies at the meeting showed interest in the project idea and the main objectives of it.

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]According to the actions decided at kick-off meeting, a meeting was hold on Monday 4^th of April at 9:00. Therefore, Logisiete and Seistag met at the facilities owned by the first in Navarra.

At the meeting technical and market issues were discussed. Main attention was paid to understand the possibilities of new technology in order to: (i) add value of the final products and (ii) reduce costs and simplify the production process.

Actions decided to undertake as a result of the meeting were the followings:

• The technical managers within each company were defined. The different working areas were: (i) design, trends and markets; (ii) informatics and design management; (iii) technical production requirements and operational implementation responsible.
• During the meeting, the technical definition of the melamine panels to be produced in 2016 was set up. A two steps implementation was agreed fixing the standard for 2016.
• A channel for collaboration was created in order to identify the final-customers interest. Graphic information was interchanged between the companies.
• In relation to the development of customization technology, the three phases were defined fixing dead-lines for every single step of development.

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