The Pop-Up Exhibition is one of six events in European cities aimed at bringing designers, printers, paper merchants and the public together with print products that have so far collectively attracted more than 2,000 attendees.
The products on display were sourced from across the world and printed on Arjowiggins’ range of creative papers for clients including international brands ranging from Primark to Hermès.
The brainchild of Arjowiggins Creative Papers luxury brands and marketing director Christophe Balaresque, the event featured work by several UK printers.
He said: “If we don’t visit the design community we’ve no chance to sell fine papers. This is a way to prove to the design community that Arjowiggins is a definitely the standout brand.
“There’s an economic crisis and a financial crisis and we’re told that because of market conditions people can’t use fine papers. It’s not true.
“If you want to pay attention to the communication you give to your customer there’s room for fine printing and fine printing works with fine paper. All the luxury brands are printing on our products; they all have extremely good people who understand the value. Commodity printing is going down because it doesn’t bring value but our fine paper sales have been flat.”
Phil Le Monde, sales director of east London-based Gavin Martin Colournet, which had products included in the exhibition, said he was glad to see a good turnout at the “trendy” event.
“I think we’ve got quite a few movers and shakers in the industry here. Arjowiggins are making their margins in premium papers. Silks and gloss sheets are made in huge amounts and the margins are gone. The margins now are in buying papers, which are different from the norm. We’re lucky that we’ve picked up a lot of high-end work, such as bespoke books for property developers.
“If we get a client who’s selling a £300m development, they can’t go in with four pages of A4. The growth in the market now is added value."
Pureprint Group marketing director Richard Owers said: “We’re really pleased that Antalis is running events like this, particularly after the bad news of Paperlinx. We need to be out there doing positive things. I think more designers are discovering print – electronic is now the default and print the discretional choice, people are looking at it more.”
Owers said that Pureprint, based in East Sussex, was increasingly mixing the two media – for example printing bespoke university prospectuses and holiday brochures where the customer chooses the sections they are interested in online first.
South London printer Solways targets the high-end market with clients including art galleries and top-end retail brands. Owner Tim Solway said: “I think it’s great to see the design industry come out for something like this, it shows they are interested in the impact of print in their communications, it’s so encouraging.”
Blast design senior graphic designer Jamie Conkleton said his agency was doing a lot of work in the property sector.
“They still really value having a tactile product. I’d say 80% or 90% of our jobs have some sort of printed aspect.”
Creative papers product manager at Antalis Peter Harrison said: “What we’ve been able to do this evening is get a lot of our designer clients along, some printers and even some end users. It’s been a great event and I think it will translate into sales. A lot of people already use our papers but this will inspire them to look at things in a new way.”
The event continues at The Boiler House, Old Truman Brewery today and tomorrow from 9am to 9pm and is open to all.
