Cunliffe’s Print Lord print brokerage and consultancy business, launched in July, has seen him hailed ‘Print Lord’ by hundreds of people at networking events; Cunliffe has now even adopted a crown, sceptre – and beard – to round out the alter-ego.

“For the last four to five years, I’ve done a huge amount of networking – but I realised that I needed to do something to remind all these people what I do for a living,” Cunliffe told Printweek.

The birth of his new consultancy has been anything but ordinary, Cunliffe admitted.

“I’m one of those guys that won’t fit in in a strictly corporate environment – so I have to do it my way,” he said.

“So now, I stand up in front of 100 people every month at a breakfast club, and say ‘My name’s Jim, A.K.A...’ and then people put their hands up and all shout ‘Print Lord!’ at me.

“It’s a bit of a piss-take – but I’ll be taking the crown with me to The Print Show at the NEC.”

While the surface might be lighthearted – “I need to have fun with it” – Cunliffe’s offering to clients is sincere.

“I’m trying to bring personal communication back into [print brokering] and get people in for a chat,” he said.

“A lot of [print customers] don’t know what they’re doing, so for me it’s about building a relationship with trust. If they’re going through a website, they’ll only ever get standard effects or sizes, where I can get them exactly what they want. For me, it’s all about service, and having that relationship.”

Cunliffe works as part of a team of two, based in Brighton; in the early 2000s he was part of Face Media Group’s print team that managed to make early inroads into internet printing.