What do you feel were the main trends and key industry developments in 2021?
One of the trends and developments we’ve found over the last year is the increase in bespoke personalised packaging, with all the digital press [manufacturers] gearing their presses up to be able to do that with variable data and personalisation. We’ve seen an increase over the last year in one-offs and short-run bespoke packaging designs that are unique and personalised to somebody, runs in the 50s or the hundreds – boxes for coffee, candles, and little things that you buy and have delivered to your home. While some of those products are low in value, more money can be spent on the packaging to create that experience when you receive the item, whether at home or work or anywhere else.

This has been made accessible by the likes of Vivid by bringing out VeloBlade, with which you can pretty much create – without a manual skillset required – anything that a good designer can create. You can really push the boundaries of what you’ve not been able to do before digital automated cutting was around and when you were just restricted to the die.

Now you can put soft materials like foam and tissue inside the box, cut out on the VeloBlade, then create a bespoke sized box. You can create the luxury internal feel as well on VeloBlade, whereas before you just really got a basic sized box that’s on offer for the product. It has become more unique and more personalised, which is increasing the value of products all around the world.

There’s also a big push on recycled and sustainable substrates – we and our customers are creating boxes and award-winning products on the VeloBlade range that are recyclable or compostable, or fit within the environmentally friendly sector. So we know that’s here to stay and we’re seeing more and more customers adapting to that and creating really nice, unique ideas and designs to fit it. And again, short-run you can do it one upwards, all in-house.

Do you feel that any trends have been accelerated because of the pandemic?
I think products that are delivered to people’s homes online. There’s been an increase in web-to-print, fitting in with our products the Matrix and the VeloBlade range that make a product more luxurious, and that then gets sent straight to somebody’s office, or home if they’re working remotely. There’s been a massive acceleration in that because before [pre-Covid], nobody was really working remotely. Now the people that are get targeted, with more luxury products being sent direct to their home.

With direct mail as well, you can now create bespoke and really unique foldout, pop-up, cut/crease/perf products on the VeloBlade range, linked with the Matrix that’s embellished it. You can create a few thousand of those direct mail pieces quite easily, and really successfully target a section of clients that you want to do business with. Direct mail has really evolved and become more unique and bespoke, and it’s a lot more personalised compared to digital/email. This also goes right down to personalising the envelope and cutting it out on the VeloBlade.

What do you expect to be the main trends and key industry developments in 2022?
Next year we’ll be driven by the direction and the speed that the world goes in. Products will then be adapted and adjusted to fit the requirements and the trends of the world, as everything is changing so quickly. Our customer Thomas Willday [managing director at Willday Printers] won the investment on Dragons’ Den [for its Willsow range of plantable children’s books made with seeded paper]. He’s got our Matrix and our VeloBlade, and on the VeloBlade he’s producing the children’s books that you can then plant.

So you’re linking paper products with seeds in to educate children and then getting them helping to grow their own food in the garden. It’s about educating kids from a low level, getting them healthy and growing vegetables, all linking to printed products. That’s probably one of the biggest stories of the year for us of uniqueness and thinking outside the box. I think we’ll see more and more companies doing things like that because that really is a sustainable angle that promotes print, it’s good for kids and it’s healthy, so anyone else coming up with those ideas will do well.

What do you think will represent the single biggest opportunity for print businesses in 2022 and why?
The printers that see the trends first and adapt with their own unique angle will be the ones that come across as innovative and leading the way. Firms that can produce unique products that customers want will be the ones that do well. Companies that sit and do the same as they have over years gone by will have a problem. The world isn’t going to be the same, so they can’t do the same.

What does the industry need to do differently in 2022?
As an industry I think we’ve done really well over the last 18 months. It’s been sad to see a few companies go but good to see so many companies embracing difficult challenges, growing, coming up with new ideas, and making the best of negative situations. I think we can do that more, work together more, and share ideas as an industry and outside of our industry, push the benefits like the story of Tom [at Willday Printers] educating kids, and Lucy [Swanston, managing director] at Nutshell Creative is doing work with children’s books too.

That education side of book reading is really important for me on a personal level, because there’s a lot of data out there that shows that printed products that are held in your hand and read have a far deeper connection and you absorb it more than if you’re reading digitally off a screen. If you’re holding a printed product your attention is grabbed maybe seven times more, and as an industry I think we really need to hammer that home to the rest of the world outside the industry.

For the younger generations, and the mental health aspects of kids struggling growing up, especially understandably with what’s gone on, the printed product gives you a deep rooted emotional connection – many products do – and that’s why Tom [at Willday Printers] has done so well with his children’s books that they then plant and grow vegetables from.

Note: This prediction is taken from a special Briefing article in the new issue of Printweek featuring insights from industry suppliers, hence it does not follow the same question template as the other predictions.