Visual Print’s MD moves To Solopress
Graham Hunstone, managing director of recently acquired print provider, Visual Print & Design, has been hired as head of partnerships by fellow UK printer, Solopress
FESPA UK’s training day saw attendees go head-to-head in an Apprentice-style design challenge
The most recent FESPA UK Association Next Gen training day saw attendees given full access to the latest Zünd and swissQprint kit to oversee the entire production process from design and prototype, to print and finishing.
Hosted in Zund UK’s HQ in St Albans, the day was led by Jay Burfield and Molly Jackson of FESPA UK Association with support from Paul Neale of Antalis UK; Sarah Lees of Compass Business Finance; Pete Smallwood and Yaroslav Koralev of swissQprint UK; and Gaj Jeevanandan, Kealan Dennedy, and Jamie Taylor of Zund UK.
Zünd is a company that has long championed encouraging the next generation into print and even offers its own apprenticeship schemes. Recently Zünd took on 15 new apprentices in Switzerland with the new recruits given access and training across the entire business.
Gaj Jeevanandan, marketing manager at Zund UK, comments: “Zund UK is thrilled to champion the future of our industry by hosting the FESPA UK Next Generation event.
"We firmly believe that nurturing and retaining young talent in the print, graphics, and signage sector is crucial. Through proactive initiatives like this, we aim to educate and empower young minds, ensuring a vibrant future for our industry.”
Eager to see how the FESPA UK Association Next Gen events are benefitting the industry’s younger generation, I went along to the latest event and enjoyed getting stuck in with all aspects of the day.
Jay Burfield, membership development executive at FESPA UK Association’s opening words on the morning of October 18th promised there would be no “death by Powerpoint” in sight as he outlined what the day ahead would entail.
Having been asked whether I was feeling competitive on arrival, all became clear as we were provided with a brief to design, produce, and present a desk organiser with some key criteria to hit. The product had to be able to hold three different items, be made of a minimum of two different substrates, and be able to be flat packed.
We were then split into two teams, BBC’s The Apprentice-style, and sent to different breakout rooms to get going. With attendees from a range of companies such as Stylographics, William Smith, Antalis, Imageco, and swissQprint, there was a variety of skills and experience across both teams.
The mood amongst the teams started out tentative as we got to know each other, but as the ideas began to flow and with our competitive spirits piqued, the competition was on.
First things first, we had to decide what our design would hold. The team I was on opted for a mobile phone, a notepad, and a pen pot. After a walkthrough of some design options by Paul Neal, product manager for Viscom at Antalis UK, we had the inspiration for our product.
Wanting to create something sustainable, we opted to use Antalis’ Xanita board as well as brushed ACM sheets for a headboard-type customisable design.
With support from Zund UK’s Shannon McRae and thanks to Imageco’s Isabel Shanahan’s design skills we began to bring our ideas to life using Adobe Illustrator. Once we had the basic structure of the organiser finalised, it was time to think about how we would customise it with print and finishing.
Discussing our ideas over a working lunch, we opted for a design that can be changed throughout the year. For this, we sourced some graphics representing Easter, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and so on with the plan being to print these onto the brushed ACM substrate and fix this onto the top of our Xanita board base which houses the items.
For the base itself, we also opted for a modular design with dividers enabling the user to expand or reduce the width of the notebook holder, as well as move the phone holder and pen pot around. Due to time restraints, we settled for a seasonal design instead which could be changed for winter, spring, summer, and autumn, and produced two examples of this to present to the judges.
Using a swissQprint Impala 4, we printed an easter egg design for spring and a pumpkin design for autumn, and to incorporate an additional finishing process we also engraved these designs using a Zünd G3 L-2500 with a routing option.
With the clock ticking, the final few minutes of the process saw the two teams scrabbling to finish their designs and to assemble the desk organisers ready to be presented to the judges. There was an element of rivalry created by the fact that the two breakout rooms had glass walls, tempting the teams to have a glimpse at the other’s designs.
With the teams assembled in the briefing room, it was time to present the designs. In our presentation, we highlighted the modular element to our design as well as the sustainable focus which led to us keeping the Xanita board’s natural substrate unprinted.
The second team opted for a bright and colourful design incorporating all the brand colours of each company represented in the team.
The key focus for this design was durability with Xanita board forming the core structure and clear acrylic sheets forming an ‘X’ shape within the rectangle structure. These sheets created sections for items to be held as well as adding to the strength of the base.
With both teams presenting completely different designs with unique elements and different focuses, the judges found it difficult to choose a winner. The modular design incorporating the changeable brushed ACM headboard just pipped the other team to the point with only a couple of points in it.
Throughout the day, attendees were inspired by the capabilities of the Zünd and swissQprint technology with a number of people asking to watch more of the production processes to get a feel for the machines, feeling inspired to take this new knowledge back to their own companies.
One welder on the course also surprised themselves with how much they enjoyed the design process, not having been exposed to this part of production before.
Sarah Lees, head of communications at Compass Business Finance, was on the judging panel as well as on hand to support throughout the day. Reflecting on the event, Lees says: “As an observer of the day, it was great to see such a diverse group of young people from across our industry work together, bringing their unique skills and personalities to the table.
“Each team worked quite differently and although I may have had my doubts at times during the day, the final product that each team created certainly impressed. From a judging perspective, both products were well thought out, met the brief, and were equally practical, but the winning team had utilised a wider variety of techniques and been more creative with their graphics, which is why they got my vote.”
If you have any news, please email carys@linkpublishing.co.uk or join in with the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn.
