To celebrate Sign & Digital’s 25th anniversary, Large Format Review interviewed Faversham House’s Rudi Blackett, Event Director of Sign & Digital UK 2012, to discover more about the show’s origins and future plans for the event...

History

Rudi says, “The show was first held at the NEC in the late 1980s and launched itself as a national exhibition using the branding ‘Sign UK’.  25 years on, it is still held at the NEC but has now grown to fill at least two halls in the prime Springtime exhibition season.

Faversham House bought the show in 2000 from Miller Freeman, and in 2003 launched Digital Expo as a co-located show alongside Sign UK. In 2008 the event was re-branded as Sign & Digital UK to reflect the growing use of digital products in the sign market. In 2011 the exhibition reported a 22% increase in visitor attendance and the Sign & Digital UK Awards was launched to reward success and creativity. Since Faversham bought the show we have seen the show nearly triple in size.

25th Anniversary celebrations

In order to celebrate its 25th anniversary, Sign & Digital plans to have an Anniversary Gallery which will feature photos of some of the landmark developments in sign writing, early vinyl cutting days, printing systems, installations, as well as hopefully some amusing pictures of industry colleagues sporting top range 80’s style outfits!  To date, the likes of Grafityp, Mida Sign Services, Applelec, Dorotape, Roland DG and Signs Express have sent interesting contributions.

As always, we are looking forward to the next chapter in Sign & Digital UK’s history, and we will continue to refresh the show each year to keep the show relevant and at the cutting edge.

Major changes and innovations over past 25 years

As an industry driven by technology, we have seen great advances in sign making techniques, and particularly the emergence and dominance of digital printing in the last ten years.   Wide Format print has brought the sign maker and graphic output company a whole new world of possibilities, with an array of stunning large format graphics.

From early vinyl cutting systems through to highly advanced large format flatbed printers and cutting tables, every year Sign & Digital UK has been host to another step in innovation and technical development.

In recent times we have seen the emergence of more ink suppliers, a growing range of substrates, advances in finishing systems and a wider range of output and applications such as textile print and soft signage.

Another significant change came about with the bigger corporate suppliers making more of a move into this market. The likes of Hewlett-Packard, OCE, Fujifilm and AGFA saw the opportunity to quickly build a presence and market share.

The challenges ahead

Refreshing the show each year is a challenge but we always come up with some added value for visitors, whether it is more demos, show features or opportunities to get advice. Working with exhibitors to make the show a success is always a priority.

In recent times the credit crunch and economic instability has really focused our minds on what else the show can offer. Where we certainly cannot solve the financial crisis, at least we have tried to model the show as an opportunity to find out how to get more from existing equipment, add new revenue streams and stay ahead of the competition.

Operating in a market that is all about visual communication, the challenge for us each year is to come up with dynamic branding for the event. In 2010 we introduced the ‘Robot’ branding to reflect the use of technology, and then developed this further to reflect the marriage of technology and colour management.

The most memorable show?

In terms of the most memorable show whilst I’ve been at the helm, I’d have to say it was the 2003 show with the super-wide machines.  That year we saw the show moving in a different direction with a significant presence from the likes of NUR, Scitex, Vutek, Durst and others and it was fascinating to see the reaction from visitors to these big bits of kit and the resulting output.  They were complete game-changers.

Sign & Digital UK’s future plans

As for the future, we are constantly looking at how to grow the event. If there are relevant parallel market sectors we could add and develop, we will certainly explore those.  We will also listen to the industry and welcome any suggestions.  For us as organisers, it is always about trying to deliver high value for both visitors and exhibitors.”