Infinity Images: The Limitless Quest to Grow

To grow and stay competitive in the wide-format graphics space is a never-ending effort. To remain on top, graphics producers must stay up-to-date with printing technologies and the systems that drive them. In many cases, this is best achieved through strong partnerships with equipment manufacturers.

Infinity Images, in Portland, OR, is described by its founder and CEO George Gross as, “a small company with national reach, producing graphics for a group of clients with a national presence.” To do so, Gross says, the company has to have a lot of capabilities. Infinity Images started out as a photo lab, run by his father, which focused on engineering graphics. Over time, digitally printed graphics contributed to a predominant share of the company’s revenue, and Gross made the decision in 2007 to move the company fully toward digitally printed display graphics. Durst (Booth N1043) has been a key partner in helping the company meet its goals.

Today, the company produces a range of graphic elements — on rolled, rigid, and textile substrates — to produce applications including exhibits, retail displays, and interior décor. Corporate interior décor, which is a growing area for the company, includes wallpaper, murals, ceiling treatments, and sculptures. Larry D’Amico, sales director – North America for Durst, describes Infinity Images as being a very innovative company.

The company’s partnership with Durst started with two Durst Lambda units. The first Durst inkjet purchase was in 2013, after Gross had seen a machine at a drupa event, a Rho 1000. Once it was installed, Infinity Images used the machine for an even mix of rolled and rigid stocks. “It was perfect,” Gross says about the fit of the machine to the needs of his company at that time. Faced with its next investment, Infinity Images stayed with Durst, purchasing a Rho 312R and, subsequently, a Rho 1312. A new Durst P5 350 will be installed soon.

Infinity Images has found strong reliability with Durst equipment. “The equipment hasn’t been down for more than a [cumulative] week in four years of use,” Gross says, noting that his company is still using the machine’s original printheads. “Throughput is very high,” he adds, “and maintenance is minimal. We turn it on in the morning and turn it off at night.” Further, he says his company doesn’t maintain a supply of spare parts for the machine, “because things don’t wear out.”

According to Gross, Infinity Images was one of the first companies to work with Durst to refine its Lift ERP software. He adds that while enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is difficult to develop and implement for the wide-format space, given the variety of project types and materials used, Lift ERP has allowed his company to replace its previous solutions. The company expects to add scheduling and inventory modules, which Gross believes will be great improvements.

Infinity Images also relies on Durst’s workflow software, which Gross says excels at color maintenance and matching. The workflow software is used for all the company’s wide-format presses. Finally, the company is implementing Durst’s Smart Shop software, which will allow it to create customer-focused portals for key clients.

Gross says the team at Durst are great partners and have involved Infinity Images in some of its product development processes as well. “We’ve had meetings with the development group,” he says, “and they’ve been willing to work with us to craft tools to meet our needs.” Looking forward, Gross says Infinity Images, “will be with Durst for printing output and software. There will be more software modules and increased robustness.” 

Gross says while change is constant for his company, he believes Durst will continue to meet his company’s needs.