The Return of Craft to the Wide-Format Segment

Broader skills create a strong value proposition that limits commoditization.

Since the dawn of the printing industry, through Gutenberg, and up until relatively recent times, printing was a craft – a cluster of skills carried out by practiced professionals, a tightrope walk of carefully-managed variables that resulted in things of beauty. There was magic in it.

Digital printing, conversely, democratized print. It placed the power to produce salable work in the hands of many more people, based on measurable, non-magical methods. That said, in the early days of wide-format digital, there was an element of chance for those seeking strong results, and margins that allowed running multiple prints to get things right.

But those days are over. As more companies jumped into the wide-format digital opportunity, margins came down, and the spoils went to companies that could systematize production for reliable and profitable results. And as the quality of wide-format devices became inherently more reliable, so did the ability for more companies to successfully do business in the segment.

The result, for many, was commoditization of common, “bread and butter” applications – and a move toward higher specialization. For some, that meant building strong capacity to be able to beat out price competition through volume. For others, it meant seeking out (and maxing out) niche markets or applications – a laser focused approach based on deep knowledge and mastery of a specific area. This approach was their approach, their unique selling proposition.

Today, particularly among some of the larger producers, we see a move toward value-added services like project management and fulfillment. Part of their approach is to offer not simply the printed components of a large, complicated job, but to take more pieces of the pie, to the point that they are taking the whole pie – every step between creative, concept, and completion. In doing so, they can steer their companies away from commoditized spaces by adding specific services and skills that differentiate themselves from others and limit the size of the “pack” they run with (and against).

In sort of a “full-circle” moment, many of these companies have tapped back into craft with the addition of value adds like installation and fabrication, both of which require high-touch, skilled, custom work by professionals who possess the tools and techniques to inject magic into some wide-format jobs. Woodworking, electrical, metal work, plumbing, structural design, and more are added to the skillset. This is a full-service approach.

One of the more important things to consider among the evolution of these companies is that printing – the part our industry focuses so much of its attention upon – has become just another tool (albeit a very important one) they use to get the job done. They are no longer exclusively printers. They have become something else altogether.