"Creativity in Print" Event in Offenbach puts the spotlight on enhancement

Brochures, financial reports or customer magazines – skillfully enhanced they gain companies a lot of attention. But which form of enhancement is the most well received? Which pays off and is most suitable for specific products or target groups? This is what the “Creativity in Print” event held in Offenbach on 29 April 2009 dealt with.

The third event jointly staged by manroland and f:mp was dedicated to enhancement of corporate literature. It was attended by 85 visitors from the Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, Poland, and Switzerland who, through theoretical and practical presentations, learned about the creative potential of print enhanced through special coatings, substrates and cold foil transferring.

"It's not a matter of just enhancement for enhancement's sake. It's a matter of choosing the right form to make printed products more expressive and relevant to their target market." This was the message from the organizers, Heiko Stock of manroland and Rüdiger Maaß of f:mp. They had arranged a very informative programme with high-calibre speakers in order to provide the audience with suggestions and guidance and to emphasize the value of enhanced corporate literature.

Print appeals to all the senses
"Print enhancement – luxury or a success factor?" This was the rhetorical question posed by Joachim Bretschneider, General Manager of Richard Bretschneider GmbH. The print expert showed a portfolio of impressive examples to demonstrate what his company regularly produces for customers and made it clear that not only well-known brands have recognised the value of print enhancement; an increasing number of discount stores are also following suit. Design consultant Professor Michael Hardt urged the audience to take greater advantage of the inadequacies of online media in order to promote print, saying only print appeals to all the senses. Alexander Herz explained how this can be achieved: the trend consultant at the trade magazine "versio" presented many of the possibilities that print enhancement offers – from substrates to coatings; foil embossing to spot colours, right through to the use of different screens or an expanded colour space. Michael Höflich, General Manager of Forum Corporate Publishing, pointed out that customer magazines also benefit from digitisation and are an example of how electronic media can be a driver for print: "In the present crisis, creative customer magazines that understand how to link all media forms are proving to be a valuable instrument in the marketing mix." Kurt Schlaudraff, Managing Director of RedWorks GmbH, regretted to report that: "Creative people often come up against a brick wall because process partners have insufficient knowledge of all the communication options." He made a plea for getting all process partners together at an early stage in order to achieve the best results.

In the practical part of the event, a highlight of the day was a demonstration of cold foil transfer with the ROLAND InlineFoiler Prindor. In manroland’s Print Technology Center, the guests were able to see this fundamentally new printing process live and make a direct comparison between the effect and impact of enhanced and non-enhanced print samples. Guests said they were impressed by the effects achieved by the InlineFoiler and the simplicity of the cold foil transfer process and were pleased to receive a poster and print sample box to take away.

Besides knowledge transfer, the series of events also aims at fostering the exchange of ideas between the process partners themselves. In addition to the presentations and the print demonstration, a showroom was provided for the first time in which the associates – f:mp, versio, Bretschneider, Forum Corporate Publishing, Ogilvy One and PrintCity – as well as the event sponsors UPM, Kurz and reproflex, presented and explained exhibits. This aroused great interest and many guests took the chance to receive detailed advice on specific print and creative opportunities from the exhibitors.