Graphics Canada (November 8-10 at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ontario) brought together Canada’s heavy hitters in print and graphic design, as well as many new or smaller niche players just wanting to see what was going on in the industry. It was a great year for designers, as the Design City area held booths just for them, and nearly everyone else could also find at least one or two vendors in the four exhibition halls who were showing something of interest.
It was hard not to feel a sense of deja vu at this year’s show, as Graphics Canada was a mere two months after the Graph Expo show in Chicago, and most of the “new” products at Graphics Canada had already received their North American premiere. Some new/old highlights included Heidelberg’s Anicolor technology (featured in last month’s issue), HP’s Indigo 5500, and the MAN Roland HiPrint and Direct Drive 700-series presses. The Robert E. Thistle booth also featured some c.p. bourg machines that made their appearance at Graph Expo.
Strange, too, was the near-absence of “big iron” at the show—Heidelberg of course had the Anicolor and the Speedmaster set up and running in the “Heidelberg Hall”, and MAN Roland at least had information about the HiPrint and DirectDrive, but some of the other major players in the traditional offset market didn’t even have a booth. Front and centre at this year’s show, instead, were digital presses. HP, Kodak, and Fuji dominated the front hall, and Canon and Xerox made their presence known in Hall 3. Many smaller digital-focused companies were also on hand—particularly equipment resellers, many of whom offered excellent show-only deals to those looking to buy.
Both the big manufacturers and the smaller resellers sold many digital presses before, during, and after the show—staff members from Brantford’s Ball Media are pictured in the following pages with their new iGen. Pinnacle Litho, of Stoney Creek, Ontario, also made a big purchase at the show, snagging an HP Indigo 5500 for their shop. Presses weren’t the only thing generating leads or sales, of course—PDS Pressdown had lots of interest in their new Horizon BQ150 Book Binder, according to PDS’s Ken Warrington.
Another digital hit were homegrown favourites Gandinnovations. North American VP of Sales Cosimo Coffa is pictured in the following pages with their completely Canadian-made Jeti 3148X2, with linear-driven table, resolution up to 1200 dpi, and jet and nozzle replacement technology. Up to 6 nozzles per head can go out without any noticable drop in print quality. It also comes with a 5 year warranty, and white and clear ink options.
Besides digital presses, another theme running through this year’s show was, of course, environmental sustainability. Vendors big and small were all rushing to trumpet their environmental credentials, but it’s vital at trade shows (and anywhere else, for that matter) to evaluate the substance behind the style. Maratek had a small booth just inside Hall 3, but their visual aids made a big impact. They had mason jars of both used solvent and reclaimed solvent (reclaimed using their solvent recycling processes, naturally), and the contrast between the two was huge. One looked drinkable and one looked like it had been dredged from the bottom of Lake Ontario. I’ll let you guess which was which.
An organization that walks the environmental talk is the Forest Stewardship Council, who debuted their FSCXpert program, an educational program and designation for graphic arts professionals committed to responsible forest management. If you are a graphic designer or someone involved in the industry who cares about forests but does not directly supply or print on paper or other forest products, the FSCXpert designation allows you to proclaim your sustainable credentials (and help others become more sustainable) anyway. Find out more at http://www.fsccanada.org/FSCX/default.htm.
And speaking of products from forests, paper merchants were out in full force at the show, with Spicers making a splash in the front hall and xpedx celebrating their arrival in Canada in Hall 3. The Spicer booth had a quique passport idea at their booth. They provided exhibition-goers with a “passport” that got stamped at different stations as attendees made their way through the booth, ensuring that each visitor got the most out of their Spicers experience.
xpedx has opened two stores in Canada (Markham and Brampton), with more on the way. They are aggressively pushing in to the Canadian market, and have not ruled out acquisitions as a way to grow their brand, according to xpedx VP Michael Kearney.
Apart from equipment and consumables, there was much on offer at the show for printers looking to increase their efficiency. Avanti debuted their new Electronic Scheduling Board (a screenshot of which accompanies our Graphics Canada photo montage), which is currently in beta testing with several of their users. The scheduling screen can be projected onto a wall to retain the “whole-shop-knows-what’s-happening” feeling of a traditional, handwritten schedule, but offers many improvements on even existing electronic schedulers, such as being finite capacity capable.
Those looking to hire or those looking for a job would have been well-served to stop by the PrintLink booth, where Victoria Gaitskell and Myrna Penney reported an “excellent and busy” show as the matchmakers of the print world. Mary Black Recruiting was also on hand, complete with several stylish hats.
And speaking of personnel, the employees of tomorrow were out in full force each day of the show—students from Ryerson’s GCM program, as well as graphic design students from many local colleges and even some high school students, graced the show with their presence, and probably increased the demand for Spiderman posters by at least a factor of five.
Our booth was hopping at the show, and we even gave away a free blackberry to one lucky subscriber—Mr. Bob Brown from PROforma. (And a special thanks goes out to Heidelberg’s own Brian Ellis, who gracefully and impartially pulled the winning name out of our draw basket.) If you didn’t get a chance to subscribe or renew your free subscription at the show, head on over to www.graphicartsmag.com to do so.
Finally, as you can see from all the photos, there was great excitement and numerous innovations to be seen at Graphics Canada.
