If there’s one area where growth has been more marked than others in recent years, it’s textile printing. At Visual Impact, leading industry suppliers are banding together to illustrate the potential of textile production, and it’s possibilities for print, sign and display businesses.

Textiles are big news. Whether for soft signage, banners, displays, printed garments, or for interiors or soft furnishings, customised textiles are often the smart, convenient and environmentally friendly option.

Lightweight, flexible, easy to transport and difficult to damage, the popularity of textiles has been enhanced by new technologies, fabric options and innovative structural systems – making them a real option to consider for print, sign and display businesses looking to expand their offer to customers.

While individual textile solutions have been presented by exhibitors at major exhibitions for some time – including Visual Impact, PrintEx and PacPrint shows – the opportunity to see how such solutions work in a complete workflow is something which we’ve not seen. That is, until now.

At Visual Impact Gold Coast, a dedicated Textile Production Workshop will be running live demonstrations of an end-to-end production process for teardrop banners, to illustrate to visitors just how the manufacture of printed textile products fits within a commercial production environment. Demonstrations at the workshop are planned to run for about half an hour every couple of hours, for the duration of the three-day show.

Peter Wagener, the dynamic head of well-known display solutions company Europoles, is coordinating the workshop, in concert with fellow Visual Impact exhibitors EFI, which is supplying the MIS, Roland DG which is providing the textile printer, Pozitive which is supplying consumables including transfer paper, Argonaut which is providing laser cutting technology, and Elizabeth Machines, which are taking care of sewing and finishing.

“Together, our aim is to fire the imagination of Visual Impact visitors, and demonstrate just how things are done – what the processes are, how it all fits together, and the kind of quality and versatility that can be achieved with the process these days,” Wagener says, adding that teardrop banners have been chosen simply because they provide an excellent illustration of a number of common processes.

“The thing about textiles is that the range of applications is enormous, ranging from the more familiar banners and flags, to more creative soft signage and illuminated panels, interior products like wall and floor coverings and soft furnishings, and of course more traditional textile applications and direct-to-garment printing,” he says.

“At the end of the day, however, it’s basically a printing and finishing production process. At Visual Impact, we hope to show visitors that it really is achievable, even for quite small businesses, and give business owners and decision makers them the information they need to work out whether it could work as a way to increase their product offering, attract new customers, and grow their businesses.”

With a business that already produces a wide range of textile products, Wagener admits that he looks to be ‘cutting his own grass’, however he contends that there is plenty of work in this growing market sector – and Australian businesses have real opportunities to wrest work back from overseas suppliers and build success and employment for our local industry.

“It might be a global market, but we need to build our local strength,” he says. “Offshore suppliers tend to pitch on price. And it’s true, they can generally undercut an Australian business. But we run absolute rings around them when it comes to the quality, turnaround and service. Control, especially quality control, is also a huge issue…as many print buyers have found out the hard way.”

For Wagener and his partners in the Textile Production Workshop, however, it’s the positives which are always the focus – and it’s that positivity he wants to convey to those considering a visit to Visual Impact.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to educate yourself about what’s possible, be inspired by new ideas and options, and to broaden your horizons by seeing the technologies and systems which can take your business into the future,” he says.

“The Textile Production Workshop is about helping our industry move forward in this exciting area, and what is good for the industry is good for us all. If we not only focus on building our own businesses, but also pitch in to support each other and contribute to the development of the industry, then we can all succeed together.”