By Mansha Haurdhan

As the saying goes, “life is like a book”, and as each day turns a new page, we find ourselves less than a week away from the chapter entitled International Print Day 2017 (Wednesday 18^th October).

The brainchild of renowned print news platform, Print Media Centr, International Print Day (#IPD17) encourages print enthusiasts to share, learn and discuss the power of print with their like-minded peers. Established in 2014, International Print Day has already come a long way in its relatively short existence with thousands of contributors flooding social media in eagerness to join its annual 24-hour knowledge sharing event. Each year International Print Day addresses specific themes within the market, with this year’s theme celebrating ‘the print experience’ (#PrintUX), which will explore how print fits into today’s marketing mix and the technologies that have developed for printing in the 21^st Century.

As we start to prepare our clients’ PR and marketing plans for 2018, we’ve been considering the challenges and opportunities facing the graphic arts industry in the coming years. Even as the digital world has expanded beyond our wildest dreams, print has maintained a stronghold over everyday products like money and reading material, to food and drink packaging. Today, new forms of printing technology are making the realisation of ground-breaking applications more efficient and more accessible, for example using 3D printing to bring a multi-coloured, multi-textured trophy to life and even edible pictures adorning your coffee! Print continues to go from strength to strength despite the challenges of digital media.

With nearly 40 years of experience in the print and graphic arts industry, Bespoke (and our sister agency Incus) has seen – and been part of – many developments and changes, and has always been committed to bringing innovations in printing technology to the masses. Bespoke started out representing prominent industrial printing press manufacturers, helped to launch the first digital inkjet printers, and today represents several of the world’s most cutting-edge graphic arts technology businesses. So, as you would expect, we’re looking forward to seeing what new ideas and technologies are developed from this year’s International Print Day and where the printed experience will take us next.

Over the next few days, we’ll be sharing some of our favourite examples of printed experiences and the print technologies that make them possible. Share your own #PrintUX with us at @BespokePR or @IncusPR.