While silicone edge graphics have certainly dominated the tradeshow space of late, SEGs showing up a lot more places than you’d expect. From displays at sporting events to red carpet ceremonies, SEGs popularity continues to skyrocket.
What should print service providers keep in mind when it comes to SEG? Wide-format Impressions talked to industry experts from UltraFlex and Fisher Textiles to tackle SEG trends, tips, and common misconceptions about this popular graphic application.
Everything is Bigger and Bolder
Sharon Roland, key accounts, midwestern sales for Fisher Textiles, says that thanks to the evolution of print technology and fabrics, SEG framing structures are now a lot larger and more eye-catching than they were five to 10 years ago.
“I can say that, as a fabric supplier, the biggest innovations are that a lot of these fabrics are now available at five meters wide, and there’s a lot more machines that can print 5 meters wide. So, a lot of that is kind of driving the industry, because it can increase production and have less seams and better visuals,” Fisher says.
Ryan Buy, regional sales director- Central, Great Lakes, Midwest, and Western for UltraFlex, agrees.
“The ability to knit and weave at 10 ft. and at 16 ft. really has what’s changed the visual communications media landscape. I would say that that was the big, quantum leap that’s changed everything,” Buy says.
Backlit is Better Than Ever
If you ask Roland, she believes that one of the main drivers of SEG is backlit fabrics because it has always had that “wow-factor.”
“As a supplier, it’s always our priority of, ‘What backlit can we come out with now? What’s going to be bigger and better than it has been before?’ And they have come a really long way,” Roland says. “And, throughout the years, I feel like weaving techniques have improved, and treatments have improved. So, there are a lot more options now than there have been ever before.”
Roland says that just recently she was reminiscing with a customer about fabrics in the past that needed to be washed in order for printed designs to “pop” the right way.
Buy also reflects on the past of backlit: “10 years ago, the standard was to use a diffuser and then your image. So you’d have two layers of fabric offset from one another as diffusion layer. Now, the next thing is knit direct print, which is non-transfer print backlits with the least amount of creasing. That seems to be the trend – that a lot of people are moving towards direct,” Buy says.
Read the rest of this story on Wide-Format Impressions, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic partner.
