From niche to mainstream?
Many printing professionals have moved in and out of lenticular work over the years, but dedicated shops have had to take a longer-term approach. It is still an expensive business to get into, with a niche market to serve, so only a few shops will have enough specialized work coming in every week. Some of these shops compete in even more specific niches, including large-format lenticular displays.
In point-of-purchase (POP) applications, multiple products can be showcased in the same display.
Once a shop is properly equipped, however, there are a lot of applications to pursue, including packaging, direct mail and promotional items, all of which can be sold to advertisers. Awareness is still very low, so it is up to specialized shops to help create demand by catching clients’ interest by showing them samples and using other promotional tools. The business risks may be great, but the potential profits are higher than in traditional printing.
There is even a consumer market emerging, where customers provide a series of images—e.g. photos of themselves aging over the years—that can then be integrated into custom lenticular items, such as greeting cards for their relatives. Some shopping malls are even providing on-site photo conversion services.
In terms of wide-format technology, the next step may be direct-to-substrate flatbed printing, which currently can be used only for low-resolution graphics. Printer manufacturers are working on improvements in this area.
With such developments, the world is going to see more and more lenticular prints.
Guy Brisson is founder and owner of Softmotion, which designs and prints lenticular images in Chambly, Que., and a senior executive at its U.S. parent company, AD+/Softmotion. For more information, visit www.softmotion.com.
