Ricoh SA and Antalis joint effort gives printers and designers high impact communications that meet market needs
Ricoh SA and Antalis South Africa hosted a seminar to introduce designers to the fifth colour station of the Pro C7100X for clear and white toners on March 9 and March 10 at Ricoh SA’s office in Bedfordview.
Ricoh SA acquired two orders for Pro C7100 devices by the end of the second day, Antalis secured numerous orders for media due to the event, and many designers are now consulting the partners on creative concepts for their clients.
“More than 50 designers attended the two-day event. They were impressed with the possibilities due to the creative mix of clear and white toner with different high-quality substrates based on some examples we created for them. They’re in the unenviable position of having to deal with clients everyday who want more, because of more pressing business issues, who see what should be possible when they read stories in the media. In the past those options have always been too expensive or too specialised so even when designers came up with the concepts they couldn’t execute them locally. Now they see that they can, at extremely good prices compared with older technologies, and the output can be produced quickly too,” says Vaughan Patterson, business planning and operations manager of the Production Printing Business Group at Ricoh SA.
Sharon Styger, brand consultant at Antalis South Africa, says: “Marketers have tight budgets, they need to demonstrate return on investment. Green commitments are mandatory for many, communications are more numerous and quickly obsolete in the digital age, and, as a result, their communications need to stand out. Digital reduces the cost of print because there’s no need for plates, material is easily personalised, it can be printed on demand, produced quickly, premium fine papers achieve high impact with valued customers, and the low fusing temperature of Ricoh’s devices give designers access to more substrates. The benefits you get from combining these elements today, the design, the substrates, and the device, directly answer marketers’ current needs.”
Antalis offers a comprehensive range of coated, uncoated, thermal, and carbonless papers as well as fines, text and covers, along with envelopes and packaging boards to meet the needs of printers, graphic designers, publishers and communication agencies. Antalis supplies Forest Stewardship Council- (FSC) certified mills, which procure wood from verifiably responsible and sustainably managed forests.
Ricoh SA and Antalis, also jointly offered designers a competition to create a marketing campaign based on “Customers are at the heart of everything we do” using Ricoh’s production device with Antalis media, winners of which will be featured in The Gapp magazine. Categories include best use of the fifth colour with a R3 000 iStore voucher for first prize. There is also a category for application using an interesting substrate, also with a R3 000 iStore voucher for first place. The grand prize winner, the final category, gets a R5 000 iStore voucher and will also be entered into the Ricoh application contest at Drupa 2016 in Dusseldorf, Germany, as well as the global Antalis Paper Samples & Me Design Contest 2015-2016.