Wallpaper* magazine gets personal With its
readers thanks to hp indigo customisation
For its handmade-themed August issue, Wallpaper* magazine wanted to give readers a personal way
to connect with its celebration of one-of-a-kind, customised craftsmanship. “We wanted to give our readers a chance to have a hands-on experience collaborating with our brand,” says art director Meirion Pritchard.
To do that, Wallpaper* offered up its prime real estate—its cover—to readers, allowing individuals to design their own custom covers. Wallpaper* worked with print service provider F.E. Burman, who used an HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press and the HP SmartStream Production Pro Print Server, to create each subscriber’s unique cover. Reader-designers then saw their own cover art on the issues they received in the mail.
“It was a huge undertaking, and the results were miraculous,” says publishing director Gord Ray. Numerous designers, singular quality
For Wallpaper*’s ambitious August 2010 issue, the international design magazine commissioned unique, handmade items—everything from a sculptural watering can to a custom coffee blend to designs for an apartment building that’s also an urban farm. The staff paired designers with manufacturers to
give both a chance to stretch their abilities. It only made sense to extend that collaborative spirit to the magazine’s readers.
Pritchard commissioned five graphic artists to design a palette of images, patterns, textures and words. On Wallpaper*’s website, readers could then combine elements from that palette to design their own covers for the August issue.
The ability to customise the covers was a perfect
fit for the handmade-themed issue, and the HP Indigo 7000 delivered the exceptional print quality Wallpaper* is known for. The bulk of the magazine was printed on a traditional offset press and then bound with the digitally printed covers.
“We did a few tests using the HP Indigo, and
the quality was amazing,” says Pritchard. “We compared covers we had printed traditionally with the digital prints, and there was no difference in quality.”
More than ink on paper
Michael Burman, managing director at F.E. Burman, says the 50-year-old company has a long history
of working with top magazines. F.E. Burman was one of the first companies in the UK to offer digital print capabilities, and it added the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press to its lineup in 2008.
“The HP Indigo 7000 gives us the quality that enables it to match, and in some cases produce
better quality, than heat-set web offset, which Wallpaper* is typically printed with,” says Burman. “This project would not have been as effective two to three years ago, before this latest technology.”Burman says that, along with superior print quality, an easy-to-manage front-end process was critical to the Wallpaper* project. Burman used the HP SmartStream Production Pro Server to assemble, RIP and feed the high volume of customised files for printing.
Burman uses the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press for versioned print jobs like Wallpaper*’s handmade issue and for everything from personalised mass-membership campaigns to short-run jobs like invitations, menus and event materials. He says there’s no question that the new press has helped grow his business, even as clients tightened budgets in response to the economic recession.
“We’re increasingly seeing that print is becoming
a commodity, so we need to offer other services beyond ink on paper to add value. Our expertise
in a new solution like this helps provide customers with something different. Since we added the HP Indigo 7000, the average number of clicks per month has quadrupled.”Creating a connection
In total, about 2,000 Wallpaper* readers designed their own covers, and another 20,000 unique covers were randomly generated using elements from the same design palette readers used. “This personalization enables a much closer contact with the magazine’s readers,” Burman says. “Readers feel more a part of the magazine, and Wallpaper* gets a much better understanding of the people who read the magazine.”
This connection is important not just to Wallpaper*’s editorial staff, but to its advertisers, who expect perfection when it comes to reproducing their brand image in the magazine. The high-profile advertisers who participated in the August issue, one of which offered nine different back-cover ads for reader-designers to choose from, were thrilled.
“It was even more successful than we anticipated,” says publishing director Ray. “Now that we know we can do it successfully, we’re looking at how we can do something bigger and better next time. And advertisers can see that we’ve got a great track record of success now.”
“Personalization enables a much closer contact with the magazine’s readers.
Readers feel more a part of the magazine, and Wallpaper* gets a much
better understanding of the people who read the magazine.”
— Michael Burman, Managing director, F.E. Burman
To learn more, visit
https://www.doczj.com/doc/583599906.html,/go/graphicarts
? 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without
notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying
such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be
liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. 4AA3-1164EEW, August 2010.