Large-Format Graphics Interest Up Moderately

When large-format printers first started appearing in the mid-1990s, they were prohibitively expensive, especially if PostScript support was needed. Add to that consumables costs and large-format output devices housed a technology that only a service bureau could love, or at least wrestle with.

Times have changed, but not that much. Design and production professionals are reporting moderate increases in large-format graphics as a business opportunity, according to the latest TrendWatch Graphic Arts Design & Production Survey. The percentage of creatives who see "posters, large-format prints/displays" as a sales opportunity has risen from 15% in summer 2000 to 19% this summer. Most of that increase was seen in corporate design departments (12% in winter 2000/2001 to 20% in summer 2001), while graphic designers only went up one point between the last two surveys.

When focusing more on the actual production of large-format output rather than just the design element, some interesting results appeared in the survey. "Making large-format images for clients" generally is on the wane as a sales opportunity, except for within corporate design departments. Commercial photographers, although they also cooled their interest in this opportunity somewhat, are way ahead of the pack: 20% of them see "making large-format images for clients" as a sales opportunity, compared to just 9% of all creative professionals.

Elsewhere, say survey data, commercial photographers have been gravitating toward "one-stop image shopping"—photography (increasingly digital), color management, retouching, and color printing (ink-jet-based). Here, large-format output could be seen as the digital darkroom on a larger scale.