Everybody knows Sabine Lenz from PaperSpecs. Known for high-quality inspiration and education - and as she says in this film, bridge designers with technology. We met at Scodix's booth at PRINTING United in Las Vegas. We agreed that Scodix had asked us to meet as we both have a passion for embellishment, quality, and everything technology does for designers. The new SHD (Smart High Definition) technology enables finer details and negative text on foil or down to 4.5pt size embellished. Super cool, and it was fun talking to Sabine!

Whenever you see a Scodix at work, you immediately understand that this machinery is unique. The output may look like conventional embellishments but with an ever-increasing demand for shorter runs, customization and more - most understand the need for digital is vast. At every tradeshow where Scodix exhibits you see some of the most beautiful print samples on the planet, and they do understand how vital the "look" is to both print service providers and brand-owners. In this film, we are talking to the relatively new CEO Adina Shorr, and her approach to the market is great - it's not only about the right look but maybe even more about changing packaging and print from being functional to being a marketing communication piece at the same time. Listen to her and get great insight about Scodix and how they see whether Scodix sees themselves as a replacement or a complimentary to the existing line of embellishment equipment in the market. GREAT!

On the border between Poland and the Czech Republic, you find a divided city called Cieszyn (on the Polish side) and Cesky Tesin (on the Czech side). The city is divided by a river, and quite amazing to see how a city lives side by side yet being in two different countries. On the Polish side, we visited a printing company called Cieszynskie Zaklady Kartoniarskie, or easier for most to say, CZK. CZK has a fantastic history and has documents from both German occupations during the second world war and being part of the communist regime until its liberation. In this film, however, we are talking with Piotr Kulikowski and Anna Wnuk about how CZK, with a major investment, moved from being entirely analog to becoming a digital packaging company with a new HP Indigo 30000 press and the new Scodix solution! Always great to see how companies with investments create interest from new customers. Enjoy!

Personal interview with Eli Grinberg, CEO & Co-Owner of Scodix. We consider them one of the rising stars in the embellishment scene as they are growing their business fast. Serving customers in both digital printing and offset printing, they have found good momentum for their solutions. Here at HID23, they show their latest innovation in the B1 format, and with the samples, we have seen, it looks like a winner is stepping up the game (again). Enjoy.

Scissorhands is one of the most amazing software/hardware combinations we have experienced in the printing industry - insert a circuit board. Connect to the Internet. Now everybody can manage the guillotine and get the cutting done. See and hear more at www.argosinspirationdays.com

Ralf Sammeck and Dirk Winkler of Koenig & Bauer along with Johan Schur of Schur Technologies describe how the two companies, acting as one service, work together to provide world class packaging print and logistics solutions. Advanced technologies including automated workflow and robotic AGV management implemented in the Schur Gallin packaging facility give a glimpse of what IOT can do to create modern, efficient production. LinkedIn: Johan Schur Ralf Sammeck Dirk Winkler

Schätzl Print Emotion is a German printing company that has been covered numerous times on INKISH - and for good reasons. We first visited the company because of an investment in Scodix. The second time because we did a lot of educational videos for the company in both German and English, and this time it's because Schätzl Print Emotion have invested in their first inkjet machine, namely the Canon iX-3200 - and that is, of course, interesting as Schätzl Print Emotion is a high-quality photobook producer (among other things), but also since the company since we visited the company last time has been acquired by Elanders. Lots of interesting perspectives, and as usual, Ulrich Schätzl is open-minded and speaks openly about the interesting perspectives he sees in the market. Enjoy! LinkedIn Profiles: Steven Asumang https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-asumang-3592a3161/

Pat McGrew does get the best-looking mails around - just watch this second episode of Print Sample TV with a significant focus on craftsmanship, design, print, and finishing. What we love about the Print Sample TV episodes is the opportunity to learn and find inspiration. Of course, an envelope with a creative design, a creative substrate, or a creative print will make you look one more time.

Fast machines require fast workflow solutions, and along with the Screen presses, Screen delivers its Equios solution to align with the requirements. At HID25, Sasa Veljkovic explains what they offer, and at their booth, the workflow is divided into various application spaces. Super interesting! Dig in.

Our second featured celebrity is Sarah Kilcoyne-Guilliam, who recently became the Sales and Customer Success Director with British Solopress. Enjoy!

This session for sure turned into something completely unexpected as INKISH was awarded for the first time ever. Thank you, Hayco Van Gaal and Sander Hendrix for the pleasant surprise. However, how great this was for us, the session with Sander and Hayco was really good explaining the development of INKJET over the past 12 years - or as we in our industry measure 3 drupas. Great insight and something to learn from.

Jacob Kent-Ledger is the Production Director, founder, and owner of London-based Citiprint - a small large-format company founded in 2016. The company promises the same delivery within most of London. I 'found' Jacob Kent-Ledger as he was featured in the SignLink magazine, and then Jacob posted a LinkedIn story about the coverage - which pushed our curiosity to learn more. So here we are. Jacob Kent-Ledger and Citiprint were founded in 2016, and though a tiny company, the company has developed a business model that outperforms larger companies. We ask if the same-day delivery enables higher margins - and the answer you will get if you watch the interview. Great to see young(er) people interested in starting a print business, and again, this proves to us that our industry IS attractive to younger generations. Great work, Jacob, and if we at INKISH can support you in any way, please reach out! LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobkentledger/ LinkedIn Post https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jacobkentledger_signlink-citiprint-industry-activity-7094726962543243264-lBY9?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop SignLink article https://www.signlink.co.uk/News/Wide-format/8649/citiprint-looks-back-on

In this film, Fujifilm product Manager Samantha Sim talks about the new Continous Fed digital inkjet press, which is targeted at the general commercial market—super interesting!

Working at Four Pees was, for me, a bit of an eye opener. When I started, a lot of people were actually asking me: OK, but you're going into the print industry and doing marketing there. But isn't print dead? What I wanted to do is just show people that even from your own home office, you don't even have to stand up from your desk. And you see already 10 things that are printed. And some of those things are surprising. I've got laminate flooring in my house. And suddenly you see that that's actually printed. The same for the tabletop. And that is a bit of an eye opener. And the moment you start explaining that in your own personal network, friends and family. You also see their eyes opening. Saying that this is a lot bigger than just paper and print. No, I think mainly what we've done now. Especially with the rebranding of Four Pees. That we've gone away from being a software vendor to being an integration partner. That is kind of related to the second picture I showed you. Simon Sinek's book: "Start With Why". Is that we're starting really to focus on our 'why'. The printer himself wants to know: how can this help me? I think there are a lot of challenges that the printers have nowadays. Raising from web to print is coming in. So they have to do a quick technological turnaround. For bigger printers that's easier than for the smaller ones of course. It is difficult because you're going from product selling to something else. And then making your marketing on a different level. They're selling advantages to people. So the whole company as well started thinking about: what is our why? We want to help printers. Because we know that these are challenging times. Even before Covid. The moment you start telling that story and bring it into the open, a lot of people are thinking: right! So this is actually something that is still here. And is actually even growing and evolving.

Wayne Beckett speaks with Sajith Pallippuram, Managing Director of Bindwel, regarding the Mumbia-based company's ambitions for expanding the business by developing an agency network and how they aim to strengthen relationships with major OEMs to create integrations with their existing and emerging customer base. This is the first time Bindwel has exhibited at the Hunkeler Innovations days, and by participating at the show and joining Printing Connect Online, they are looking to grow their brand and global presence.

BST is a well-known brand in more than just the printing industry; they provide various inspection systems that ensure printers deliver what's expected. Though a competitive market, Global Sales Director Sajid Malik explains that BST has a huge market share—also because of its long history. Interesting insights!  

INKISH hosted for the first time ever our NON-EVENT. The Non-event is celebrating the people that have been in front of the camera, or been supporting INKISH during the past years. This is a new recurring event, and the idea is to give space for the people we have featured to connect in a new way. We invited 150 people, and 32 decided to join us. Our guests came from Japan, Canada, USA, UK, Belgium, Sweden, and Denmark - and we are confident that next year, even more, will come. We asked most of our participants to talk LIVE during the dinner - and here is Sagen De Jonge from Canada. Sagen De Jonge is one of the two owners of Tilia Labs, one of our favourite companies to cover on INKISH. Tilia Labs have reached star-recognition for their Phoenix imposition/planning software, and we were so happy when Sagen De Jonge and Scott More announced to come to our Non-Event. Enjoy!

In this 'Over the Skype' session, I have the pleasure of talking to Sagen De Jonge from Tilia Labs. Tilia Labs have, in few years, got a lot of recognition from the market for their imposition/planning tool Phoenix. In this session, we talk about AI, API, and how Phoenix help printing companies to become more efficient. As with all our ‘Over the Skype’ interviews, quality is limited to bandwidth, web-cams, and ability to literally LIVE mix the conversations. However, it works, and with Over the Skype, we will bring you more than 20 exciting people, and angles on the industry as it is right now. Enjoy!

OneVision® is one of the world's leading manufacturers of innovative software solutions for PDF automation in printing, publishing, and media. Vittorio Paolucci mentioned that their solutions cover most pain points in various market segments throughout the workflow process. One Vision is so impressed with HID. They have had a lot of traffic and interest on their stand, good-quality targeted customers looking to automate their processors.

In the corner of Canon's gigantic booth, you find a small yet fascinating corner featuring programatic print - which, in essence, is also referred to as the Omni channel. We got to talk to CMO Sabine Rittmeyer from the retail chain POCO. Poco uses the Omni Channel to drive traffic to their outlets and give users an experience when shopping - listen and learn!  

At the IST UV-Days, Sabine Geldermann joined a panel discussion with Stéphane Royère (KURZ), Sebastian Stange (Koenig & Bauer), and Tim Sterbak (IST Metz) under the headline 'One year to drupa.' It was a great debate with many interesting views about sustainability, supply issues, digital transformation, packaging, etc. And in this interview, INKISH got the chance to talk to Sabine Gelderman, following up on both the panel debate and her expectations for the upcoming 2024 edition of drupa. Enjoy!

Hello, everyone! This is Morten from INKISH. Today’s episode is a bit different from what we usually do. I’m excited to talk to my good friend, Rob Ens, from Toronto, Canada. Welcome to INKISH, Rob! Thank you, Morten. It’s a pleasure to speak with you. Likewise, Rob! It wasn't too long ago that we met in Düsseldorf at Duba. It was great you could come and see me, even though I was a bit stressed. That was one of the main reasons I went—to see you in action. And it was worth it! Recently, you reached out to me after I announced my plans to visit Ukraine next week. I'm going there to cover a story about a printing company, Faktadruk, which was deliberately bombed by the Russians on May 24th. Seven Heidelberg operators were killed, and more than 20 people were injured. Seeing the devastation on CNN and other major networks, it's a miracle more people didn't die. You mentioned this resonated with you because your family has roots in Ukraine and faced similar hardships after World War I and before World War II. I’d love to hear your story. But first, can you share your thoughts on the current situation in Ukraine? I usually avoid discussing politics online, but here we are. I support Ukraine. I have many Russian and Ukrainian friends, and I love them dearly. However, my family lost their land and privileges in Ukraine, and many family members died during the Bolshevik Revolution. So, I deeply sympathize with the Ukrainian people. They want to live in peace, and I believe they deserve our support. I bring this up because I, too, have Russian friends. Most of them now live in Denmark, the USA, or Canada. Of course, I still have connections in the industry in Russia. I believe that most individuals are not to blame for the war. In my opinion, which is political, Vladimir Putin bears most of the responsibility for the tragic events in Ukraine. There are similarities to the Bolshevik era you mentioned, which was around the 1920s, right? It was around 1919. My family kept detailed records and even wrote a book about it. The story feels different when read from a distance. Let me tell you a bit about the background. This book, housed in the Mennonite Archives in Winnipeg, was partly written by my great-grandmother when she came to Canada. I hadn’t read it until the war broke out, and it was an emotional experience. My great-grandmother wrote in factual terms about their hardships. Mennonites, originally Germans living in Ukraine, were pacifists invited by Catherine the Great to farm the land. They thrived peacefully for over 100 years. My great-grandfather, a learned teacher and lay preacher, was tragically killed by bandits during the revolution, which targeted landowners. The family faced immense hardships, including typhus brought by occupying soldiers. Despite these challenges, my great-grandmother's resilience shone through, seeing even the foggy day of her husband's funeral as a blessing for its safety. Hearing these stories makes us appreciate our fortunate lives today. They remind us of the resilience and hope that can emerge from the most difficult circumstances. Do you still have distant relatives in Ukraine, or did your entire family leave or disappear from there? Most of our direct relatives left Ukraine. An aunt who visited in the 1970s, whose husband had been sent to a Siberian gulag, initially thought our life in the West was staged because she couldn’t believe our prosperity. This underscores how fortunate we are to live in a part of the world with security, education, free speech, and other freedoms. That’s why I decided to go to Kharkiv, despite the risks. Faktadruk is one of the largest printing companies in Europe, printing schoolbooks for all of Ukraine. When the Russians attack such a significant institution, it’s a deliberate attempt to undermine Ukrainian culture and education. Ukraine is a vast country, as big as the entire Midwest in the US. Covering this story is essential to highlight the impact on the printing industry and the resilience of the Ukrainian people. Your heart drives you, Morten. You consistently seek the truth, which is why we admire you. I believe you’ll uncover important stories that can’t be orchestrated. I received a message from a Ukrainian woman who hopes I’ll see some of Kharkiv’s beauty despite the war. Documenting the damage to the printing company and its importance to the industry is crucial. Rob, do these family stories still resonate with your family, or do they fade over time? I’m the one reviving these stories. My cousin, a historian, and I keep history alive, ensuring we understand both sides. My uncle shared insights about the challenges wealthy landowners face, emphasizing the need for benevolence. Thank you for sharing your story, Rob. After my trip to Ukraine, I might call you again to share my insights. I’d love that. Stay safe, and I look forward to hearing from you.

RPI has operations in the US and Europe, and partners in Australie able to deliver consistent digital print globally down to the copy of one. We met with Joris Kuper, Account Manager New Sales, RPI Europe, at the recent Online Print Symposium in Munich. Great story.

In the middle of our presentations from Standard Finishing at PRINTING United, we suddenly see Rosemarie Garvey from Blooming Color. Of course, we ask her for a short statement about Horizon; as we know, Blooming Color focuses on HP, Horizon (sold by Standard Finishing), and Ultimate - so listen to her words here. LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemarie-breske-garvey/