Trends and innovations have been the driving force in the Indian signage market, though not a sudden leap, but in a gradual progression. In the last few years, fresh developments have taken place in various parameters, whether it’s in the printing technologies or materials. Let’s say textile, which is seemingly everywhere these days, across all applications. And many industry leaders call textile a high growth area because it has unique characteristics that any other conventional printing materials don’t have. As textile is gaining new ground in the market, innovations in soft signage keep escalating.

Now in the textile domain, one innovation that has been getting popular is the ‘display frame’, which could be made of diverse materials in varied shapes and structures. For decades, textile printing was done using analogue technologies only, such as screen printing, for printing on T-shirts and other wearable garments. But the advent of high-end industrial textile printers makes everything expanded as continuous sheets of fabric are now produced in rolls and then trimmed and sewn into finished graphics to mount in display frame as soft signage.

Textile frame is one such innovative solution, which one can find it fast and easy when it comes to exchanging printed graphics. In this, a combination of innovative accessory (the frame) and high-quality textile graphic is always a head turner. It’s advisable for everyone in the industry to grab this new innovation on the rise. In addition to the rise of innovative products and technologies, the Indian signage market is expanding on various fronts, attracting many all over the world, including the neighbouring China. As Chinese mobile phone makers are raising force in the Indian smartphone market, it has been said that the overseas manufacturers are planning to get signage vendors from China to set up in India—indeed a new gain!

Alongside our regular Region Exclusive, we have introduced a new column called ‘Four Zones’ from this issue onward, with our aim to cover the whole country under four regional zones—East, West, North and South. This gives us the feeling and sense that we would cover the entire country in every single issue of the magazine. In this endeavor, we welcome every signage player in near or far regions of the country to contribute their share. For this, do send us or tell us about your recent project(s) to feature in the magazine, in a suitable zone under any of the ‘Four Zones’.

Let’s move hand in hand to take the industry to a new level.

– Sonal Khurana
sonal@smediagroup.in