I recently had the pleasure of visiting Atelier fur Siebdruck in Switzerland, the home of printer extraordinaire, Lorenz Boegli. I have known Lorenz for about 13 years and seen much of his work through my involvement with the FESPA awards. Lorenz is a regular entrant and a regular winner of gold awards.

The most recent projects committee was held in London at the end of October with a number of new and innovative projects being supported.

Natgraph Open House with Sakurai, Marabu and leading industry manufacturers

I spent a very interesting couple of days at Natgraph this week where they, together with Sakurai, had organised a three day event entitled "Screen Printing the future".

With a clutch of leading suppliers to the industry, Marabu, MacDermid Autotype, Kiwo, Sefar, Grunig, CST and ScreenX! participating in the event as well, those of us fortunate enough to be a part of this event were about to explore new initiatives in screen printing and to assess where screen was today and where it was going. Primarily, the objective was to explain how printers can make the process more efficient and more viable (and more profitable) by using latest technologies from top manufacturers. Natgraph had managed to convert part of the factory into a fully equipped theatre which was ideal for the event but Alan Shaw told me that to add to the confusion, on the previous day (Monday) two lines left the Natgraph factory for the US, one for the SGIA show and one for a customer, this involved loading 3 x 40' containers and 3 airfreight boxes. How they managed I do not know.

Trondheim was the location for the 50th anniversary of Norske Spesialtrykkeres Forening last weekend. About 70 people gathered for this celebration held at the Rica Nidelven Hotel on the waterfront close to the harbour. The weather was glorious, the Norwegian hospitality fantastic and the event truly memorable.

My latest blog was to be on technology but recent news made me think of writing something about counterfeiting instead. Counterfeiting is not new, it has been in existence for centuries. In fact copying and printing of fake currency has been going on since currency was first used and was especially prevalent in Roman times.

But it is a major crime which costs the global economy billions?

Once again, screen and digital printers all over Europe owe one man a considerable debt of gratitude for fighting on behalf of them, this time on the Eco label front. His support and contribution to this industry for over 40 years is considerable.

Projects Update 4th July

The most recent Projects Committee meeting was held at the end of June when the following projects were approved.

In France, GPSF is organising a certification day for printers working in textile, graphics and industrial markets to provide information and guidance on various certifications including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 12647, FSC, PEFC and FESPA's own Planet Friendly guide. This one day event is scheduled to take place on 6th October in Paris with AGFA, AFNOR and France Certifications participating amongst others. For more information please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ,

Education and training continue to be important areas for FESPA Associations to get involved in and in Czech Republic the 5th suppported Serigraphy workshops for students will be held at the end of September. The course is aimed at teachers, students, artists, graphic designers and creative printers.Spaces are limited to 20 but for more information please contact Tomas Zeleny This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Also taking place in September in Slovakia, FESPA will once again be supporting Screen Printing Workshops for students. Places are much in demand for these highly popular and worthwhile activities so for more information please contact Ludovit Bartos This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  .

SERPA in Finland is being suppoprted in organisng a one day seminar and workshop followed by a networking evening. The focus of this event will be on business economics for printers to help them develop strategies to transform their businesses into successful customer focused print service providers. The event will be held on 11th November in Helsinki and will coincide with the 35th Anniversary of SERPA. Around 100 printers will be able to participate in this event. For more information please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it    

In the UK a Think Tank event was held a few months ago where top printers discussed issues relating to Print Management Companies. A second Think Tank event has now been supported and will take place in in September with PMC's participating, the objective being to establish a code of practice to operate between PMC's and PSP's. Once agreed, the code of practice will be shared with all FESPA Associations since this particular issue is a problem in many European countries. For more information please contact Peter Kiddell at Prism, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   

A few projects from Spain were supported, the first being a promotional campain for the technical courses that Aedes runs for printers.

The second supported event is a print shop activity at Viscom Sign Madrid in October. Aedes (and FESPA) will be supporting live printing demonstrations as well as promoting the work Aedes does in Spain by hopefully encouraging students from print colleges and schools to participate in this event.  

Aedes will be undertaking a survey of Spanish printers to collect data on economic and labour statistics in addition to obtaining data on sales, production and work areas across the industry sector in Spain. The survey will be conducted twice in September 2011 and January 2012. 

The final Spanish project supported is an initial road show event in Madrid in September to promote Aedes by covering various topics on "Provision of digital solutions", two debates involving digital printers, agencies and media centres with an interactive workshop on how to motivate your customer with a closing presentation on the future of the industry by FESPA. This event will be held on 29th September. For more information please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

The committee also ratified two earlier decisions to support the Czech and Polish Associations in hosting stands at relevant trade shows in Brno and Poznan.

The next Projects committee meeting will be in September. For more information on project activity please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it     

A delegation from China (CSGIA) who visited FESPA Digital in Hamburg. 

The group, led by CSGIA secretary Jennifer Shen (third from right on front row), spent two days at the show and were very positive about FESPA Digital, discovered new technologies and combined their visit with some sightseeing in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels.