European Headlines: the Next Phase of Imaging

My future home is a personalized print come true.

Above: Textile printing in home furnishings and accessories as showcased at EFI Connect

I am not too fond of off-the-shelf, mass-produced things. I love the individual touch. For many day-to-day objects, this isn’t possible, and in many cases, I understand why. However, with technology advancing, more opportunities are emerging to personalize our entire life. Most aspects of it, that is. There are a few simple examples of personalization we’ve become accustomed to and don’t even think about any longer invoices, statements, and direct mail. Since the late 1980s, when customer communications and variable-data printing solutions took over the mailrooms, personalized, dynamic communication has become the standard.

For a while after that, it seemed development was moving rather slowly until about five years ago when the mass personalization of “things” became possible. Books, direct-to-objects, textiles, 3D objects, virtual reality, the list of opportunities grows every day.

Fast-Forward to “20-Soon” 

Imagine this: We finally get that piece of land in the English countryside where we can build our dream cottage. Our wishlist says we need a house with everything usual houses have: curtains, wallpaper, pillows, tiles, floorboards, pillowcases, towels, family photos on the mantlepiece, plates, flatware, travel photos on the walls, and well, we’ll see.

We go to “Everything Print Inc.” with our list. The guys there are pretty cool. They’ve got all the software required to turn our crappy sketches into 3D-print-ready plans for the house. To make sure they got it right, we put on our VR headsets and walk through our new home before they start 3D printing it.

Our idea for the interior design is something like nature-based colors and warm tones. The team helps us pick the right colors and match painted walls and those with wallpaper to make sure everything is in harmony. Then, we add the floorboards and tiles, the former reminding us of a walk in the woods, the latter a stroll along a pebbled beach.

All surfaces need a natural structure, too. No problem, our interior designer says, and brings the total composition to life for us in our VR headsets. She even places some sample furniture for us.

Some items, for now, will still be off the shelf the toilets, faucets, the range, the fridge, but that’s okay with us, as long as they’re connected and we get a text when we run out of milk and eggs.

Next, we talk to the woman who helps us with all the fabrics. We show her some photos of leaves, sandstone, and flowers, and together, we create the designs for our curtains, pillowcases, towels, and whatnot. She promises everything will be ready right in time for the planned moving date.

Downstairs, we find the do-it-yourself printshop, ready to print our family and travel photos. Funny, the system is asking us whether we’d like to add those photos to our interior design profile. Why not? Next question: Collect or deliver on moving day? Seriously? Okay, deliver on moving day. Select picture frames matching your interior design profile? Do they really have an AI wizard sitting in there doing that for us? We give it a go.

Back upstairs, our account manager invites us to have a walk through our entirely designed and fitted home, virtually, of course. Wow! It all comes together now, the house, the tiles, even the picture frames. It’s all just the way we wanted it and where we wanted it.

End the fairy-tale hour, all right. No! Most of what we envision is already possible today. The technology is readily available, both for 3D-printing a house and to personalize all your interior design dreams on fabric, paper, tiles, pretty much anything goes.

Connecting the Dots 

There are a few things the industry still needs to work on: the design software, the virtual reality part, and above all, the qualified teams that help the customer realize their dreams by converting funny sketches into dream homes.

While we’re waiting for the industry to connect the dots for new building societies and interior design services to open their doors, we design the invitation (printed, of course) to our house-warming party.

Please visit The Cannata Report for more on the printing and office imaging industry.