HP is heavily invested in digital decor.
We have our WallArt software, which is kind of a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop,
online on a cloud, that any Latex owner has access to.
It's a pretty cool, sophisticated program, vertically integrated, that allows you to
build an entire room with wall coverings, canvas, floor graphics, to some extent fabrics.
It lets you be your own designer.
And more importantly, it lets your customers be a designer.
Just to give you an idea, wallcovering is maybe the
key component of the digital decor segment.
And we are very committed to wallcoverings.
Whether it's step-and-repeat, or murals, whatever goes on a wall, we're interested.
And latex prints beautiful on different types of wallcoverings.
What I want to cover here is the different types of wallcoverings, and some of the things
you'll need to know to be involved in that category of wallcovering printing.
The quality, it's there across the board.
Whether it's PVC, nonwovens, removables; the quality on wallcoverings is fantastic.
But there are some considerations that I really want to communicate so that you understand
what the industry expects before you go headlong into wallcovering printing.
The first one is, this is your traditional PVC wallcovering.
This is sort of the big daddy of commercial wallcoverings.
This is a DreamScape suede.
A very well-known, very successful product.
We work very closely with DreamScape.
Also, with KoroGraphics.
Increasingly with York.
This is made here in the States.
Nice quality product.
It has your traditional, irregular, sort of woven background on it.
This is designed to hide irregularities in the walls.
This is a commercial grade, type-two wallcovering.
This is what they put in hotels.
This is what they put in commercial applications.
When you're going through a big new restaurant, and they have a big mural wallcovering that's
sort of it… the height of the people there, that's almost certainly done with a type-two
wallcovering, usually with a laminate.
What you want with type-two, it's not just the wallcovering.
It's stain and scuff and abrasion resistance.
You want something that can really take all you can dish out.
And there's standard for that.
The indus… the wallcovering industry establishes those standards.
And type-two certification is one of the core standards you want to be looking for.
Now, if you were to print on DreamScape suede with a Latex 360,
you're going to get a beautiful print.
What you want to be aware of is, you may need to finish that print.
And the finishing would require a water-based liquid laminate.
Myself, I worked very closely with the guys over there at Marabu.
Marabu has a product called Wall Armor.
The Wall Armor is a water-based laminate that will give
you the opportunity to get a type-two certification.
It gives you the type of durability, scratch resistance, stain resistance.
Keep in mind, even if you tell the customers, hey, you need to clean this with a water and a sponge,
they're going to grab whatever household chemical is handy and spray it all over the
wall and just scrub away at it because they spilled something on it.
It's got to take everything you can dish out.
And you want to make sure you have those standards, that you set those expecta…
or you meet those expectations.
So, just be aware that with type-two wallcovering, especially textured, I would probably,
in all commercial cases, send it to be laminated.
Now, you can buy those roll-to-roll laminators.
They are not expensive.
They're around twelve thousand dollars; depends on what type you want to get.
And do it yourself.
I take the rolls and I pay somebody to put the laminate on.
And they send them back to me, and they're ready to go.
DreamScape also has… here's a plaster.
Great textures.
Very durable.
Real strong.
Here's the LexJet.
York Velvet, that also prints beautiful on the Latex printers.
KoroGraphics Abaco Beach is a very popular and very widely-used product.
KoroGraphics is also a very nice line.
We work closely with them.
Many of… much of this stuff is on the Media Locator,
where you can download it straight into the printer.
But just be aware about the expectations of lamination.
For me, I would laminate any commercial PVC product that goes onto a wall,
that certainly is at arm's reach of people.
It's up in the air, it might have a little different exposure.
That may be different.
But I'm still inclined to put the laminate on.
Wallcovering, not just the printing, but also the whole process of having it put up there;
you do not want to have to take this down.
So, please do your research.
Call the people at DreamScape.
Call the people at KoroGraphics.
And make sure that you're going to meet the industry expectations,
which are probably going to include a liquid laminate.
So, it's going to be print, send off to Marabu, then install.
You need to know those things, especially for the commercial stuff.
Now, there are many other categories.
And this can also include commercial, a convergent, a residential.
Wallcovering is a big industry, and there's a lot of options.
HP doesn't just print on PVC.
The Latex, the Latex can also print on all sorts of PVC-free, nonwovens, paper-based.
HP, for example, we have a new HP PVC-free, durable, smooth wallpaper.
This is type-two certified.
You see the little waffle back on it, just like the commercial grade.
But this is a paper-base.
This is PVC-free.
And it is type-two certified with no lamination.
Print it, install it; ready to go.
That is a testament to our scratch resistance.
The scratch resistance on this generation of latex inks is excellent.
So, we've developed a PVC-free wallpaper that you do not need to laminate; type-two certified.
This is a real breakthrough.
This has won a series of awards at the last trade shows.
And again, waffle back.
This is paste, just like the commercial grade.
You're going to use traditional wallpaper paste to do this.
When I install this, I hire people who are called paper hangers.
They actually hang wallpaper.
They're the ones that take care of this kind of stuff.
This is less of a DIY project.
I mean, it's certainly not hard to figure out.
But mostly I hire people that are professional wallcovering installers, and they handle this.
And that is the HP type-two.
Then you have stuff like this Ahlstrom.
The Ahlstrom is a nonwoven.
Ahlstrom is a company out of Europe.
And in this case, this is a spray up.
This actually has its own adhesive on the back.
This you get wet, you put it on the wall, and it sticks right down.
You want to remove it?
You get it nice and wet again, and it comes back off.
This is much more along the DIY kind of project.
They have a lot of different textures.
It's very cool stuff.
Ahlstrom also, PVC-free.
It's very focused on more of an environmental portfolio, as well as high-end residential.
You could certainly use this in commercial applications.
Nonwovens like this, you would not laminate.
And the scratch resistance you get on this is actually very, very good.
But it's not going to have that true durability you get with a type-two PVC wallcovering.
It just depends on the application.
This is a very popular item overseas in Europe right now.
And Ahlstrom is sold in the United States.
They have traditional paste versions, and they have self-paste versions.
This is an HP product.
This is our other wallcovering.
This is what we've had out for many years.
And this is self-adhesive.
It has a paste on the back of it.
You get it wet, you put it on the wall.
We have a whole bunch of online YouTube videos showing you how to do this.
This is also PVC-free; very environmentally friendly.
This is Forest Stewardship Council.
This is GREENGUARD certified.
This is everything you would want in a DIY, easy to use,
easy to install, super environmentally friendly product.
It's inexpensive.
It's tried-and-true.
A lot of people may have difficulty with peel-away type stuff, which I'm going to show in a second.
But because this is self-adhesive, you get it wet, you put it on the wall,
you get it exactly where you want it, and then you put the next tile down.
I can do this.
Most people can do this.
It's very easy to do.
You start getting into peel-away, and you got to get everything right the first time.
And you don't necessarily have a chance to put it exactly where you want it.
It's going to go where it wants.
And you better hope you know what you're doing.
And then another one here I just wanted to show you; this is the DreamScape.
DreamScape is a very important partner of ours.
A lot of certified media.
This DreamScape is the Terralon.
It's very similar to the HP; it's just got a texture to it.
This has sort of a suede-like texture.
This is a PVC-free; it's a paper-based product.
Ultimately, it has a great texture on the back.
Easy to print on.
Looks great.
Whether you laminate or not is kind of an option.
You can kind of decide that.
I probably wouldn't.
I would focus on this in a non-laminated environment.
But again, paste-based.
Any time you see this waffle, it means you're going to have paper hangers.
You're going to have a paste-based product.
If you have any questions, give the guys at the manufacturers a call.
Call DreamScapes.
Call KoroGraphics.
Ask questions.
Be informed about the expectations of the industry, and what the product is good for,
and what the product is not good for.
They're very helpful.
They're very knowledgeable, too.
So, another category is your removable liner.
OK.
This is a DCM.
We commonly use a lot of Avery 2611.
Those are low to medium, sometimes a stronger tack, peel-away adhesive.
So, you print on it.
It's got, usually, a nice amount of weight to it; sometimes about a six mil.
And you just put it right on a wall.
What's great about latex is our new scratch resistance.
You don't need to laminate in a lot of cases.
The scratch resistance on this is so good.
It's usually a medium to short-term wall application.
Like, let's say you have a big event at the local museum.
They're going to do all the walls.
You print directly on this adhesive vinyl.
Usually people who are good at vehicle wraps, they can do this stuff, no trouble.
They go in there with squeegees, squeegee it down, put it on the wall.
Some you got to be aware of.
You want to be aware that VOC… low-VOC paints have changed the equation a little bit.
So, the Avery 2511 is a great example.
In our demo center, we would put it on the wall and the 2511 would fall off the wall.
And it's supposed to be a medium tack, so that when you put it on, it sticks.
And then when you want to remove it in a year, you take it back off,
and it doesn't take off, off the paint or the drywall with it.
Well the problem is, the paint industry has changed the chemistry of the paints.
And low-VOC paints – and there's all different types – seem to have an effect on the adhesion
of a lot of the wall films that we're developed.
So, you get these mismatches.
We certainly had it in our demo center.
We repainted the walls with a good coat of primer and a good coat of regular paint,
and now all of that wallcovering works beautiful again.
But if you can't control the paint, or it's very thing,
you may have to switch to a stronger adhesive.
The trouble with a stronger adhesive is, now it doesn't come off
the wall as cleanly when you want to remove it.
So, you have to consider all these things.
It's kind of created like a little bit of a roadblock in the whole mural, self-adhesive,
peel-away market.
And everybody's suffering from a little confusion.
It'll get sorted out.
It just takes time.
These are also some very popular peel-aways.
Peel-aways, isn't just necessarily… removable liner isn't necessarily just
a smooth material like an adhesive vinyl.
This Mactac DecoMural; this has like almost an intense canvas structure to it.
And again, it's a peel-away.
So, you take the liner off; put it right up on the wall.
People that are comfortable doing fleet wraps or vehicle wraps, which is a lot of our customer base,
they'll feel very comfortable with this kind of media.
This is probably the big daddy in that category.
PhotoTex.
PhotoTex has an aqueous and a solvent-base.
Latex will really print on either.
But because it's a water-based printer,
I usually recommend you want to go with a water-based selection.
So, if you have a choice out there, go with the aqueous.
We are water-based ink, after all.
The PhotoTex is very popular in its category.
Again, it's a peel-away, repositionable, and has a fabric-like texture to it.
There's many companies making something very similar to this.
PhotoTex is probably the best known.
These are some other examples.
Here's Catalina.
They have this beautiful Augusta Wall Graphics.
It's got this great linen, canvas-like texture to it.
Again, a peel-away wall adhesive.
And here's a FlexCon; also a wall deco fabric.
Those are very easy if people have a comfor… comfortable basis with vehicle wraps and,
or fleet rap installation.
The last one I want to cover is a very unique product.
And this a magnet wall graphic system.
This is actually done by Visual Magnetics.
They've been working with us for a long time.
Have a brilliant product; very innovative.
What it is, is the opposite of what you might think.
You actually take a magnet.
You peel away the back of it.
And there's different ways you can do this.
I like to peel away.
And then that goes on the wall.
Now, that's a strong magnet system which means you can layer all sorts of things on top of it,
because it's a really strong pull.
You're printing on films that actually have a magnet-receptive surface.
So, this is, you know, probably like a ferrous film oxide in this.
When you print on this and put it on the wall, the magnet pulls it on.
It's a removable point-of-purchase, point-of-sale system.
And it works great with the Latex printers.
This is the Visual Magnetics Polymatte 14; more of a matte finish.
And you put this on the wall and you can layer it.
You can put, you know, picture frames up there, will hold on this magnet.
You can layer things on top of each other.
What's great about the Visual Magnetics process is,
you have a blank slate that can be filled easily and quickly.
And then when you want it down, you just take it off, roll it up, and set it aside.
So, if you were doing a lot of seasonal things, doing a
removable magnet-based system makes a lot of sense.
You're going to do Saint Patrick's Day.
And then you can do Easter.
And then you can do Valentine's day.
You can do Christmas, Halloween.
And all you have to do is take it down, roll it up, and you can save it.
You don't have to dismantle it and break it all down all the time.
It's an investment on the front end, but long-term you can actually save quite a bit of money
on having to replace and re-do all the time.
So, to kind of summarize.
You have your PVC, which is a traditional paste.
Usually I would be inclined to put a laminate on it.
And you can even, in some cases in small jobs,
short murals, you could roll it on yourself, let it dry.
DreamScape, for example, sells a roll-on laminate you can put on there.
But you want a little additional scratch and scuff resistance than the way it comes.
The next step, that's going to be your nonwovens, your PVC-free.
We even have a type-two certified PVC-free option.
Then you have all of your sort of paper-based products.
And then you have your self-adhesive, like the HP and the Ahlstrom,
which have their own, like, paste on the back.
And you can get them wet with water.
Those are very good DIY choices.
Then you have your peel-aways, which can be smooth, like the DCM or the Avery.
Or they can be highly textured, like the Catalina or the PhotoTex.
And then you have magnet systems.
Magnet systems are a good point-of-purchase, point-of-sale.
That's sort of the general outline of wallcoverings, where we are today.
And then within each of those I encourage you to go to trade shows and look around.
There's a lot of great wall decor stuff out there,
and we're very concentrated on it for the Latex systems.