Digital printing as a creative, user-orientated tool

TT
TRENDS
Digital printing as a creative,
user-orientated tool
authors M. Payá Saez, A. García Cobos,
A. Piñot Murillo, J.L. Pérez Gurillo, N. Coll Bad’ *
With additional text by Anthony Stock
In 2000 the company
KERAJET, together with the
company Ferro Enamel,
presented the first inkjet
decorating machine for ceramic
decoration, which led to the
Alfa de Oro award at the
CEVISAMA 2000 trade fair.
16 | Tile Today #79 | www.infotile.com/publications
Ceracasa Cerámica received the 2007 Alfa de Oro, an annual award given by
the Valencia Ceramics and Glass Association and Cevisama, in recognition
of its ‘emotile’ project, which has developed the technology to reproduce all
types of images, photographs and textures on porcelain tiles, adding a 100
per cent personalised touch to any space. Customised designs can be printed
locally by NCIA. Standard fixing techniques can be used to heights of approx
3.5 metres, or mechanical fixing can be employed.
D
igital printing provides numerous, well-known benefits:
industrial agility, lower ink
consumption and pre-printing systems, versatility in graphics and
aesthetics. On the other hand, digital
printing has led to a closer relationship
with the end-user, which has attracted
the attention of creative spirits, enhancing the urban environment and acting
as a tool for promoting ceramics in different professional contexts, as set out
below.
Our sole major manufacturer of ceramic tile National Ceramic Industries
Australia (NCIA) quickly followed the
inkjet decoration trend by installing
several advanced Creta machines. This
permits NCIA to promptly develop new
design concepts and rapidly produce
relatively small batches of product to
meet customer demand. This article
addresses the seemingly endless possibilities which exist for designers and
end-users to participate in the customisation of specific designs for one-off, or
repeated use, courtesy of digital printing processes.
Glitz (Dominic Crinson) courtesy Urban Edge Ceramics
process. Different companies currently
offer digital ceramic printing services.
Signatured product
Signatured products have found high
acceptance by users and buyers, particularly by architects and interior designers, and increasingly by the general
public who prefer to know the physical
Customisation
and aesthetic identity of the products
that they are purchasing.
The turn of the century shaped up as
This phenomenon, which emerged
the start of customisation. In 2002, the
at the turn of the century, was analysed
trends study published by ALICER:
by David Brooks in his book ‘Bobos in
‘Factors driving aesthetic trends in the
Paradise’, which defines a social class
ceramic tile sector’ showed how different
that distinguishes itself not just by what
industrial sectors began to work on deit buys but by how it participates in the
signing products and services aimed at
process, preferring to choose from a highsatisfying the personal taste of the user.
quality product range. In general, buying
The project ‘Seven x seven’, presentbecomes an act of acquiring extremely
ed at Trans-hitos (Cevisama 2006), suvaluable knowledge for well-being; it is
ggested ways of working with ceramic
not just a matter of purchasing products,
products in embodying this trend and
but one needs to be able to speak intelput forward a system of ceramic pieces
ligently of them. Customisation is put
with chromatic and formal variants
above standardisation. When the book
with the possibility of customising the
was published in 2001, this buyer intengraphics. Unlike the printing systems
tion was viewed as rather difficult to acthat had been used until then, which
commodate or service within the ceramic
required ink separation by four-colour
industry, but it has today become an
printing to obtain a photographic imactual fact since companies are increasage that the designer interpreted,
ingly articulating services for printing
digital printing systems favoured the
ceramics and murals with different uses.
participation of the user in the creative
The ease of designing ceramic products
with a digital printing
system has favoured
the influx of creative
spirits from different disciplines, who
have been able to express their creativity
through ceramics. One
of the pioneers in creating graphics proposals
with digital printing
for ceramic tilings has
been the English designer Crinson.
In 2001, at the 100%
Design show, Dominic
Crinson
presented
A bar counter in Pamplona, Spain features a historic design
created using digital printing processes pioneered by Ceracasa.
tiles
with
indirect
digital printing. Despite not providing
the same technical characteristics as
decorated and fired ceramic pieces, the
products designed by Dominic Crinson
found widespread acceptance and have
been used in public as well as private
spaces, customised compositions being
made as a function of the area to be
clad.
Urban environment
In 2007, the decoration of ceramics
by digital printing was launched as a
specialised service for professionals,
architects, and interior designers. The
company CERACASA pioneered the
offer of this custom service, and was
awarded the Alfa de Oro prize for the
project at CEVISAMA 2007.
This service has enabled playful
solutions in town planning to be
created for the young, such as the largescale Snakes and Ladders game in the
Castellón harbour area, Moll de Costa
del Grao, and a solution with a more
documentary character, such as the
restaurant ‘La Mandarra de la Ramos’
in Pamplona, in which the bar counter
displays historic images.
However, beyond documentation,
the preservation of signage in the natural environment requires products that
are able to withstand the inclemencies
of the weather and the damaging effects
of the sun’s rays on colour. It is here
that only ceramics can assure permanent stability.
A sign of the times
A further digital printing contribution
has been a resurgence of interest in
advertising with a ceramic substrate.
Applications include large-sized compositions which also serve as building
protection, ceramic street signs in urban decorated settings, digital printing
facilitates sign-writing or sign-painting,
which can provide each street or square
with a particular historic, symbolic, or
modern-day design.
www.infotile.com/publications | Tile Today #79 | 17
TT
TRENDS
Invites broader participation
Beyond academic or regulated training, digital printing helps bring ceramics closer to different student groups
(such as architecture, interior design,
and industrial design students) and
to professionals in the ceramic sector,
who have developed projects based on
their participation in creative workshops. Examples of such events have
been the workshop entitled ‘Ceramics
and the city’, delivered by José Durán,
which put forward paving solutions
with graphic patterns for the Isabel
La Católica square in Castellón, and
the workshop ‘How decoration becomes
functional’, delivered by Sam Baron,
which brought ceramics closer to the
artwork, or drawing that can be digitised and added to the face of a single
tile or a panel of tiles. Few if any limitations exist beyond our capacity to comprehend the vast potential and power
that digital inkjet printing provides for
unlimited extension of ceramic art and
decoration in private residences and our
broad built environment.
REFERENCES
Ceramic street signage created by Decorativa.
social life of the townspeople, transforming market stalls into a colourful
kaleidoscope.
Digital printing appears as an agile, accessible, functional tool for the
future. Amongst further
possibilities, yet to be defined, digital printing will
allow city signage to be
enhanced, architecture
in the natural environment to be camouflaged,
and frontiers in creative
exercises to be crossed
by wide-scale participation, thus helping to identify end-user preferences
Tiled Space in collaboration with a group of 15 art students from
in different geographic
Newcastle and Chesterton and artists Sarah Nadin and Nicola
areas.
Winstanley designed and produced a tile mural for Brampton
In theory local designsubway. One of many projects where people come together to
ers or consumers seeking
develop an artistic design to showcase their community, whether
to create a totally unique
it be for a school, subway, or a commercial premises. Tile is
design could supply NCIA
perfect for outdoor use because the colours remain vivid for the
lifetime of the mural.
with a digital image,
[1] AERE. Segmentazione, stili di vita, nuovi
consentti. http://www.aere.it/tempolib/
[2] AERE. L´Evoluzione dei modelli di consumo. http://www.aere.it/tempolib/
[3] AERE. L´Personalizacione nell´uso immateriale dei Beni. http://www.aere.it/
tempolib/
[4] ARNAVAT, A; CURIESES, J; GORT, E, et
al. La cerámica vidriada a l´arquitectura.
Reus: Cambra Oficial de la Propietat
Urbana de Reus i Comarques, 1989.
[5] BROOKS, David. BoBos en el paraíso: ni
hippies ni yuppies un retrato de la nueva
clase triunfadora. Barcelona: Grijalbo,
2001.
[6] Decoración cerámica mediante tecnologías
de chorro de tinta. Castellón: Instituto de
Tecnología Cerámica, 2010.
[7] LA TERCERA. El boom de los “bobos”, el
nuevo símbolo de poder en EE.UU. http://
www.tercera.cl/diario/
[8] OBSERVATORIO DE TENDENCIAS
DEL HÁBITAT. Cuaderno de Tendencias
del Hábitat 10/11. Valencia: IMPIVA,
2010.
[9] PAYÁ, M; SOS, H y RAMÓN, J.J. Factores
que impulsan las tendencias estéticas en
el sector de pavimentos y revestimientos cerámicos. Castellón de la Plana:
ALICER, Asociación para la Promoción
del Diseño Cerámico, 2002.
*Instituto de Tecnología Cerámica (ITC).
Asociación de Investigación de las
Industrias Cerámicas (AICE). Universitat
Jaume I. Castellón, Spain.
Supply any high resolution image you like or choose one from Cotto’s Hyper Bright catalogue
and have it added to the tile or glass surface of your choice.
18 | Tile Today #79 | www.infotile.com/publications
NEW! Magna Mosaiker Ceramic mosaics
Nature
Create a stunning aesthetic using interlocking
designs. Produced on a solid ceramic body for use
on walls & floors. An attractive alternative to
conventional ceramic mosaic.
Contact Urban Edge Ceramics on 03 9429 2122 to
discuss display materials and sales opportunities.
Antique
Infinity
Urban Edge Ceramics
17 - 21 Swan St Richmond Vic 3121
P: 03 9429 2122 F: 03 9429 2133 W: www.urbanedgeceramics.com.au