It was a tough job, but our team was up for it. They packed up mid-week and headed over to Miami to check out the Cruise Ship Interiors Expo at the Miami Beach Convention Center. What they found was endless opportunities for wide-format print applications!
More than 2,850 attendees attended the inaugural Cruise Expo to check out the growing needs for new, innovative products for new cruise ship builds and even more so the refurbishment of existing cruise ships.
“This event is something that we’ve needed,” says Antonio di Nenno, Lead Architect, MSC Cruises. “The market is changing and for the interiors industry, there’s nothing like this!”
Of course, trade shows in our industry are always full of the latest trends, and this show in Miami didn’t disappoint! We learned that 20 to 30 million people travel on cruises every year, a stat that’s grown 6% in the last few years.
Like we’ve learned in digital printing, cruises are becoming more and more customized, rather than the “one-size-fits-all” approach. Themes like music, food, fitness and sports are really fine-tuning the cruising experience. And that translates to the need for more and more customized décor, graphics and signage, which is where wide-format PSPs can find some amazing opportunities.
LexJet customer FrameWorks Miami, which specializes in fine art printing and framing wanted to make a splash — almost literally — with their Fish Market & Fruit Stand exhibit during the Expo. We partnered with them to used ChromaLuxe metal panels in a super creative way. Using dye-sub technology, FrameWorks Miami created whimsical samples with fish and fruit prints that were cut to various shapes.
“From sardines, snapper, mahi to any type of fruit you can imagine, they had it,” says LexJet sales rep, Vince Bejar. “They even printed their own butcher paper to wrap up the samples for their potentials clients to take back with them to show off their state-of-the-art digital printing solutions. The attention to detail shown in their booth design & execution was seriously outstanding, especially since they created nearly everything in-house.”
We’re excited to see where cruise ship decor takes us in the near future. Printers looking to branch out into decor printing — like wallcoverings and wall art, such as canvas wraps — will find a ton of opportunities when working with this sector. Give us a call at 800-453-9538 for more ideas.
