Digital printer saves the spray

Digitalpress’ new premises has drawn the attention of inner-city spray-can artists, but the word on the street is that manager Theo Pettaras doesn’t mind at all.

Grafitti artists can get your goat but Pettaras reckons the best of their work is worth keeping. When a maverick spray canner opened up on the hoardings around Digitalpress’ new Surry Hills location, he gained himself a new fan.

“Some talented Surry Hills graffiti artist has come by at night and did over our temporary hoardings. We love it and actually will use it to decorate our internal courtyard,” said Pettaras, managing director.

Now located in Devonshire Street, the new Digitalpress site is larger to accommodate newly purchased equipment, including fully-automated wiro binding and automated cello glazing, along with an expanded client meeting space.

Pictured: City slickers from Digitalpress outside their new home.

“When we first started three years ago we were testing the waters – we knew the technology was around but we weren’t sure how it was going to go, so we moved into fairly small premises,” said Theo Pettaras, managing director. “But we know it works and we’ve got new equipment so we built a place where people will come to work out their marketing plans and ideas.”

Making the move one week before Christmas might have seemed like a risk, but Pettaras had the help of Kodak in moving the company’s NexPress, while Melbourne licensed partner, Excel Australia, was used to take care of any jobs in the meantime.

Pettaras has always prided himself on Digitalpress’ close working relationship with designers and artists in the marketing industry, and says that the new premises is designed to welcome that creative element.

“It’s amazing – people are blown away by it. We’ve still got construction going on and it won’t be completely ready for another few months. But the designers totally get it,” he said.

“There are some very interesting things happening here,” he explained. With more new equipment to come, 2009 is shaping up to be a big year for Digitalpress. Pettaras said that there will be a strong focus on their direct marketing clients, with an emphasis on innovative print technologies.

“We’re looking at some really trickly variable data printing applications using print technology that not only makes the piece look good but feel good too – bringing in that third, tactile dimension,” he said.