The Art of Printing Directly on Plywood
The idea of printing directly on plywood is not a new one. We have been doing it for years. Everything from retail point of purchase POP displays to one-off artist prints for gallery exhibitions.
The process is fairly straight-forward. We can print art in bulk quantities – the same artwork printed many times on a full 4-foot by 8-foot piece of plywood – OR in short-run quantities on smaller, pre-cut sizes made to order.
Photo Printing on Wood - It's all About the Grain
The wood grain tells a story on its own. Like fingerprints, no two sheets of plywood have the same grain-print. This is what makes wood prints standout so much from other print substrates. When the wood grain shows through in the artwork or photos, it sets a subtle organic tone to the piece.
One could easily argue that the grain patterns themselves are noteworthy of attention, but the combination of both wood grain and custom artwork is what makes the art really stand out. And better yet, since the grain patterns are like fingerprints, each piece of art printed on wood, regardless if it was printed in bulk or not, is a unique and one-of-a-kind print.
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Custom Wood Printing for Displays
Point of Sale (POS) and Point of Purchase (POP) Displays
Printing on wood is something that has been around for quite some time and using wood prints for point-of-sale displays has been a favorite of many simply because of its durability and cost. Some of the most popular applications of wood prints and point-of-sale displays have been in retail marketing for niche products.
The organic look and feel of a printed wood display is very appealing to companies who appreciate branding with organic tones. The perfect examples are what we've done for clients like TOMS and REEF. Not only does their stuff look amazing printed on wood, but the wood displays fit-in perfect with their brand identity.
Creating Custom Wood Prints
The Wood Printing Process Explained
In short, the wood prints we create are either printed in full sheets for large quantity runs of the same artwork or in small batches for one-off art and photo pieces. All prints start out as a full sheet of FSC certified plywood. For the larger POP and POS wood print runs, the individual prints are usually cut down to size after they are printed while the wood for short runs and individual print jobs are pre-cut ahead of time.
When it comes time to print on wood, the ink is literally printed directly on the wood and then UV cured to dry and finish the ink. This means you can clean the finished print without ruining the artwork. Different woods soak up the ink differently, but all prints on wood look absolutely amazing. See care details for more info on how to take care of fine art pieces printed on wood.
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