Get To Roll Along New Trends & Technologies

Many of us still adhere to the old tradition of sign-making and production. There’s no harm in embracing the undying beauty of classic ways of crafting signs. It’s about valuing timeless style and tradition. Classic styles, tradition, and designs hardly ever go out of style. However, what it really takes today to drive business in rhythm of what’s going on in the market is about taking on the fresh dynamism, which largely involves the constant adoptions of the most-upgraded machines, materials, and technologies for printing and producing the ‘signage of the time.’

‘What’s trending in the industry?’ is a mundane question among every one of us asking almost every day. Well, some good old sign shows in India and overseas are turned out to be the right places where we can get the answer to the question. If we pick up an example, APPPEXPO, a flagship global sign show organised annually at Shanghai in China, is one of the perfect platforms where all new developments in terms of machines, materials, and technologies can be grabbed.

Very next or upcoming edition of APPPEXPO is scheduled to take place in March 2026. It will mark the 33rd edition of this landmark show in China where Indian exhibitors and trade visitors in large proportion never miss the wagon to the show. This show is considered as a platform consolidated for print professionals from all businesses. From signage to all sorts of finishing and lighting products and technologies are exhibited in every edition of APPPEXPO.

When we talk about the trend in the industry, it’s really a scenario of heterogeneity. It means sign-makers these days are engaging broadly into two verticals—production of traditionally printed signage graphics and innovatively built digital display systems. Both verticals are going great in their own ways to execute signage or promotional display projects wherever suited and some applications are made as hybrid of the two. This trend is visibly seen in Guwahati city. Sign-makers, machine & material suppliers in this North-East Indian city are quite evolving with significant new trends driven primarily by the rapid technological progressions.

Just recently, our team had roamed around Guwahati city to interact with a select group of sign makers as well as machine and material suppliers. Some of them are our old allies and some new. Many of them engage in multiple tasks of printing and sign-making. A few of them are sole suppliers of premium printing materials and machines among the sign makers, not only in Guwahati but across the entire North-East region, and then to many parts of Eastern India.

Rather than being overly dependent on others, every sign-maker and machine supplier in Guwahati feels they are now self-reliant. Major tasks of sign makers, which they used to outsource earlier to partners based in other regions outside the city, are now handled in-house at fully equipped production setups. Likewise, material and machine suppliers in the city are capable to meet every bit of demand from their clients. What it has been foreseen by the stalwarts of Guwahati’s signage market is the transformation of the city into a vibrant signage hub for East India in the near future.

Sonal Khurana
sonal@smediagroup.in