In September 2001, HP announced its acquisition of Indigo N.V. for approximately $882 million — absorbing the Israeli company that had pioneered digital printing technology and bringing variable data digital printing into the mainstream of the global printing industry. Print Expo 2001 was held at precisely this inflection point, and the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation and Printing Industries of America chose it as the moment to demonstrate to the industry exactly what this technology could do in the hands of a skilled creative team.
The Bloom Agency was engaged to create that demonstration. As creative director, photography director, and account executive, I conceived and engineered the D4D — Designing for Digital — campaign from the ground up: a live variable data printing experience in which trade show attendees entered their name at a kiosk, selected one of three custom poster concepts, and received a full-color 11×17 personalized poster on heavy stock, rolled into a tube and ready to take home, printed in minutes on HP Indigo technology. It was one of the earliest large-scale public demonstrations of variable data digital printing as a consumer-facing creative experience.
The three poster concepts were each specifically composed and photographed to accept dynamically inserted personalized names with photo-realistic perspective and distortion — not as obvious overlays, but as elements that appeared physically present in the image. This required precise engineering of what I called type envelopes: carefully constructed zones within each photograph that controlled the perspective geometry and surface texture the variable text would need to match. Getting a name to read as if it were actually stamped on a bicycle license plate, engraved on a motorcycle plate, or embedded in a Hollywood Walk of Fame star required the photography to be built around the variable data mechanics from the first frame.
All three background images were conceived and produced specifically for this project. The bicycle and motorcycle were rented props, photographed in a studio in Silver Spring, Maryland. The Hollywood Walk of Fame star — “Make Each of Your Customers Feel Like a Star” — was shot in the lobby of the GATF building in Alexandria, Virginia, with the feet of one of my art directors standing at the edge of the star. Every inch of every image was designed to serve the production requirement.
The campaign was well received at Print Expo 2001 — but the show unfolded against an extraordinary backdrop. Print Expo 2001 was held in Chicago, and the attacks of September 11, 2001 occurred during the run of the show. The exhibition continued, attendees collected their personalized posters, and the demonstration of what variable data digital printing could do landed as intended — but the closing of US airspace in the days that followed left the client stranded in Chicago, unable to return home for several days. It is one of those production stories that sits permanently in the shadow of a larger event.
I was not present at the expo itself. The campaign was delivered into the capable hands of the client team for the show floor execution.
The campaign line was “The Age of Variable-Data Digital Printing” — and at Print Expo 2001, standing at the moment HP was absorbing Indigo and the industry was absorbing what that meant, it wasn’t a claim. It was a demonstration.
Creative Direction, Photography Direction, Account Executive, Variable Data Template Design and Engineering, Dynamic Type Envelope Architecture, Prop Photography
