Fine Art Publisher Captures Short Run Market with MGI Meteor Digital Press
The next time you walk into a Bed Bath and Beyond, take a good look at the framed art prints. Chances are that a good portion of those prints came from Wild Apple Graphics, and the print you’re studying was likely produced on a MGI Meteor digital press.
The next time you walk into a Bed Bath and Beyond, take a good look at the framed art prints. Chances are that a good portion of those prints came from Wild Apple Graphics, and the print you’re studying was likely produced on a MGI Meteor digital press.
Wild Apple Graphics, located in Woodstock, VT, is an art publisher and licenser to the trade with annual revenues over $4 million. Since 1989, they have been a powerful force in discovering new artists, such as Warren Kimble. Wild Apple produces the prints and sells them to retail framers, who then sell the finished “ready to hang” prints to national and regional retail chains (like Bed Bath and Beyond and Target), as well as to furniture stores, the hospitality industry and others. From these sales, Wild Apple pays artists a royalty on sales of posters of their artwork, similar to the relationship between an author and a book publisher.
In terms of production, Wild Apple has an array of inkjet proofers and light production digital, along with a KBA 74Karat offset press, which initially enabled them to bring a lot of their production in-house and speed up their turnaround time for prints to two to three days. However, as the art market continued to evolve, Wild Apple found that they needed to expand their capabilities to be able to accommodate shorter runs of prints, as well as decrease their turnaround time.
After exhaustive testing, Wild Apple decided on MGI’s Meteor multi-substrate digital press, installing it a few months later. With key factors including quality, sheet size and scuff-resistance, the Meteor was the press best suited for their purposes. Jim Chadwick, Director of Technical Services for Wild Apple, also spent a lot of time talking to other Meteor owners, and was impressed with the reliability of the machines and the overall positive experience that other users reported.
“One of our most popular print sizes is 12x36-inch with a full bleed, and the Meteor was the only press that could accommodate that,” said Chadwick. “As a fine art printer, quality and color consistency has to be absolutely top-notch, not only within the run but also for reorders down the road. The Meteor lives up to our high standards, without question. We also think the no click charge philosophy MGI has is great.”
Since installing the Meteor, Wild Apple has met their goal of keeping little to no inventory on-hand of certain print sizes, instead producing jobs on-demand as needed. They can also now accommodate rush orders and a same-day turnaround.
“The ability to produce true short runs now allows us to be competitive in markets we couldn’t work in before,” added Chadwick. “We can now work with our customers in new ways to help them with test programs for their customers, which require ultra-short runs produced in the highest quality and will allow us to keep growing our revenue stream. This also allows us to better serve our customers’ needs, which leads to a stronger relationship overall.”
