Beyond Paper: Opportunities in Specialty Printing

He says with his first time printing on glass, though it stuck, about two weeks later, they could pick at and peel it off. “You have to figure out, does that need an adhesion promoter, does it need to be laminated, or is there another way of making it stick?” he says.

And while it is a learning curve, sampling and prototyping can also lead to new product lines, as Weatherby notes has been the case for Bay Photo Lab.
From his own experience, Prawdzik emphasizes the power of networking, and finding people doing something similar, who aren’t necessarily direct competitors. “Most [people] in this industry I’ve found are very helpful to tell you what they’re doing, how to do it, the whole nine yards. You just have to have the guts to actually talk to them,” he says. “Maybe they learn just as much [from you]; maybe it spurs them to think about something completely different. [Communicate] with people at PRINTING United, people from different states. Get a hold of somebody that’s a friend of a friend of a friend. Try to make those partnerships. It’s really the best way to do it.”