You could say we’re in the graphics business. And you would mostly be correct. But probably, and most importantly, we’re in the people business.

That is, we’re in the business of making life easier, friendlier, and hopefully, a little less stressful by your choice to work with The Graphical Tree.

Although we invest in top equipment to produce the best graphics we can; although we’ve decided to place ourselves in the centre of London, offering customers and staff convenience, and an inspiring a local environment, it’s equally important, if not more so, that we offer trust, peace of mind and a caring attitude through a first-hand people experience.

It’s our people who make us, ‘us’.

So much so, that it’s super important that we bring in the right people, with the right personality and ethos to work within the team — from account managers, to production staff, to installers, to delivery partners. We like to think The Graphical Tree staff are a reflection the company as a whole.

In the age of remote working, pop-up offices and meeting spaces, and of digital faceless interactions, The Graphical Tree is an open door.

You can’t have a welcoming environment if there’s a, ‘this is our space’ mindset. By visiting our two London studios there’s the opportunity to see the whole company — not just the project managers; not just the production team; not just the accounts team, not just our wonderful cleaner, not just the managing director; not just the company founders — it’s all of us collaborating and working in a community together with you.

We’re happy to make visible the labour and care that exists to make The Graphical Tree function as a collaborator, a consultant and as colleagues.

It helps us to interact freely, in a friendly fashion; it helps us all to learn and explore; it helps us to get the best out of our a brief and job spec; and it helps us to get to know you and your requirements as best as we can, forming the best working relationships as we can, and hopefully affording us the best of days.

People work with people, after all.

Originally published at https://www.thegraphicaltree.com on March 25, 2025.

We believe that the graphics and display industry needs to transition away from non-recyclable or non-reusable materials. Collaboration with suppliers, clients, and other partners is essential to achieving this. Also, the sharing of knowledge helps our customers better understand the sustainable options available and inform their choices.

Minimizing our impact on the environment is a responsibility we believe everyone should take seriously. Our commitment to sustainable printing, materials and advice is part of this.

You can watch the conversation video by following this link.

And find out more about environmental and sustainability offerings here.

Originally published at https://www.thegraphicaltree.com on April 22, 2024.

Florida, USA, late 1970’s. Alan Gelfland invents skateboarding classic, ‘the ollie.’ Local surfers Matt Kechele and compadre Greg Loehr, inspired, took to designing and shaping boards that could fly on the waves. Their fathers were aerospace engineers — remember the space race took off from Cape Canaveral — so a scientific approach was in their blood. Their twin-fin Kech Air followed the skateboard’s silhouette and allowed for max speed and tail release. Mission accomplished. Did you know probably the most famous surfer of them all, Kelly Slater, surfed the Florida beaches? It’s all making sense now, isn’t it? *

It’s a fun and historical story. One where looking back, you can see the river of innovation flow. Who knows what you can accomplish or invent with an open mind and surrounded by an eclectic mix of influences and knowledge, right.

How to interview for a vibrant large format print studio

We’re fortunate at The Graphical Tree that our turnover of staff is few. People stay for a long duration. This is a testament to the company and how staff are appreciated, whilst also suggesting that we’ve brought the right people into the business to contribute to its community. When interviewing we took it upon ourselves to ask potential colleagues what they did, and enjoyed, outside of work. We knew the interviewees were accomplished at the position applying for, but what was it that made them tick What could they bring to the room, to invigorate those around them and the business at large? It’s a nice question to ask because it engages the person opposite you to talk about a passion they have. So who do we have in our midst? Who was it that inspired us when interviewing at The Graphical Tree? Well, we have a BMX trickster, two mini-fashion moguls — one a vintage menswear sourcer and seller, the other a counter-culture inspired designer; a photographer with a penchant for shadows and light; a house music DJ; a fishing champion; a long-standing experienced allotmenteer and baker; a yoga studio owner; a sports science graduate; and a do-it-yourself car builder.

We believe that this all helps to make The Graphical Tree a vibrant, interesting place to be and hang out at. Hopefully, this radiates out like a set of rideable waves to you too, and the experience our customers feel is one of interested satisfaction, and enjoyment.

If you’re interested in where our staff hangs out and where the work is produced, you can read about our two production sites in the following articles. This is the piece covering our Uxbridge production site, and this covers the benefits of our central London studio.

(* Inspired by The Surfers Journal, 32.1)

It’s easy to use something only once. It’s also easy to throw something away.

And despite your sustainability leanings it’s also easy to discard something if you think it cannot be recycled.

So although we’re careful with our waste removal, and choose our refuse collectors wisely (thank you First Mile) there are still everyday items we use that end up in the bin. Although we know these are used to make energy rather than being dumped into a landfill, it’s still painful to know, and wish that we could do more. We were delighted to know…

We can be more sustainable

It came as a welcome surprise recently that we found a user, or should that be a re-user for many of the hard plastic items we would have normally been forced to throw away. Are You Mad produced a pop-up shop in London’s Carnaby Street and approached us to produce some eco-friendly graphics. This inventive manufacturer and retailer take unwanted, unrecyclable plastic and make it into something else. We jumped at the chance to show them a number of the things we usually discard — unwanted plastic lids for dispatch tubes, caps from roll media, off-cuts of foamex (a fire-rated plastic board media suitable for both indoor and outdoor graphics), etc. “Yes, absolutely”, they said, “We can use this.” So now, once a week, the collection team from Are You Mad drops by to pick up all the items we’ve saved for them to put to good use.

Closed-loop recycling

Closed-loop recycling is a process by which a product or material can be used to make a new product, or converted back to a raw material without losing its properties during the recycling process.

By reducing the production and use of raw materials, closed-loop recycling allows us to minimize the harm done to the environment as well as lessen the depletion of the earth for something we might use as a human resource.

Are You Mad plans to create ‘the first closed-loop plastic recycling experiment held within an urban retail community…’ (with the) waste transformed, into a conceptual retail space, furniture that lives on the street, and into design lead products.’

Patchwork thinking

So where does patchwork thinking come into the equation, and what is it? Patchwork thinking is effectively the building of a community to help. It’s the bringing in of other ideas, other methods, other people, to create something and help the greater good. We all have our specific expertise, and although we are brilliant at producing large-format print and display graphics, we do need the aid and experience of others in specialist areas such as recycling and waste management. They help us to fulfill our potential and solve some of the dilemmas we cannot fix ourselves.

So when we found someone who could reuse many of our more difficult-to-recycle items, we jumped at the chance. We’d be mad not to, wouldn’t we?

You can find out more about our sustainable print offering here, and read about ways to be sustainable with your graphics.

Working with JW Anderson

Nothing, and we mean nothing, will say playing with possibility like this print work we produced for fashion label JW Anderson.

We have been working with the brand for a few years now, producing graphics for their stores and showrooms, as well as a number of bespoke events. We actually started working with JW Anderson after producing their collaboration graphics with another long-term customer, Uniqlo.

It’s fair to say we have their trust and they often pick our brains and our knowledge when approaching a new brief. It was certainly the case with this project.

How to make a large format printed dress

So when the JW Anderson team came to us wanting to inkjet print onto a roll media which would then be tailored into a catwalk dress, the gauntlet was well and truly thrown down.

As you can imagine the job gave us much to contemplate, including what material could we use, how could it be printed and what colour testing would be needed.

After discussing the brief and the end product they were hoping to make — an actual bonafide dress to be used on the catwalk — we suggested a roll material called static cling printed CMYK (full colour) and with tones of white on one of our HP Latex printers to accentuate certain areas of the print, highlighting the fish. Considerations were made for how the media would be cut, stitched and folded, as well as how it would be worn and viewed on the catwalk. And although the media sticks by, you guessed it, static, it’s beautifully malleable allowing for folds to be made without any noticeable crease appearing.

We worked with the design team of JW Anderson to colour test various artworks, adjusting print ink levels before deciding on a version. We eventually produced a number of large format prints 137cm x 212cm in size which were used for the final piece.

We’re pleased to say that so successful was the dress that it was featured by the prestigious Vogue Runway.

Get in touch

Drop us a message if you have an idea you want to put into place, no matter how crazy it might seem at the time.

You can call us on 020 7580 4405, or email us here ~ print@thegraphicaltree.com

How is the large format print industry doing re-sustainability?

The large format print industry is making significant inroads into its sustainable practices and eco offering. It’s been trying for years but we felt with very little traction. Despite how loud some of us have been shouting over the last 10–15 years, asking the question to our own suppliers, “where are the environmentally friendly materials?”, eco media and substrate options were thin on the ground until recently. This was most likely due to a lack of customer take-up and therefore a lack of investment in suitable Research and Development. There have been some exceptions to the rule of course, and thankfully rising consumer demand for eco-friendly products is fuelling the availability of new printing substrates from most suppliers now. We do understand that R&D takes time but it certainly feels like a ‘hurry up’ has taken place in the past 12 months with new products seemingly being launched weekly.

Money talks at the end of the day even if we personally believe it’s a social responsibility for manufacturers and service providers to offer sustainable products for their customers and users. For example, interesting advances in vegetable-based eco-solvent and waterless-based inks are being made within the large format print industry. And along with biodegradable media, these are exciting developments with potential big sustainability impacts. This is in addition to the latex-based inkjets we already use. Recycled fibre boards and PVC-free roll media is already fairly commonplace although there is still the thorny issue of re-use and recycling that needs to be addressed.

How else can we be sustainable?

Of course, there are other ways to offer sustainable print, not just the materials you offer. Reducing energy consumption is, for want of a better term, a hot topic right now. We have gone from blisteringly hot summer periods to the genuine threat of a cold winter due to rising fuel costs. Closing down computers and printing RIPs when not in use is a good way to reduce energy, as of course is turning off lighting.

The Graphical Tree made a conscious decision when choosing our second production site in West London as it offers in-house energy generation through solar power. This was the same with our choice of flatbed direct-to-media printer which uses low-energy LED bulb ink curing rather than the heater-based version in most other machines.

Print management can also play an active role in media and energy usage. A good production team can plan jobs in unison on the same media and printer rather than chopping and changing from one media to another, only to have to put the same media back on the printer again to run another job. This cuts back on media wastage for starters. If you can look at the big production picture including which materials need to be used and their deadlines, you’ll find you’ll make savings on media, energy and time. Can you also bulk order to consolidate your material deliveries saving on fuel consumption (and extra delivery charges)? The same can be said of despatch — is it possible to arrange collection/delivery of local jobs on foot (by yourself or a customer) or perhaps use a pushbike service? You can read our Tips for Sustainable Graphics article here.

Speaking up about Climate Change

At the end of the day, there’s no point in hiding. We have to face the fact that Climate Change is here and real, and will greatly affect life unless we rise to the occasion now. It has to be a social responsibility to think and act sustainably in business. There is no point in greenwashing as the planet will see through it. Greenwashing cannot be a facade to sell more products.

If we make a noise and ask for change from those that have the power to implement it, then change can in fact happen. Plastic-free packaging will happen just as the reduction of plastic shopping bags has in major supermarkets. Even five years ago the number of sustainable eco materials on the market for large format print service providers was very few and far between. But for the continued asking of questions and requests to the media manufacturers, coupled with the post-pandemic demand from customers, things are starting to change rapidly at last. It’s a pleasure, and a necessity, for The Graphical Tree to be part of the Print Working Group at isla because it helps inform and structure the narrative about environmentally friendly practices within our industry, and hopefully at government level too — that’s certainly the plan.

All this with the new government going ahead with the fracking directive in the UK, Boris Johnson urging us to “go big” with a new nuclear energy plant, and energy prices rising due to the ongoing situation in Ukraine. Renewable energy should be on the up, harnessing the abundant sea and wind power opportunities we have by being an island nation bordering both the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. It would be easy to get off your soapbox, but we have a platform of sorts, and we should be using it to educate about what is possible from a sustainable large format print perspective.

So, please ask about sustainable media when you talk to us about a large format print quote — it gives us more (green) fuel to press our large format print suppliers with to implement more change for the good. We have options available to you. Surprisingly many are very cost-effective and even cheaper than some of those more familiar. Admittedly others are a little more pricy than the standard materials, but we think the planet is worth the investment. We know our children will think so too.

Did you hear that we won Best in Show at last week’s UK Graphic Awards. And we’re fully over the moon to have won!

What is the UK Graphic Awards?

The UK Graphic Awards is a yearly event that celebrates highly skilled professionals in the wide-format print industry. The accolade celebrates the natural talent and creativity that is invested in the production of clients’ exhibitions, displays, and other well-esteemed projects. Often these projects have a big impact on commercial, social, and artistic communities.

What the judges said

The prize is in recognition of our work on the Felipe Pantone installation at The Saatchi Gallery’s Beyond the Streets show.

The judges said that during the judging process, they had to Google the gallery and make sure this one was real! It was so mind-blowing and they had never seen anything like it before. …and said that the unusual design and creativity, coupled with flawless execution, gave this submission an edge over the rest. They added that a line included in the submission from The Graphical Tree says it all ~

“The design may be bamboozling, but it’s also visually interesting, attention-grabbing, and, importantly, memorable. For us, it’s a privilege to play a part in producing some show-stopping graphics, ones that the audience will no doubt remember for a long time after exiting the gallery. What is art for after all, if it doesn’t provoke feeling and a memory.”

How we won Best in Show

The project covered five walls and the floor with this brilliant design. This consisted of the entrance wall, two partition walls, the left wall, the right wall, and a floor graphic along with six plinths. The whole production run in total equated to over linear 230m of self-adhesive vinyl print, and an additional 230m linear of seal. It’s also a lot of media to produce and install.

You can find our recent work at the Felipe Pantone at the Saatchi Gallery

Originally published at https://www.thegraphicaltree.com on October 11, 2023.

Hanging out is such an American-sounding phrase, but it’s such a global thing to do. When we are kids, we often hung out with our friends, talking, inventing games on the fly, you know, just hanging out. There’s a certain flow which comes when there is no set agenda to accomplish or things to complete.

But we find that in and amongst our working lives a lot of hanging out actually happens as well.

In and amongst our working lives a lot of hanging out happens. It’s interesting to hear the team in The Graphical Tree’s two studios go about their business. For all the focus on getting things done, managing and producing graphics, there’s also a lot of banter, conversation and communication that happens in between. We don’t have a quiet office, but a vibrant one that mixes work with community and a lot of hanging out. It’s such an interesting phenomenon that scholar Shelia Liming has written a book about it called Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time. Not that we’re ‘killing’ much time around here either, there’s always something interesting happening, ‘people to see, places to go’, as the saying goes — the other one is, ‘if you want something done, give it to a busy person,’ — nod nod, wink wink…

Another great place for work hangouts is while on a site visit. There can be pregnant pauses while waiting for things to happen, for people to arrive or for others to finish their tasks. So what do you do? You hang out. It’s these in-between moments which can often bring value and comradery, affording joint moments of connection between customer and supplier, and nurturing a working relationship that until then may have been task and deadline orientated. Not that either take their eye off the prize so to speak, but when you have the chance to hang out there’s the possibility of friendly interaction.

Taking your guard down a little, and being natural with each other can help working relationships foster trust, empathy and togetherness. It’s one of the reasons when we’re recruiting that we take our time, to bring in people who we feel are the right fit for The Graphical Tree as a whole. We like staff to be able to interact with each other, customers, and suppliers alike. It all aids in a friendly, open, yet professional atmosphere, that helps to make everyone as relaxed as they can in their roles — it eases the pressure somewhat as things can obviously get very stressful when an approaching deadline looms.

Hanging out can also help you find out some useful information which might benefit both sides of the conversation too — not so much our guards are down, more so our receptors are out and our inquisitive nature comes to the surface. We can ask questions which maybe we didn’t feel were relevant and yet could pay dividends down the line — does your colleague like milk of dark chocolate perhaps, weaker or stronger tea, right through to taking noting if their parents are in good health or not, for example. It’s not prying, it’s taking an interest in each other’s well-being along the way. And who doesn’t like the odd bar of nice chocolate as a gift every so often?

As the above suggests, hanging out, whether with friends or at work can also help with mental health we find. Having the chance to connect with peers while performing a work role is a way to express our humanness, and normalness, in often stressful environments and situations. Perhaps it gives us some grounding and creates humour in and amongst all the emails, production and interactions. So we’re all for friendly banter and conversation that helps to make the workplace more accessible and inviting for each other and for clients alike. We all have similar shared responsibilities at the end of the day — to produce great graphics that enhance our portfolios and potential, and with retail especially, encouraging customer purchasing.

We’re sure the good vibes are transferable. So when the prints and cut vinyl decals are packaged up, some of The Graphical Tree’s energy is wrapped up in there as well, waiting to flow and hang out at the other end to share with you too.

Originally published at https://www.thegraphicaltree.com on July 15, 2023.

Last week a long-term customer of The Graphical Tree dropped in to see us in central London. He didn’t have any work to produce. He didn’t have a brief to chat with us about. He didn’t need a quote. He didn’t even have a cup of tea. He was just passing and wanted to pop in to say hello and see if we were all okay.

In a recent Kinfolk article, entitled Can a Brand be Friends With its Fans? the magazine spoke about brand community and people wanting to feel welcomed, included, and a part of something. Now The Graphical Tree isn’t an uber-cool fashion house, a major tech company, or a lifestyle brand. But it is a place where customers are certain of the quality provided, know they are welcome, and that we can be trusted. Who wouldn’t want to be associated with a brand like that?

During the pandemic lockdown of 2020, with all staff on furlough, the phones were redirected to one of the directors, Simon (that’s me). Now although the phone admittedly, and perhaps obviously, didn’t ring very much during this awful time, on at least half a dozen occasions customers rang to say hello and ask how we were getting on. It was an enlightening and humbling experience, to hear about the emotional bond that some clients have with their point-of-contact at The Graphical Tree. They were genuine and, despite the situation, the conversations I had were beneficial for the well-being of us all, as well as an acknowledgment of how much we valued each other’s existence, as a company and as people.

We operate using an account manager system. But what that actually means, is that customers like speaking to the same person if possible. We honour this. The AM, the point of contact, knows the history of the orders placed; knows the quirks that might happen; knows dimensions and colour references; and understand the personalities in place. People work with people. We learned this the moment fellow director and owner Douglas and I started The Graphical Tree in 2007. We were in the people business, as well as the printing business.

As customer X left us, they said, “I hope you don’t mind me just popping in to see the guys.”
“I’d be more concerned if you didn’t,” I replied.

Originally published at https://www.thegraphicaltree.com on April 27, 2023.

There is always a bit of an interesting backstory with most companies, whether in the creative scene or not. And, that is certainly true of The Graphical Tree. Discover some of our natural inspiration, that has been part of the journey for this large-format print company to what it beholds today.

In a recently released interview between the two rock royalties, Flea (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and Iggy Pop, Iggy was talking about influences on some of the early Stooges songs. These range from Bo Diddley and Pharoah Sanders beats, to Revell’s Bolero (remember Torvil and Dean?). To the uninitiated, this seems like a crazy mix to inspire punk rock. Equally, to those who sing along to the (Iggy) pop anthem Lust for Life, 1950’s rock and roll, spiritual jazz, and classical might seem an odd mix to jump off from. But you have to start from somewhere, and sometimes the eclectic is the better.

What inspired a large-format print brand?

What inspired The Graphical Tree? Well, no doubt the years of work and the accumulation of creative and print industry experience beforehand. Add to that a mix of graphic design careers, street culture living, travel to far-flung places such as Mexico City and Kathmandu, the ever-evolving history of Soho, and working for top-of-the-class retail brands, global financial institutions, and big events. They all played their part in influencing the desire to create a company that looked good, felt good, and would produce good work. They say never judge a book by its cover, but we don’t really believe that. Image and first impressions go a long way. We’re the sum of our parts and do our best to look and feel as inviting, professional, and interesting externally as we act internally.

Iggy Pop has been making music now for over 55 years. Let that sink in, fifty-five years. You cannot possibly have that long a successful career and still be inspired to do more unless you keep your eyes, ears, and feelings open to what’s going on around you, near and far, and absorb its influences. The Graphical Tree are 16 years old this year, fledgling by comparison, but we do keep ourselves open to experiences that enhance us as individuals and therefore as a company. Did anyone see our previous article about the alternative astrophysics of building a good team?

Associating with large-format print brand

You can see these influences in our work. In some respects, it is us giving back to the influences, giving back to the cultures which give us so much. Brands align with The Graphical Tree because they can associate with us. They can see we’re a worldly bunch, that we live within the world we serve. And because of this associated view, customers can see we have a genuine interest in the work and will most likely be empathetic (true) to any issues and requirements when producing large-format display graphics for a project, event, or retail campaign.

A successful large-format print brand

We believe we’re so much more than brilliant quality work, friendly and informative staff, and budget-friendly pricing at The Graphical Tree. But you have to walk the walk too, allowing our abundance of influences to help create a forward-thinking, somewhat fearless, and vibrant brand in itself. As a reward, we get to work with the likes of fashion brands Reebok, Longchamp, JW Anderson, Uniqlo, and END. As well as interesting and challenging projects like these for the Overture Events and Pinsent Mansons’ entrance installation, the Halcyon Gallery, Toni Leigh Hawkes Creative’s giant drapery tape measure, our ever-famous Oxford Street Pride graphics, and this incredible project for Felipe Pantone at the Saatchi Gallery’s Beyond the Streets London exhibition. You can find the Felipe Pantone case study here.

So, come and say hello, and see how ‘you’ can inspire us too. Who knows what amazing large format print and display work it may lead to?

Originally published at https://www.thegraphicaltree.com on March 14, 2023.