By Ed Avis
If you happen to be walking around a construction site in Pensacola, Florida, you might notice some
Mesh signage provided by Digital Now Reprographics for a jobsite in Pensacola
workers wearing safety vests emblazoned with their company logo and hard hats with snazzy stickers. And those workers might walk past government-specified labor law posters by the gate, right before they climb scaffolding covered with swaths of mesh signage. All of those graphics, and more, might be the work of Digital Now Reprographics. In fact, Digital Now probably provided the company T-shirts the workers are wearing!
Pam Turner, Digital Now’s owner, says printing graphics for jobsites is a steady business for her firm.
“It depends on how many jobs they’re opening up, and right now in Pensacola we’re still growing,” she says. “I mean, we’re growing a lot. There’s a lot of building going on.”
Safety signage created by Digital Now Reprographics in Pensacola.
Turner’s company has tapped an important market for reprographics firms – projects on jobsites that go beyond the traditional document printing. Because reprographics firms already have relationships with the AEC community, it totally makes sense that they get the graphics printing work found all over most jobsites.
An IRgA survey completed by 20 reprographics firms during the week of June 17 found that 95 percent print jobsite graphics, and slightly more than half of firms doing that work reported sales are up in that category this year over last year. Nearly all the rest said sales are flat; just one company reported that sales are down.
The survey also asked respondents who orders that kind of work. Fifty-three percent said jobsite graphics are ordered by the general contractor; 21 percent said the property owner; and 21 percent said the architect. One respondent said those graphics are ordered by subcontractors.
Outsourcing is an Option
Turner’s company prints much of the jobsite signage they do on an Arizona flatbed printer. Because that printer can handle thick substrates, it’s ideal for metal or coroplast signage.
For hard hat stickers, she prints on vinyl on her Mutoh inkjet printer and cuts them out on a Cox CNC cutter. Some clients who order those stickers need them individually numbered so they can keep track of the hard hats, and she can handle that.
However, Turner says she finds that it’s wiser to outsource some jobsite work. For example, sometimes she prints mesh signage, but a wholesaler can do it quickly and efficiently, and the wholesaler can sew the edges, which she cannot do in-house. Similarly, she outsources the custom printed safety vests and T-shirts, because companies that specialize in that work do it well.
“It’s kind of a no-brainer,” she says of the decision to outsource some projects.
Beyond Printing
Some reprographics firms have found work on jobsites other than printing.
For example, Turner’s company provides printers that are used in jobsite trailers. Twelve of the 20 respondents to the IRgA survey said they do that. Eight of them (73 percent) said that type of business is up in 2024 versus 2023, and only one said it’s down.
Nine of the respondents who outfit trailers with equipment said the equipment is ordered by the general contractor; two said it’s ordered by the architect; and one said subcontractors place those orders.
Smaller numbers of respondents find other opportunities on the jobsite. Two of the 20 (10 percent) provide digital document viewing tables (iPlanTables). The same number of respondents offer 3D scanning or drone photography/scanning. (Click here to read an article about a shop offering 3D scanning.)
Want to Learn More?
IRgA is hosting a workshop on jobsite opportunities on September 10 in Las Vegas, in conjunction with the RSA meeting and PrintingUnited. The workshop will include presentations about jobsite signage, 3D scanning (reality capture), RFID tag tracking systems, safety supplies, and other jobsite opportunities.
So if you will be in town for PrintingUnited, RSA or RMX – which also is holding its meeting in Vegas at that time -- please also consider attending this workshop. A reception for IRgA, RSA and RMX members will be held that evening, so put that on your calendar, too! Stay tuned for details about these events in the coming month.