Exhibition printing in Melbourne, including the urgent reprint.

Most of the stands at a Melbourne trade show are built from modular systems: shell scheme walls, FOGA, Corinthian and similar aluminium frames, with printed panels slotted or screwed into each bay. The frames come back from show to show. The graphics change every time, and they are the part that gets dented, scratched, misprinted or forgotten.

That is the work this page is about. If you want a whole custom stand designed, built and installed, see our exhibition stands page instead.

There is no minimum order. One replacement panel gets the same attention as a full set of graphics for a row of stands.

Bump-in is where print problems show up. A 3mm panel cracks at a screw hole. A corner snaps in the truck. The client approved an old logo. A panel never made it off the warehouse shelf. The price on the counter wrap changed this morning. For PVC panels and vinyl, the printing itself is usually quick. What slows an urgent reprint down is almost always the file and the size, not the machine.

How to get a reprint fastest

1. Call, don’t email. 0415 743 691. Whoever answers can see the afternoon’s capacity and will tell you straight whether today is realistic.
2. Send the file for that panel only, with the final size in millimetres. A print-ready PDF is ideal.
3. Tell us the material and thickness. If you are not sure, photograph a surviving panel next to a tape measure, edge on.
4. Collect it if you can. Pickup from our Orbis Drive workshop in Ravenhall is the fastest option, just off the Western Ring Road. Metro courier to the venue is often possible on the day, depending on timing and location.

The honest part

The workshop runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 7pm, so a panel that breaks during an afternoon bump-in is still inside our working day. Even so, every hour before noon is worth two after it. A call at 9am about one cracked panel is very different from an email found at 3pm about twenty. If bump-in is on a weekend, call as early as you can on the Friday. We would rather tell you what is achievable than promise a time and miss it.

Make the next reprint a phone call

Send us the full graphics set before the show, even if someone else is printing it. With the files and sizes already here, replacing a damaged panel on show day is a phone call, not an artwork hunt across three inboxes.

If you build stands, you already have the frames, the crews and the clients. What you need from a printer is panels that fit first time, arrive labelled so your crew is not sorting them on the hall floor, and someone who answers when a client changes their mind two days out.

• Cut to your system. Tell us the system and bay size once and we keep it on file. Shell scheme, FOGA, Corinthian or your own custom frames.
• Labelled by stand and position. Each panel is marked so it goes into the right bay without anyone opening the artwork.
• Delivered your way. To your warehouse ahead of the show, or picked up from Ravenhall on the way to the venue.
• Repeat shows are easy. Specs and files stay on file per client, so a second show is a reorder, not a re-brief.
• Printed here, not brokered. We print and cut in our own workshop, so we control the queue when your deadline moves.

If you are a builder looking for a print shop to sit behind your team, call and tell us how you like to work: file handover, labelling, delivery points, who signs off proofs. We will fit in with your process.

3mm PVC (often called foamex) is the default stand panel for good reasons. It is light enough to carry a stack of panels into a hall, the smooth face takes a sharp print, it cuts cleanly to any size, and it is cheap enough to treat as one-show graphics. Held on all four edges in a frame, it sits flat.

Its weaknesses are the ones that cause most reprints. Thin PVC dents and cracks at corners and screw holes, especially when panels are stacked without protection, dropped edge-first, or screwed in too tight. On its own, 3mm starts to bow on spans much past about 900 mm.

To cut down on show-day reprints: ship panels flat with protectors between them, carry them by the long edge, and snug screws up rather than cranking them. For more on every board we print, see PVC and foamex signs and our sign materials guide.

• One file per panel, named with the stand number and position, for example B12-back-left.
• Final size in millimetres for each panel, as the visible area plus any part that sits inside the frame channel.
• Bleed: 5 mm on rigid panels, and keep text well clear of the edges the frame covers.
• Fabric: 30 mm bleed all round for silicone-edge skins.
• Resolution: 100 dpi at final size is plenty for anything viewed from more than a metre away.
• Fonts outlined, and the brand colours named if they have to match a previous show.

If the client has only sent a logo and a floor plan, that is fine too. We can set up the panels at the right sizes and send a proof before anything prints.