How our prints are made

Premium exterior-signage substrate

We print onto 3mm aluminium composite panel with a 0.3mm exterior-signage-grade aluminium skin — the same specification used for architectural cladding and premium outdoor signage. It's rigid, dimensionally stable, and won't warp, yellow, or degrade the way paper, canvas, or foam-board can. Every panel is CNC-cut to size on our Zünd digital cutter, giving perfectly square edges and consistent sizing across an edition.

EDP Award-winning flatbed printer

Printing is done on a SwissQprint Nyala 4 — winner of the EDP Award 2022 for Best Flatbed/Hybrid Printer from the European Digital Press Association. Swiss-built, absurdly precise, and considered one of the finest large-format UV flatbeds in the world.

Colour-managed, hand-profiled

Every artwork is meticulously colour-matched and profiled through a custom RGB ICC profile developed in-house. This is the difference between a print that looks "fine" and one that stops people in the room — the deep blacks, the punch in the reds, and the subtle palette-knife tones all survive the journey from screen to panel intact.

A three-layer print build

Each panel is built up in three passes:

1. Opaque white foundation. A base layer of solid white ink so the CMYK colours sit on a neutral ground rather than the metallic aluminium, giving true colour reproduction.
2. Fine Art CMYK layer. The artwork itself, printed at high resolution with the Nyala 4's Fine Art mode for smooth gradients and full tonal range.
3. UV matt varnish flood coat. A final protective layer of matt UV varnish across the whole surface — anti-glare, scratch-resistant, and wipe-clean.

Metallic depth from CMYK alone

We do not use metallic inks. The shimmer and depth come from the interaction between the ink layers and the aluminium panel itself: the opaque white foundation is applied selectively, so the metal skin can read through the colour in places; the cured UV inks sit on top of that reflective surface with a glass-smooth finish; and the matt varnish controls the exact quality of the reflected light. The result is gold, bronze, and copper tones that look genuinely metallic — something that is almost impossible to reproduce on paper or canvas.

All inks and varnishes we use are GREENGUARD Gold certified for low chemical emissions — the same standard required for products used in schools and healthcare environments. Safe to hang in bedrooms, nurseries, and living spaces from day one.

Large format, printed in one piece

Because the Nyala 4 is a true large-format flatbed, we can print big panels in a single pass rather than tiling smaller sections. The practical maximum on 3 mm aluminium composite is around 2 m × 3 m — so if you have the wall (and the budget), we can make a genuine statement piece. A recent Robin Books commission ran 1170 mm high and still carried the same colour fidelity and surface finish across the whole panel.

Built to last

The combination — exterior-grade panel, cured UV inks, UV varnish flood coat — is rated for outdoor signage. On an interior wall, out of direct sunlight, these prints will outlast every other framed piece in the room.