At Drukkerij Dirix in Belgium, everything revolves around passion for traditional printing. Under the inspired leadership of Raf De Laet, Dirix focuses on the creative printing techniques of hotfoil, letterpress and full color printing. This artisanal expertise is translated online in the webshop Gust.eu. Fien van Asch gives us a look behind the scenes. Find out how Printing Company Dirix serves its customers and how Prindustry’s webshop software was deployed for Gust.eu.
Client
Printer Dirix
Since
2018
Software
WhiteLabelShop
Passion for paper
At Printing Company Dirix, three pillars are central: masterful craftsmanship since 1878, a bold approach with paper and extraordinary creativity. Raf, the driving force behind the family business, is guided by love for paper: “I am not so much concerned with what the market is doing, but rather work from passion for the craft. I want to pass on that passion to my team.” He does so with gusto. Fien reveals, “Raf is a creative executive who constantly comes up with new ideas and keeps experimenting with the possibilities of paper.”
For all those possibilities, there is close collaboration, externally with partners such as designers and internally with the team’s nearly 20 employees.
Part of the De Laet family working in the print shop
Fien's journey at the printing company
Fien started in 2019 as a quoter at the print shop, but over time switched to a position in marketing and social media. “That’s where I can put my own creativity to good use. I enjoy inspiring people digitally with paper. On Instagram, our posts about cards are doing especially well. That growth is very organic, also because of our collaboration with designers who repost posts.” Fien went behind the Heidelberg press during Christmas to see how such cards, in this case her own Christmas cards, were printed using the letterpress technique. “Very nice to experience, but I wouldn’t be able to repeat the steps. There are a tremendous number of buttons and settings when operating such a press!”
Crafted printing with a modern twist
The Heidelberg press reveals what the printing company focuses on. The focus is on high-end print production. This is done with letterpress, as well as hotfoil and full-color printing. “We score very well with birthday cards, but we also print business cards, packaging, notebooks, presentation folders, etc. Both for B2C and B2B, especially in the Flanders region. For B2B, the online platform Gust.eu is important. With it we target graphic professionals like designers.”
Quick quotes on Gust ordering platform
Gust.eu is a webshop where graphic professionals can calculate, personalize and order product combinations. “Designers use the platform mainly for cards, but we are putting in more and more product categories. Business cards, packaging, stationery and recently we added a swatch shop.” A partner gets an account at Gust with a personal login. “The main purpose of this webshop is to be able to calculate prices based on all the different specifications. So basically we have an online calculation tool for the offline productions we deliver. That way we spend much less time making quotations. We can in turn invest that saved time in order guidance and training of designers, who subsequently can give prices directly to their customers themselves.”
Storefront Gust.eu (Aug-24)
Order page embroidered cards, i.c.w. Gaston Clothing, designs by Elle et Moi.
Online ordering from idea to printing
Gust is set up as a user-friendly graphic ordering platform. For a product such as embroidered cards, the user simply goes through all the options desired for this; from the size and printing technique to the linen color and embroidery type. Prices, print runs and delivery times are immediately visible. For each product, Printing Company Dirix provides technical drawings to deliver the design ready for printing. “Of course, we are always available if there are any questions. Contact with clients and being able to respond well to their questions is very important to us. We also see that when we ourselves have technical questions about the platform to Prindustry. That cooperation goes well and smoothly.”
Generations of creative concepts
By combining creative solutions and personal service, Printing Company Dirix can count on a loyal clientele. “We regularly see a birth card stating that the baby is a brother or sister of this or that person. And we then often recognize that name: we printed the birth card for them too!”
Want to know more about our software?
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