Tali Digital showcased its revamped look and branding, which is in celebration of the company’s ten year anniversary in the branding industry, at FESPA Africa, previously Sign Africa, which took place from 2-4 July at Gallagher Convention Centre.
Tali was established in June 2004 with two staff members. The company started as a CD and DVD silkscreen printing and duplication service but evolved into a fully-fledged digital printing company.
Founder and Owner, Orlando de Abreu said, ‘Over the years we have perfected what we do and have given our business greater focus. With the need to communicate this to our new and existing clients, we have launched a new CI and Brand Identity which we revealed at Markex 2014.’
De Abreu commented on starting the business, ‘The first few months were quite challenging but there’s nothing like the deep end to learn to swim. It was something special for me to watch a machine all of a sudden start to print a colour image by the simple click of a mouse.’
In November 2006, a few months after the purchase of Tali’s first dye-based machine, the company bought its second Eco solvent machine. This was the turning point for Tali and from then on they ploughed all their energy into the digital print solutions market.
For the first few years Tali operated out of de Abreu’s home. In 2007, the company moved to an office space and with the move came growth and a renewed energy for the direction they were headed in. The staff count grew to five and de Abreu’s wife Carla also joined the business.
‘I have been very blessed to have a very supportive wife who had so much faith in me that she joined me in late 2006. Neither of us have looked back, well maybe once or twice to make sure the object being thrown at me was not too sharp,’ said de Abreu.
By 2008, Tali had out grown the 72 Square metre premises, so the company moved to a new mini factory of 240 square metres. To keep up with demand, De Abreu employed more staff members.
In 2009, Tali bought its first Grand Format machine, a 3.2m billboard printer. De Abreu wanted the company to be prepared for, and take advantage of, the excessive amounts of print volumes that would need to be met in preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2010. They also installed a high frequency welding machine enabling them to convert all banners in house and an automated eyelet machine to meet the required short deadlines.
The following year (2010), Tali moved to bigger premises and then moved again into what is now their current facilities with advanced technology, complete with printing environment requirements, including liquid thrown self-levelling floors, specialised extraction, air-conditioning and a back-up generator.
With the extra space available, de Abreu acquired more machines and employed more staff to further increase their service and product offerings. A three metre wide Direct to Fabric Digital dye Sublimation printing offering was added to the service portfolio together with an in-house stitching department. This enabled them to work within shorter lead-times on the completion of all soft signage requirements such as flags, banners, media walls, telescopics, shark fins and gazebos. Tali also launched its own in-house brand of Alutex Textile tensioning systems.
The company acquired an Océ 550 GT UV Flatbed machine, which allows for printing directly to almost any substrate like cortex, komartex, glass, Re-board and point of sale as well as the printing of white digitally onto clear substrates such as Plexi, which widens the scope of branding options for clients.
With the installation of the flatbed came the necessity to put in an automated cutting table which allows the delivery of work that is manufactured and cut to accurate specifications consistently, with virtually no errors. The benefit of a flatbed is that finished product is always consistent. It also makes it possible to meet tight deadlines and convert orders faster.
‘We are a solutions driven company, we ask the right questions and most of the time think of challenges that the client themselves may not have picked up on. We are extremely passionate about what we do and look forward to our future growth,’ concluded de Abreu.
