Fuga Fuga Case Histories

The Muraspec brand is respected throughout the interiors industry – interior designers have been specifying Muraspec Wallcoverings for the decoration of hotels, hospitals, restaurants, offices and retail spaces for over thirty years.

Traditionally this marketplace has operated in a similar manner to the fashion industry with Muraspec forecasting trends 6 to 12 months in advance and creating wallcoverings (wallpaper) designs that reflect those trends … Its been working this way for years and years.

Then—along came the digital revolution
Someone (a visionary) within the Muraspec organisation anticipated a future for the industry that included digital printing and formulated a fabric backed wallcovering that met the stringent fire, health & safety regulations applied to public spaces and developed a wallcovering that could be digitally printed – this may seem obvious in hindsight but in fact in a industry that was still firmly embedded within the “Arts & Crafts Movement” it was a radical development.

Fuga & digital wallcovering
Before we worked with Muraspec to launch their digital service, Fuga had already worked with Papergraphics to introduce this Muraspec digital product into the “Display Graphics” marketplace under the brand name of Digimura. There was another visionary involved here, Alistair Travis, a member of the PG sale team who had foreseen the potential for this product within their businesses marketplace – so much so in fact that on the back of the resounding success of the launch of Digimura, businesses around the country began promoting design and print services specifically for the provision of this exceptional product.


A success that was impossible to ignore
The excitement with which Digimura had been received was hard to ignore – and it was at this point that Muraspec asked Fuga to work with them to launch the Muraspec Digital service. It was their product and they had the factory and facilities and ability to provide an exceptional digital service to work along-side their traditional manufacturing operation – they also had an established client base already buying wallcoverings to whom they could immediately promote their new service – it was a no brainer!

From our perspective, translating the approach taken to launch Digimura posed no problem – what had previously been done for Digimura had hit the market square-on and was demonstrably successful – furthermore with a manufacturing heritage and excellent service history, delivering this for Muraspec should be a cake-walk!

Time to capture the imagination
We set out to deliver the Muraspec Digital message – a message of innovation, service excellence and a story of potentially missed opportunities in retail spaces, hotel foyers, bar franchises and powerful business brand messages that could be wrapped around visitors in corporate reception areas. We proposed service enhancements such as bespoke photo libraries to counter inevitable sales barriers of potential customers absolutely loving the product but not being able to decide upon an image to use in their boardroom … we created the “service brand” of Muraspec Digital and delivered a sales pack, adverts and promotional material for the launch at the 100% design exhibition.

Working with Muraspec's marketing director and their MD we entered into an iterative design process that saw us “tone down” our proposals again and again – BUT this was an essential process as although Digimura was out in the marketplace already and successfully attracting great interest – Muraspec's customers were considered to be a little more conservative than those to whom we had previously sold Digimura. Fully recognising and respecting the considerable experience of our employers, and not being afraid of hard work, we got our heads down and finally managed to find the right balance between the message we needed to deliver and Muraspec's market position.

The future of Muraspec Digital
Muraspec Digital is now firmly established as a service brand of Muraspec, and in the hands of Muraspec the digital printing of wallcoverings has the potential to develop into something more sophisticated than just a big photographic image printed onto wallpaper.

The future of digital wallcoverings is to be found in the potential for the delivery of bespoke designs on demand, rather than the traditional process of forecasting the trends. When manufacturing costs reduce, interior designers will be able to create their own wallpaper to finish and compliment their interior designs, or use the traditional products on offer from Muraspec and add a twist of individuality to an architectural feature, wall or area – as mentioned before, we believe that this Muraspec product is truly visionary and that digitally printed wallcoverings in the hands of a company like Muraspec has the potential to redefine how their marketplace behaves – by the implementation of a service that they could now provide.