CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA made three major announcements during photokina, compiled below. In addition to innovation in the print product space with photobook textures and six-sided prints, the company also announced intelligence based photo initiatives.
CEWE at photokina 2018
As Europe’s leading photo service provider and partner for online printing, CEWE wants to remain a technological pioneer and advance new opportunities of digitization for this purpose. At photokina through this Saturday, the publicly traded company from Oldenburg is exhibiting several project studies utilizing new technologies for creating photo products.
CEWE PHOTOBOOK on command
Designing a photobook is a creative process in which many people take great delight, but for some, it cannot go fast enough. In the CEWE PHOTOBOOK on command, a verbal command can request the CEWE PHOTOWORLD app to make a design suggestion for a special occasion – for example, the most recent holiday. The software automatically searches for the best photos associated with the occasion, selects a suitable format and layout and presents an impressive proposal within a few seconds. Dr. Christian Friege,(shown above) CEO of CEWE, says, “I am fascinated by the prospect of such an easy creation of a CEWE PHOTOBOOK. This can open up a completely new user group to us. But I want to reassure all creative minds – it will always remain an option to intervene at any point, to improve the recommendations or to create a CEWE PHOTOBOOK on your own from scratch.”
CEWE photo diary
By means of language control, users tell the CEWE photo diary on their smartphones what they have experienced, when, where, and with whom. The spoken information is converted into text, and artificial intelligence from IBM Watson automatically analyses it for time, place and persons – if in doubt, the system will ask for feedback. The information is linked to the respective photos on the device. Thus, special moments can be captured even better – the ideal starting point for the creation of further CEWE products.
Intelligent photo organization
Even before the boom of smartphone photography, the greatest challenge to photographers has been the almost incalculable flood of images accumulating on memory cards, hard drives and mobile phones. Filtering out the memorable moments takes a lot of time. Here, CEWE comes in handy with its intelligent photo organization. Starting from photokina, face recognition powered by HP Pixel Intelligence, which has been integrated into the CEWE MYPHOTOS application, is now ‘live’. Recognition of special events is also already usable in the current software as an option. Based on the metadata of the photos, an algorithm analyses the distance from home, the duration of the absence, of a high frequency of photos, for instance, and then assigns them to a corresponding event. Functions such as object recognition on the photos or marking visited places on a map are still in beta, but also on display at photokina. Even a complex search for persons, places, objects and time is already exhibited and will soon be ready for the app. Thus, for instance, entering “Martin Paris Eiffel Tower 2018” will find the desired photo among thousands of others within seconds.
CEWE Customer Charter: Digitisation with responsibility
Digitization and new technologies such as artificial intelligence are the subjects of controversial discussions in politics and the public sphere. Regarding this, Dr. Christian Friege, emphasizes: “We represent reflected progress. CEWE pursues a responsible and customer-oriented use of digital technologies. Because of this, we have laid down our fundamental stance in a Customer Charter.” Its contents were discussed in advance in the CEWE customer forum. Furthermore, CEWE has founded an independent advisory council for digitization in which new technologies are discussed and evaluated prior to their implementation. The core issues of the charter are data protection, transparency, full control and creative freedom for the customers and a commitment to foster research and teaching related to these issues in Europe. You can find the entire charter at https://company.cewe.de
People who design a CEWE PHOTOBOOK generally put some of their most valuable memories into it. The cover itself ought to honour these accordingly and rouse interest in the contents. You can create a powerful effect with the TIPA-award-winning hardcover highlights from CEWE. These draw appreciable attention to selected elements in gold, silver or gloss highlights. At photokina, visitors to the CEWE trade fair stand can gain a first-hand impression of the diverse opportunities. The market leader is presenting new, highlighted design elements and backgrounds.
Creating highlights
Hardcover highlights let you add a unique emphasis to each of your CEWE PHOTOBOOKs. For example, the title motif can be highlighted with a glossy, elegant frame. Or highlights can bring individual letters to the fore—depending on the occasion, for example, the name of a holiday destination, bridal couple, baby or the like. Even people who otherwise prefer more of a reduced, minimalist design appreciate a cover with highlighted elements. For example, they lend a particular elegance to large white surfaces. This is also true for large CEWE PHOTOBOOK copies, such as XXL landscape, which now is also available with hardcover highlights.
Tactile structures
In addition to individual elements, it is also possible to highlight full-surface backgrounds with elegant gloss highlights. These lend the cover a tactile and brilliant structure—options include backgrounds with the look of wood, leather or linen. In the latest update to the design software, CEWE provides over 50 new variants. In addition, users can also access complete styles which are seen not just on the cover, but also on the inside pages, and provide the CEWE PHOTOBOOK with a consistent design.
“Best Photo Print Service” TIPA Award
CEWE has been honoured in 2018 with the TIPA World Award in the “Best Photo Print Service” category for its CEWE PHOTOBOOK covers with the option of highlights. This award from the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA for short) is regarded as the world’s most coveted award for photo and imaging products. The official trophy is being given to CEWE at this evening’s awards ceremony on the opening day of photokina.
New from CEWE: hexxas transform photos into works of modern art
hexxas are hexagonal photo tiles from CEWE.
At this year’s photokina CEWE is making its first presentation of an entirely new form of wall décor: hexxas. The hexagonal photo tiles from CEWE are perfect for anyone who wants to make an impression not only with unusual motifs, but also with distinctive shapes. With hexxas, your personal favourite moments can be arranged together to form a stylish and individual work of art. The selected photos can be combined flexibly and displayed either as a collage or as multi-section images. Hexxas are now available through www.cewe.de.
New shapes inspire creativity
Multi-section hexagons, hearts, triangles or something completely different – a wide variety of shapes can be created with the six-sided hexxas. Landscape photos or close-ups, for example, can be arranged to artistic effect as multi-part images. Several different photos – for example, portraits or treasured moments – can be assembled to form a collage which can be rearranged or expanded at any time thanks to the magnetic hanging element. The high-quality tiles are made from foam board and are available in two sizes: 18 x 15.6 cm and 27 x 23.4 cm.
Easy on-screen design
Photo and decoration enthusiasts can design their own personal hexxas with the help of an editor at www.cewe.de. Either select individual tiles or plan the layout for a multi-section image. The hexxas are supplied with a special magnetic hanging element: A metal plate is attached to the wall with detachable adhesive strips and forms the counterpart to the magnet on the hexxas. A Y-piece serves as an attachment aid, ensuring optimum spacing between the photo tiles.
