“I’ve even given up on going to the grocery store just two blocks away.” Revolutionary personal electric vehicle company WHILL developed its mobility device with a single wheelchair user’s voice in mind. WHILL’s development department uses Roland DG’s MODELA MDX-50 milling machine to prototype their products.

The COVID-19 virus is impacting all our lives and will undoubtedly continue to change the way we work for years to come. With that in mind, it’s important for sign and graphics shops to pivot their businesses to adjust to this new reality. In this blog, Roland DGA, Roland DG’s sales and marketing subsidiary for the Americas spoke with our inkjet printer user from Canada who is helping their local community by producing COVID-19 related signs.

With the novel coronavirus spreading rapidly around the world, many people, companies, and educational and research organizations have been uploading free ideas on the internet for making their own Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) items to protect against infections. Here is information on how you can make your own face shield using Roland DG’s laser engraver.

Our blogs go multilingual! We are happy to announce that they are now available in the eight languages listed below in addition to the original Japanese and English.

Roland DG's custom COTOVAN vehicle equipped with UV printer made a special appearance during a Christmas event held at Ibaraki Airport in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. COTOVAN provided a hands-on workshop for making key rings designed with participants photos as pilots and other travel-related characters.

Roland DG's custom vehicle COTOVAN recently visited the official store of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters Japanese baseball team near the team's home field at Sapporo Dome in Hokkaido, Japan. Equipped with digital tools including direct-to-garment printers, COTOVAN helped visitors create one-of-a-kind tote bags and t-shirts printed with player uniform numbers, names and other design features.

Roland DGA, Roland DG's U.S. sales and marketing subsidiary, partnered with Adobe at the Adobe MAX 2019 conference in Los Angeles, CA to show designers, artists, photographers and other creative attendees how to turn their designs and artwork into profitable products with Roland DG technology.

A special exhibition was held at the Tokyo Station Gallery located in Tokyo Station to commemorate the centenary of the passing of Tatsuno Kingo, the architect of Tokyo Station. A workshop was set up at the exhibit so that visitors could print out some of his sketches and drawings of Tokyo Station onto T-shirts and bags. The workshop made use of Roland DG's direct-to-garment printers and cotodesign software employed at stores and events to create unique creative experiences.

Shiroi Koibito is a popular brand of cookies made in Hokkaido, Japan. Manufacturer and retailer ISHIYA Co., Ltd. provides a unique service where customers can make their very own cookie boxes by printing their favorite photo on the tin box using a Roland DG UV printer.

The membership-based, shared-factory Makers’ Base provides a unique service that has become a trending topic on social media in Japan. The service utilizes Roland DG's BT-12 direct-to-garment printer that is designed specifically for printing on cotton-based fabrics to enable customers to print out Japanese bento lunchboxes they designed themselves onto tote bags and other items.

Roland DG ran an internship for international participants over the summer with students from the University of Michigan in the US joining the program. We met up with the intern involved in planning internal events at the COTO Business Division, which uses Roland DG products to give customers unique creative experiences.

In our previous blog we spoke with a customer using our new TrueVIS VG2-540 wide-format eco-solvent inkjet printer/cutter as part of their business operations. Miyaart Graphic, located in Shinjuku in Tokyo, is involved in the production of signs, panels, wallpapers and many other types of graphic arts projects for cultural facilities like art galleries and museums. For this blog we chatted with Miyaart Graphic president Yoshinari Miyata (pictured above).