At this year’s Anime Expo, Displate is making its first ever appearance, bringing with it a bevy of limited edition anime posters, a Japanese temple stamp-inspired passport experience, and opportunities to connect with influencers. Their booth (SH-1008) is essentially a containerized art installation called Displate District, with Japanese city inspirations and space to interact with fellow anime fans and collectors through Displate’s bestselling anime IPs and artworks.
Among those artworks are three new anime Limited Editions, including: Dragon Ball: The Legend of Goku, One Piece: Flames of Marineford, and Dragon Ball Z: Majin Vegeta. Each of the Limited Edition posters have 1000 units produced and are only available at Anime Expo for a special price of $99. These posters show off some of the new effects and styles Displate is putting out, including holographic backgrounds, glow-in-the-dark-effects, and 3D textures.
Also included at the booth were a selection of premium designs from series including One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Solo Leveling. I had the chance to check these out, as well as to speak with some of the people behind the whole thing.
Speaking about the new anime Limited Editions, Zuza Szczepecka, Brand & Communications Director at Displate, remarked “It’s something you want to actually touch. Plus, what’s important is that it comes to life in light. [ . . . ] I know these are little details, but I think that’s what makes them exciting. And that’s what also differs them significantly from the basic products that we have. They have a bit of a texture, but they will never have those extra finishes.”
To showcase this effect of art becoming dimensional in light, Displate District includes a “Glow Alley” where you can pop in and see a variety of anime artwork, television show posters, and original artwork making use of some of Displate’s special effects. The glow alley definitely brought out some of the uniqueness of the posters. Those with living rooms or bedrooms making use of colored lighting will definitely get some unique looking art from Displates on their walls.
When it comes to Limited Editions and partnerships with existing series, anime is a bit of a new frontier for Displate. The company’s Anime Hub only launched earlier this year and anime is an entirely new category when it comes to Limited Editions.
“It obviously matters for our fan base, for our customers. So, as we discussed before, limited editions turned into collectibles. And there is a community around it. They are on Discord, they are on Reddit,” said Bartek Małecki, Displate CEO. “We are grateful for having a community advisory board, who help us to really understand what matters for them. And based also on our customer research, the majority of Displate fans, they are very into anime. So that’s why we are here. We try to give our fans what they are passionate about.”
Additionally, today, on July 4, TheAnimeMen will host a Cosplay Glam Walk and perform a Power-up Dance in Glow Alley. On July 5, Jimmy Here will appear at the booth for fan photo opportunities.
Overall, I think this booth is one checking out during Anime Expo. Doing the passport experience earns you a nice discount on posters and the art Displate decided to showcase is really quite nice looking. Solo Levelling and Frieren had some of my favorite art amongst the non Limited Edition posters, with key art and visuals right from the anime forming the basis for the posters.
Closing our conversation, Małecki noted “We serve roughly 1 million clients per year. And our job is to basically give people what they are passionate about. So obviously we are here because anime is very important for our fans, but it’s a variety of designs and fandoms that we connect our fans with.”
I can definitely tell the company is making an effort to bring fan wishes to life with these posters, and the staff on-site clearly care about the work they’re doing. It all comes through in how nice the booth turned out. Check out Exhibit Hall SH-1008 if you’re around this weekend.
©Displate
ONE PIECE © Eiichiro Oda / Shueisha / Toei Animation
Dragon Ball © Bird Studio/Shueisha, Toei Animation
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