Business | Diversification
Skull printed automotive parts from Hydro Style
DIVERSIFICATION 2026: WATER TRANSFER PRINTING
USING A CONVENTIONAL PRINTER ISN’T THE ONLY WAY TO PRINT ON AN OBJECT; INSTEAD, YOU CAN USE WATER, FILM AND A PINCH OF SKILL TO CREATE BEAUTIFULLY PRINTED OBJECTS. IN THIS DIVERSIFICATION FEATURE, ASSISTANT EDITOR ANA LAMBERT, EXPLORES WATER TRANSFER
PRINTING – ALSO KNOWN AS HYDRO-DIPPING – AND HOW WIDE-FORMAT PSPS COULD UTILISE ITS UNIQUE OFFERING.
24 | August/September 2026
In the next instalment of Image Reports’ diversification series, we focus on the unique and unusual type of printing called water transfer printing. A rather unique and unusual type of printing is water transfer printing, also known as hydro-dipping. It uses a water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film printed with a pattern. The film floats on water, dissolves with a chemical activator, and wraps smoothly around a submerged object to coat complex shapes. To discover more on this relatively unknown sector of printing, we spoke to two UK-based hydro-dipping businesses to get a better understanding of the process of water transfer printing.
WATER TRANSFER PRINTING We spoke to Aquagraphix Custom Coatings and Hydro Style UK Supplies about how they got into the trade, their business and the process of water transfer printing. Eve Walsham, co-owner of Aquagraphix, talked about how she and her partner Dave grew their business to be one of the leading places to go for hydro dipped products.
She said: “Dave started out years ago custom painting smart cars when they first came onto the scene. He was well known in the painting industry and produced some show-winning paint jobs. “He moved away from that line of work for a few years and then came back to it when he discovered
hydro-dipping. Basically, we found it online, thought ‘ooh that’s cool, we could do that’, and here we are offering this as well as other coatings.” Where Eve and Dave were in the industry to start
with, the director of Hydro Style UK Supplies, Richard Chippendale, started slightly differently with a background in software development and a badly produced product that left him and his brother knowing that they wanted to do better. Richard said: “We decided to put a few thousand pounds of our savings into buying a professional setup and set about learning the process together. “At the time the resources weren’t out there to learn
from, and training was thin on the ground. We now actually offer our own training services for those wanting to get into the industry and hit the ground running.” And hit the ground running they did; they now run two separate companies. Richard runs Hydro Style UK Supplies, which focuses on supplying hydro printing equipment to UK and international companies, along with diversifying into vehicle refinishing supplies, sign writing and banner printing.
Richard added: “My brother runs Hydro Style UK,
which was our original business together, where he focuses on the training side of things as well as the application of hydro graphics for both private and commercial customers.” Sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know,
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