Retractable Banner Stand

We recently made several banner stands for the Balsams Resort, which is north of us in Dixville Notch, NH.  It’s where everyone in the town gets together at midnight to cast the first votes in every presidential election.  They also have a fabulous Donald Ross golf course, which is what this banner stand talks about.  What a great way to remind their guests that the Balsams is a great place to go in the summer too!  There was about two feet of snow on the ground when I was there, so we didn’t play much golf, but the cross country skiing on their 90 km of trails was unbelievable!

What’s great about a banner stand is the ability to place it just about anywhere in the resort.  If you need to get it out of the way for a function, or move it to the dining room,  it’s easily done. 

These are our premium banner stands, and it’s very easy to change the graphics. We give you a new one with the aluminum rails already on it, and changing it out takes a minute.  At the Balsams, they have a set for winter and another for summer.

Smithsonian Display

This job takes me back about 8 years. We did a job for a photo magazine that had a world-wide contest for nature photos. The winning photos were published in the magazine, and displayed for a year in the Smithsonian museum. For several years, we printed the pictures in large format size for the exhibit.

What was really cool was that the people who organized the exhibit got sample prints and prices from several companies, and put them all on a table with the prices hidden below. They picked the print they liked best for quality, and then turned over the prices.  They liked ours best.  We had the best price too!  We got the job.

I like to think we’d still be printing them today except that HP, as a sponsor of the event,  gave them a large format printer and they now print them in house.  I made the introduction, and lost the customer.  I guess no good deed goes unpunished these days!

Weeks Act Display

Here’s a great use of large format printing- an interesting display at Plymouth State University describing the events and legislation leading up to the preservation of the White Mountain National Forest.

The prints are mounted on gatorboard, gloss laminated, and have a black plastic edge trim that gives them the look of a frame, as well as protecting the edges from damage.

Plymouth State has a hanging system that uses clips that set in a groove in the wall, with a nylon strip ending in a snap that attaches to the picture frame wire on the back of the piece. The system allows displays to be positioned anywhere along the wall, and at any height, without any nails being driven.

It’s a great display, and a very interesting story about how the National Forests were created.

Cutouts for a trade show booth

It’s always a trick to figure out how to create excitement at your trade show booth.  Here’s a unique display used by one of our customers- life size people cutouts of some of their musicians.  A sideways glance at the booth made you think that the performers were right there.  It made you look, and that’s what they were trying to do. By all accounts, it was very effective.

We’ve do a lot of people cutouts for trade show booths, sales meetings, and retail stores- and have even done them for the lobby of a Broadway show.

Typically, they are hand made pieces when you want just one. We have the ability to computer cut them when you get into quantities.

Tax Maps

Here’s an interesting job we did recently- printing a set of tap maps for a town. They had digitized their tax maps, and wanted to print them out in full color. When people come to look at them, it’s a lot easier to undersatnd the map when things are color coded. For instance, wetlands are shown in a different color than forests.

We printed two sets, one for the town planner to keep in his office, and one for the public to reference.  The reference set was laminated with clear glossy plastic to protect them. The planner kept a paper set that he could mark up for future changes.

First of all, they need to be tough! We use a special heavy duty vinyl, and we sew re-enforcements into the corners. The material we use is also good to -20 degrees Fahrenheit, so it can be used in winter up north.  Most vinyl becomes brittle at -5 degrees, and if the temperature drops below that, they shatter as they flap in the wind.

Most towns have a cable across the street in strategic places to hang banners like these.  We suggest that the top be connected to the cable with D rings, and the bottom held by a rope with a bungee cord in it.  This allow the banner to move to shed the wind.  We can also put ‘”wind cuts” in the banner to let the wind through. Either way, a good size banner can generate a lot of force in a high wind, and you need to find a way to keep it from sailing down the street in a storm.

The good news is- they are effective! If you are doing a big event, it’s a great way to let a the whole town know it’s going on.

Curling Vinyl Banner

Let me first say that we did not make the banner stand in the picure.  As much as I love Southwest Airlines, whoever did make them made a mess.

What’s happened is that they made the banners out of vinyl, and then put them under tension in a banner stand.  We learned a long time ago that when you do that, the banner curls at the edges, in our industry we call it “canoeing.”  They probably looked great for a month or two, then they started to curl.

We solve the problem by using a polyester film instead of vinyl.

Since the film is more rigid, it doesn’t stretch in the center causing the edges to curl in.  Surprisingly, it’s not much more expensive either. I wish I knew who to contact at Southwest. These banner stands don’t give a very good presentation, and they are such a great airline!

Lamp Post Banners

You see this kind of banner in a lot of downtown areas where they have lamp posts to hang them from. It’s a great way to advertise events or places of local interest.  We did these for a local church.

We print the banners on our matte outdoor vinyl, sew pole pockets in the top and bottom, and put grommets on the inside corners.  That’s one trick to this product- they need to be tie-wrapped to the pole so they don’t walk off in the wind.

The hardware comes in single or double sets. The ones in the picture are singles- on just one side of the pole.  A double is on both sides.  The ones we sell are an aluminum bracket that is held on the lamp post with long hose clamps.

Usually we ship you the hardware directly from the manufacturer, and send you the banners from our shop.