July 15th, 2010 by Jay Buckley
- Bank Interest Rate Numbers
Here’s an interesting job we just finished. Our customer is a bank that wanted to be able to change the interest rates on a daily basis on their lobby signs. They wanted the signs to look professional, so writing in the numbers with a dry erase marker was not an option.
We used the magnet that we use on our
car magnets, putting a piece of magnet on the poster, and then producing number sets with magnet on the back. The branches simply change the numbers as the interest rates change.
The posters are matte laminated paper posters to go into 22×28 sign holders.
June 16th, 2010 by Jay Buckley
PowerPoint Research Poster
Microsoft began shipping Office 2010 yesterday, and I thought it might be useful to discuss the collaboration tools they offer in this latest version of Office. We’ve been using the beta of PowerPoint for a few months to be sure we are comfortable with it, since a lot of our business is printing posters from PowerPoint files.
All of the tools we’ve tried have one big assumption- that everybody is using the latest version of the program, and on the same platform. That’s usually true within a big company that standardizes on hardware and software, but it’s often not the case between academics in different institutions, not to mention the computer you have at home versus work.
For PowerPoint posters, it’s really important that a file look the same when different people open it. If you really want to get into a confusing conversation, try suggesting a change to someone who is looking at something different on his screen than you are! What we know to be true is that different versions of PowerPoint will show the same file differently, and this is especially true between the Mac and the PC. The collaboration tools that Microsoft is offering do not change this, and they act the same as if you emailed the file to your friend who opened it on their computer.
We have a completed discussion of our testing of the collaboration tools on Postersession.com.
June 2nd, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Table Top Display
If you are doing local shows, you often have a table for your display without all the fancy pipe and drape setups of larger trade shows. A table top display like the one shown at the right is a great way to do this kind of show affordably and effectively.
This kind of display is easy to transport and carry. It folds up to fit in a trunk or back seat, and carries like a suitcase.
We print the same crystal laminated graphic panels that we do for larger booths, so you won’t have trouble with glare and the colors come through brilliantly. They attach to the display with velcro, and are easily changed out when your products or graphics change.
May 7th, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Book cover Poster
Here’s a photo of author Robert Kozlow with a poster of the cover for his new book New Hampshire – A Photographic Journey. We do these from time to time for authors going on a book signing tour.
The author sits at a table with the poster behind, and signs books that people buy. Bookstores sell more books, and the author gets publicity.
This particular book cover is near and dear to us, since the photo is taken from the top of Mt. Morgan, one of our favorite hikes. If you are ever in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, check out the Morgan and Percival hike. As you can see from the photo, the views of Squam Lake (where On Golden Pond was filmed) are spectacular.
You can’t quite see our shop from the top of Mt. Morgan, but we are in Holderness near the highway exit. It’s a great place to live and work!
April 30th, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Happy Poster Customer
Here’s a happy customer telling us how much she loves her poster!
This is Marisa Lara from the State of New Hampshire Dept of Public Health presenting a poster at the CDC Diabetes Conference in Kansas City. She went to the trouble to not only send us a picture, but to make a little sign! It was her first poster presentation, and she tells us that it went really well.
One of the best things about my job is that I regularly get compliments like this, almost one every day. I know because I read them at our Friday morning meeting to recognize the people who did the work.
How many people have a job where somebody calls or emails telling you how great your service or product is? It sure makes me feel good, and I think it’s one of the things that makes this a good place to work. Thank you, Marisa!
April 28th, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Fundraising Thermometer Print
Here’s something we do on a regular basis for organizations doing fundraising- a poster of a thermometer to show the progress of the campaign agains the goal. This kind of graphic is usually mounted on foamcore or gatorboard so that it can be stood on an easel during the campaign. The red line advances up the thermometer as giving comes in, and that’s easily done with a magic marker.
We’ve done them for churches, hospitals and theater groups, just to name a few. The power of the thermometer in fundraising is that it shows the progress, and prods donors to make their contribution. The success of measuring and showing the progress of a campaign is well known in fundraising circles.
We have a template for the thermometer, so generating one for your organization is very easy. Give us the words and the goals, and we’ll have one designed for you in a jiffy.
We’ve also done them for outdoors by printing on vinyl.
April 20th, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Pop-Up Booth
When the time comes to replace the graphic panels on your pop-up booth, there is money to be saved. We can typically do the replacement panels for as much as 40% less than the name brand manufacturer of the booth.
Is there a compromise you must make for that savings? We don’t think so. You get great looking graphics, headers and kickers and edge magnet just like your original panels. We’ll even put the booth together here to be sure everything fits perfectly, and then ship it on to your show.
We use our crystal laminate with a 10 mil backer to give you a nice looking panel that breaks glare and has the weight to hang smoothly. The edges are machine cut to be straight and square.
One actual advantage of our panels is that we use a heat applied laminate that cannot de-laminate or tunnel. Many manufacturers use cold applied adhesive, and if you roll the panels too tightly, the adhesive will release, ruining the graphics. It is just awful to pull your panels out of the case the night before the show starts, only to find that the graphics have delaminated! That never happens with our panels.
April 19th, 2010 by Jay Buckley
- Table Tent
Here’s something we do on a regular basis that you might not think of as large format printing – a table tent produced in low quantities. In this case, our customer needed 25 table tents, a quantity that’s not economical for offset printing.
We printed them on paper, laminated with gloss plastic, trimmed, and scored them to fold in the right place. We shipped them to the customer laid flat, with a piece of double sided tape on the bottom.
When received, the customer removed the release tape from the second side of the tape, pressed the tab to the tape, and presto- table tent. They are sturdy and very attactive. Best of all, we received their file on a Thursday and shipped the table tents on a Friday.
April 15th, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Matte Vinyl Double Sided Banner
Here’s a unique vinyl banner we did recently for our good customer Kenyon Appliances.
They needed a trade show backdrop to fit into an existing aluminum structure, and it needed to be printed on both sides. In addition, everything slides into a slot on the frame the way a sail goes into a mast.
We printed the center and side pieces of the banner, and then sewed a 1/4″ rope into the hem on the top and bottom. It was a bit of a trick to get everything printed on both sides and hemmed with the rope and in the right size, but we did it! As you can see from the picture, everything worked out very nicely.
This kind of project presents it’s challenges, and we are very lucky to have a talented group in the vinyl department! They can think through how to make something that strays from the ordinary, and give you great results!
April 13th, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Repositionable Fabric Poster
People often have a problem putting up posters where they can’t put tacks in the wall, and don’t have the time or money for fixtures. Here’s a great solution- repositionable fabric. It has a “sticky note” adhesive on the back, and it sticks very well to most wall surfaces like painted drywall, wallpaper, wood, and formica. About the only thing we haven’t been able to get it to stick to is a brick wall, which is just too uneven.
You can re-apply it many times. In our tests, we’ve taken a poster down and stuck it back up over 25 times.
Wherever you have a need to have a temporary poster, and just want to stick it up, this is a great solution!
It also will serve very nicely as temporary wallpaper. People tell us they have had it up for about two years very successfully in a corporate lobby. Do know that the material is not waterproof, so it’s really for indoor applications only.
