Fabric Banners for a Stage

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Jay Buckley
fabric stage backdrop

Stage Backdrop Banners

I went to a David Wilcox concert on Friday the the Silver Center at PSU, and saw for the first time the banners we had made for them. They were spectacular!

The recital hall where they do smaller concerts is a little large and stark for a single performer. So, when they have a smaller act, they put up the fabric banners we made for them. They really warm the place up! 

We printed these banners on our tri-poplin fabric, which has a nice weight and feel, and the colors are bright and accurate. If you are trying to liven up a stage, a store, or an office, think about doing it with fabric banners.

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Removable Wallpaper Can Be Fun

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Jay Buckley
Removable Wall Mural

Removable Wall Graphic

This wall graphic that we did recently for Adobe is interesting in several ways. First of all, I love the contrast with the opposite side of the hallway, which has a traditional “paint and picture” decor. Wow, is the wall graphic more exciting!

Secondly, this wall mural doesn’t take up the whole wall. It’s only 48″  high, but runs the length of the hallway. The customer pays for less than half the cost of covering the entire wall with a graphic, but the impact is pretty much the same.

Finally, the customer used our wallboard vinyl product, which is not only easy to install yourself, but easy to remove when your lease runs out or you want to change the art.

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Eliminating Banner Droop

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Jay Buckley
outdoor banner droop prevention

Uplifting a Banner

One of the issues in hanging an outdoor banner is getting the top to be straight. This customer solved the problem in a unique way, and I thought I should share it!

What they did was use a post a little taller than the top of the banner, and run a piece of wire (rope would have worked too) to the center grommets in the banner. This gives the center of the banner a little lift that is often tough to do with a couple of posts in the ground. That’s because the rope needs to be pretty taut to keep the top of the banner straight, and temporary posts in the ground will not let you put that kind of force on them without tipping in.

I think this is a terrific solution to the problem, and am happy share it with everyone.

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What to do with Empty Store Windows

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Jay Buckley
vacant store windows

advertising in vacant store windows

There’s a problem when a store closes and you want to block out the ugliness that is an empty store. One of our customers solved this problem with large format prints that attractively fill the windows, and we were very pleased how good it looks.

In this case, the store was a drug store in a medical complex. We printed foamcore mounted pieces that talk about the mission of the hospital and the services available. They put the foamcore pieces into the windows and it does a nice job of enhancing the experience of people entering the facility.

We’ve seen people do this in malls, where the windows are larger, with vinyl banners and with adhesive backed vinyl. We also have a new product, ink side adhesive, that allows a paper print to be stuck “ink-side-out” on the inside of a window. It’s like sticky note adhesive, so it’s easy to apply and easy to remove.

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Window Signage

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Jay Buckley
window signs with paper posters

Paper Posters on Windows

Here’s a situation we run into regularly. Our customer wants to print a paper poster and put it in a store window. You can tape it up, but that’s ugly and not terribly professional. Besides that, they tend to curl and get frayed over time. They start to look dingy.

Enter our new product- Print Face Adhesive. This material is clear as glass, and can be applied to the face of a print. It’s a strong adhesive on the paper side, and “sticky note” adhesive on the glass. It comes to you with a release liner like any adhesive material.

It goes up easily, can be removed leaving no residue, and if you don’t get it on straight the first time, it can be repositioned.

It’s always been a tricky thing for us, because you want to put your window sign inside the store, but you want it to be readable from outside. This allows you to do just that.

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Printing on Clear Cling

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Jay Buckley
large format printing on clear cling material

Clear Cling

Clear cling is an interesting material for printing in large format. Whatever shows as white on your computer screen has no color on the clear material. This can give cool effects, and it can also make a mess.

As you can see from the picture at the right, if you have a nice continuous background, like the sky in the picture, things look great. But, as you see where the trees start to enter the picture, they can obscure what you are trying to show in the picture, to the point where it can be really hard to see what’s going on.

We also print on a white cling, which works fine for white where it shows on your computer screen. The issue there is that you don’t want the ink against your glass- it will transfer to the glass and is a bear to remove. We always want to be putting the ink away from the glass.

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Dusted Crystal Printing

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Jay Buckley
dusted crystal printing

Dusted Crystal Vinyl

This was a new one on me. Our customer wanted to print onto a 3M vinyl called Dusted Crystal. The material is made to give glass a frosted look, and they wanted to add graphics to that. The question is how would it print, and how would it look?

The answer was, pretty good! I must say the people at 3M were very helpful, and we got some great looking prints on this material. It’s much like a thin adhesive vinyl, except it’s clear and has a frosty surface.

We can’t wait to see the photos of the final installation!

 

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Wallpaper Replaces Hand Painted Murals

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Jay Buckley
custom wall mural

Wall Mural Wallpaper

This striking wall mural looks like a hand painted mural from the middle ages! Our customer is an artist who was used to painting this sort of wall mural by hand.

She found that she could create the art digitally, and then send us the files for printing. The savings in time are huge- she says she can create a mural like this in a quarter of the time.

That makes a wall mural like this much more affordable. If you ask me, it looks just a good as a painted mural. On top of that, it’s printed with UV inks on a tough vinyl so that it’s far more durable than a painted wall. This job is going into a restaurant, so that can be important!

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Die Cut Event Sign

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Jay Buckley
Die cut sign cutout

Computer Cut Sign

This die cut event sign was printed on Ultraboard and computer cut out to be interesting and more noticeable. Hidden behind it is a swing out stand, also of Ultraboard.

It’s always a trick to make an event sign catch the eye, and this one does it very nicely. Our eyes go to strange shapes and bright colors, and this has both.

Since it’s direct printed, it’s affordable and has the advantage of also being waterproof and washable. Ultraboard is pretty tough stuff, too, although all bets are off if the wind catches it! For that reason, this kind of event sign is best used indoors.

 

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Installing Wallpaper Yourself

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Jay Buckley
self installed wallpaper

Wallboard Vinyl

One of the questions we hear a lot- “Can I install this wallpaper myself?”  The answer- it depends.

The picture at the right is wallboard vinyl, and I put it up in our booth at Neocon in a few minutes. You pull back the first 2-3 inches of release paper and fold it back. Then, get the piece lined up, and use push pins or tape to hold it. Once you have it lined up, and that can be tricky, stick the top 2-3″ down. Now, work your way down, pulling the release paper back a foot at a time and smoothing it down. It goes pretty fast.

If you are installing regular wallpaper, it’s a lot like doing it at home. In fact, you are usually doing straight walls, and it goes pretty easily. The most important thing is to get your plumb line done for the first piece so it’s on straight. Start crooked, and you’ll have a tough time!

Wallboard vinyl comes off the wall easily, leaving no residue. That can important if your landlord wants you to leave no trace. Regular wallpaper is pretty easy to remove as well if you use stripable paste, although it will leave some paste on the wall which needs to be sponged off.

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