Lobby Wallpaper, Complete!

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Jay Buckley
Lobby Wallpaper Corporate

Lobby Wallpaper with Matching Elevators

A while ago we did a really spectacular job for the Texas Ranger’s lobby. They came back to us, very happy with the custom wallpaper, but feeling like the elevators left a really big hole in the custom wallpaper look. They asked us if the elevator doors could be done in custom wallpaper too.

We produced adhesive vinyl for the elevator doors. Since our systems are all calibrated to reproduce the same color on any of our materials, they match very well. The Rangers have their elevator doors to match the rest of the lobby wallpaper, and the look is complete!

Posted in Custom Printed Wallpaper | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Trade Show Booth Graphics

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Jay Buckley
trade show booth graphic

Yellow Dog’s Booth

Here’s a set of trade show booth graphics done for Yellow Dog software. We printed on paper and laminated with our crystal laminate, and as you can see the results are terrific!

We like our crystal  laminate for trade show booth graphics because it breaks the glare, but still brings the colors through beautifully. It’s a nice heavy laminate that goes up flat and stays that way. It’s thin enough to roll up for shipping, and accepts the curve of a trade show booth easily.

 

Posted in large format printing, trade show booth | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Restaurant Wallpaper

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Jay Buckley
restaurant wallpaper

Yogurt Shop Wallpaper

When you are trying to brand your restaurant, there’s probably nothing easier, faster, or better than installing custom wallpaper. Here’s an example from our good customer Forever Yogurt in Chicago.

Once they had their branding artwork finalized, they found that they could send us the dimensions of the walls in a new store and have the custom printed wallpaper on site in a week. That makes it easy to replicate the same look in stores with different physical configurations.

Our custom vinyl wallpaper is also durable, just what is needed in a restaurant! Without a doubt, this wallpaper will get splashed with yogurt and need wiping down on a regular basis. Our UV curable wallpaper is tough stuff, and able to withstand repeated scrubbing.

Those of you who have ever taken your kids out for ice cream know what I’m talking about!

Posted in Custom Printed Wallpaper | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Menu Posters

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Jay Buckley
poster size menus

TV screen menus

We went to our favorite dairy bar the other day for a lobster roll and an ice cream cone. They had computer monitors for their menus, and they were pretty nice.

The advantages of electronic menu signage is that, first of all, you pay for it once. From then on, it’s just a matter of changing the information in the computer and you have the changes posted immediately. Of course, the cost of a computer screen is a lot more than a poster. But, it probably pays for itself over the course of a few years.  Less so if you add in the power usage of the computer and the rest. An additional dollar a day in power cost goes a long way to buying a set of poster menus over the course of the summer.

The cynic in me wonders if the real reason they use these electronic signs is that they can change prices back and forth. For instance, we went there during Bike Week in New Hampshire, and I’ll wonder if they put a buck on the prices when they know they are going to be jam packed anyway. They can experiment with prices, add specials, etc. very easily.

The other thing to think about, computer reliability being what it is- what do you do if the  system breaks down? You’ve got a line out the door and nobody knows what the prices are. Yikes! One great thing about a printed poster size menu is it always works.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Custom Wallpaper that Excites

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Jay Buckley
Wallpaper Mural

Custom Wallpaper Mural

We just shipped one of the most spectacular wallpaper murals we have ever printed. I’m not sure the picture of the wallpaper mural does it justice, because it was 16×50′ and we could only lay half of it out on our floor at one time.

This custom wallpaper mural is going into a school in Texas, and is meant to inspire young people about their state. Boy, does it ever! It’s in sepia tone, and shows everything from agriculture to ranching to oil exploration.  The artwork we were given is spectacular, and it sure made some beautiful custom printed wallpaper. We can’t wait to see  a picture of it installed.

Posted in Custom Printed Wallpaper | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Cardboard Cutouts of People

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Jay Buckley
cardboard cutouts of people

Full size people cutouts

Well OK, we usually make them out of something sturdier than cardboard. People usually think of them as cardboard cutouts because that’s what you see them made of at the party store. We like to make them of display board, which is tougher stuff than cardboard, and prints better too.

We do a lot of cutouts of people. Usually just one or a few, and not usually a celebrity, although we’ve done celebrity cutouts too. We did a whole set of politicians for the last NH primary!

We need a good digital picture of the person you want to make a cutout of. From there, we print on display board and do the cutout of the person. Remember these need to be structurally sound, which is why you see some white around  the feet of these people cutouts. And, no fair sending us a photo of a hockey player making a slapshot- that’s the kind of thing that just wants to be broken off.

Posted in Flatbed printing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Large Format Printing

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Jay Buckley
large format drawing

Large Format Drawing

The last time I checked, we had seven graphic designers doing the output of files to our large format printers. That means we have a lot of artistic talent around the building!

The latest example of that is the work of Mike Piper, who did a fantastic 60 foot long drawing on a roll of paper we had as an end cut. It took him four years! Good thing we had a sewing table he could put it on, and even then you could only see half of it at a time. It’s absolutely beautiful!

 

You can find Mike on Facebook as Michael Sean Piper to see more examples of his work.

Posted in large format printing | Tagged | Leave a comment

Restaurant Wallpaper

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Jay Buckley
restaurant wallpaper

Toby Keith Restaurant Wallpaper

This is a photo of the latest custom wallpaper we printed for Toby Keith’s restaurant chain. The guitar is 76 feet long and 30 feet wide, and the trick with this one is that one end of the guitar is 12 feet higher than the other. That actually made the wallpaper only about 8 inches longer, but the installer said it was quite a trick to do the installation!

We done several sets of restaurant wallpaper for them, all with this American flag motif, in the shape of a guitar, and on the ceiling. The tricky part is working with the installer to put alignment marks in the restaurant wallpaper so they can do alignment with their laser tools. Since nothing is straight, you don’t have another way to be sure it’s all aligned. We get this custom wallpaper to within a quarter inch.

We’re proud of our ability to do such a complicated restaurant wallpaper print job! It got there on time, on budget, and as you can see, beautifully.

Posted in Custom Printed Wallpaper | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Life Size Cutouts of People

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Jay Buckley
photo cutouts of people

People Cutouts

Cutouts of people in life size can be a lot of fun! We see people cutouts being used in trade shows, for events and sales meetings, and we’ve even made them of the candidates in the New Hampshire Primary.

What we usually need to make a full size cutout is a good digital photo of the person. It helps if they are facing the camera, and we need to think about the structural stability of things like this. You’ll see in the photo that we left some white around their legs to give them strength.

I have an old photo of me sitting next to a cutout of Johnny Carson, taken some years ago at a trade show. You can do the same kind of thing, and it’s great fun!

Posted in large format printing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Trade Show Backwall from Banner Stands

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Jay Buckley
trade show back wall of banner stands

Instant Backwall

When faced with the expense of buying a trade show booth, you can get creative and save real money. Here’s what one of our customers did- six retractable banner stands to make a backwall for a 20 foot booth. They rented a table and a few chairs, and they had a very nice looking setup.

Even better, they could carry the banner stands into the show hall, instead of paying several hundred dollars to have a booth moved from the loading dock to the booth space. The total cost of the six banner stands was about $2700, which is less than you pay for a typical 10 foot booth.

These are 36″ retractable banner stands, so the six of them are 18 feet wide. We also have 48″ banner stands, which would allow you to get to a full 20 feet by using 5 banner stands.

Economy Retractable Banner Stands

Three Economy Rectractables

If you are really on a tight budget, we have a 31″ wide economy retractable banner stand for $249. We have strung 3 of them together many times to yield a 93″ wide graphic for a 10 foot booth. We charge $224 each if you buy three economy banner stands, so you can do a pretty snappy show booth for $672. How can you beat that?

Posted in Retractable Banner Stands | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment