Unique Flip-Up Displays

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Photos with flip-up captions

Flip-Up Displays

Our customer wanted to show photos of the White Mountain National Forest, but they didn’t want to take up a lot of the display space with the captions. Their idea was to be able to flip up the photo and read the caption.

We executed this project by direct printing onto 3mm dibond, which is a sandwich of aluminum and PVC. For each display, a photo was printed on one piece, and a caption on another. We bought aluminum piano hinger and cut pieces of the appropriate length, and then used Gorilla glue to fasten the hinges to the two pieces. The hinges were then drilled and countersunk through the caption piece for wall mounting with wood screws.

I watched a couple of kids looking at the display when I took this photo, and they were delighted to wonder what was in the picture, and then to flip it up to find out. How cool!

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Kiosk Signs for the National Forest Service

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Trail Head kiosk signs
Signs for US Forest Service

Here’s an interesting job we are working on with our new flatbed printer. The signs are for kiosks at over 60 trail heads in the White Mountain National Forest.

The signs were created in the USFS GIS system, and saved as pdf’s. We output them directly to 1/8″ sintra, which is a foamed PVC sheet. They will bolt them to the kiosks so that hikers will have a good map of the local terrain.
The advantage of this process is to have a durable sign that is impervious to moisture. Sintra is a well established sign making material, and the UV curable inks will last for many years, especially under the protection of the kiosk. Direct printing is also very cost effective, since it is a one step process.
If you have never been hiking in the White Mountains, we encourage you to give it a try! There are over 2000 trails, many with spectacular views. My personal favorite is mount Avalon, which has the best view for the amount of effort required to get there!
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Senate Candidate Jim Bender visits us

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Jim Bender Visits

Jim Bender visits our shop

Jim Bender, who is a Republican candidate for the US Senate seat being vacated by Judd Greg, visited our shop last Thursday. He enjoyed seeing a successful New Hampshire business, and had a lot of questions about what we do and how we are weathering the recession.

He then went on to play golf in the Grafton County Republican Golf Tournament at Owl’s Nest in Campton.  I had the opportunity to golf with Jim, and we had a wonderful time. It sounded like he had been too busy with his campaign to play much golf over the last year, and I hope this felt like more of an afternoon off than another campaign event. I tried not to pepper him with questions, and just enjoy a splendid day on the golf course.

I can tell you that Jim is a thoughtful, experienced businessman with a deep desire to contribute to the Nation. I believe he will make a great senator!

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Unique Trade Show Booth

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Jay Buckley
wallpaper in a trade show booth

Trade Show Booth

Here’s an interesting application of custom printed wallpaper– as decoration in a trade show booth.

Our customer wanted to create the image of being in a room, without having to drag all the furniture and decorations to the trade show. They created the images of furniture, decorations, picture frames, and wainscoting as artwork, and we printed it as wallpaper. The wallpaper was then applied to flats that were brought to the show.

As you can see, the result is very nice! It was easy to install, fun to look at, and brought a lot of customers into the booth.

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Magnetic Numbers to Change Interest Rates

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Jay Buckley
magnetic sign numbers
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.
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Off to the Recycling Center!

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Being green
Our recycling run

Here’s Bob stuffing the last box into the back of the car as we load up for a recycling run.

We have been separating our paper from other trash for the last two years now, and make a trip like this every week or two, depending on how busy we are. We generate a lot of paper scraps from trimming prints to size, running tests, and things that go wrong. It makes us feel good to see that waste being recycled, and it’s kept us from having to increase the size of our dumpster as we have grown.
This spring, we installed a flatbed printer that allows us to offer our first truly green product. We can print directly onto a 100% recycled board, and it can be recycled with your cardboard. That means that we keep material out of the landfill at both ends of the process. We’re pretty excited about it, and our customers are too!
We also recycle our bottles and cans, our plastic containers, and our cardboard. Being green matters to us, and we hope it does to you too!
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Banner for the New Hampshire Music Festival

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Jay Buckley
vinyl banner

NHMF Banner at Plymouth Roundabout

The New Hampshire Music Festival is happening at Plymouth State University this summer, and they wanted to let everyone know about the performances. We printed this banner for the festival, and Plymouth State was kind enough to provide two poles for us to hang it on.

The banner sits at the far side of our new roundabout, so it’s a perfect place to gain the attention of almost anybody driving into town.

If you can’t read the banner, the classical music performances are on Thursdays and Fridays, with chamber music on Tuesdays. There are Pops concerts on July 10 and 24, and August 7th. I went to the opening night concert on July 8th, and it was outstanding!

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Full size cutout for Purity Spring Resort

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Full size person cutout
Standup of a person

Here’s a fun job we just finished, a life sized cutout for Purity Spring Resort here in New Hampshire. We’re really not sure if they intend to have him hanging out in the lobby, the game room, or at the beach; but wherever they put him he’ll remind everybody that the whole idea is to have a good time!

Our life size cutouts are printed on 3/16″ gatorboard and include an easel stand. They are lots of fun!
Since we’ve installed our flatbed printer, we started printing them directly on the gatorboard. This saves a fair amount of labor in their production, and we’ve lowered our price for a full size cutout to $199.
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Sign for Plymouth Furniture Co.

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Direct printed sign
Sign on Sintra

Our new flatbed printer does a great job of printing on a number of sign making materials. Shown at the right is a sign we did for Plymouth Furniture, a local retailer.

We printed directly on 1/4″ Sintra with UV curable inks, and then gave it an overcoat for additional protection from the elements, which we think is probably a good idea given the severity of a New Hampshire winter!
Our flatbed printer does a beautiful job on sintra, styrene, coroplast (plastic cardboard)  and 50 point board. We stock them all to give you fast turnaround!
Our 50 point board is made from 100% recycled paper, and can be recycled with your cardboard. It’s our first 100% green product! We see it being used for retail sign holders, especially the 22×28 size that are so common in retail stores.
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Hospice Banner Brings a Crowd

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Jay Buckley
Vinyl Event Banner

Vinyl Banner for an Event

Here’s a creative way to attract people to your event- put a banner below a sign on a busy traffic artery. In this case, the Hospice organization in our town was organizing an arts festival over Memorial Day weekend.

They have a sign along Tenney Mountain Highway, which gets traffic of about 25,000 cars passing every day.  They put a couple of 2×4’s on the sign posts, and had a very effective banner to advertise their event.

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