Our customers worked hard this year to create projects for their clients and communities to bring smiles to faces across the country. From window graphics with SQUID Textiles to unique and fun applications with the versatile HP Satin Wrapping Paper, these creative solutions are sure to inspire you for 2021:

For Flexibility, Privacy & Design, Squid Delivers for this Texas Printer Phillip Cole, sales manager at Thomas Graphics Inc. in Austin, Tex., is always looking for unique products to offer his clients. Once he heard about Squid Textiles, a new self-adhesive window fabric that offers privacy, reduced heat and glare from the sun, and the opportunity to create customized graphics, Cole knew it would be a great addition to his product line. “I like the unique ability to print on it because that’s what we do, and it opens up lots of ideas on how it can be used,” he says.

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EPSON Helps Loftipop Grow from Etsy to Amazon In 2013, Rachel O’Neill and her husband, Ryan, started their Sarasota, Fla., based company Loftipop as an Etsy shop. Today, they conceive, design, and print their décor products in a 2,500 sq. ft. warehouse to ship across the country and through Amazon. “When we were researching, we noticed that Epson was the top of the line. We love using their printers for our art prints. I don’t think we’d ever switch to anything else,” says O’Neill.

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Georgia Sign Shop Keeps Kids Busy with Giant Wall Art Coloring Decals Earlier this year, when schools started shutting down, Tim and Shari Roe, owners of Outspoken Signs in Marietta, Ga., felt a calling to do something for their community. “A few weeks ago, we wondered how we could help using our capabilities at the shop,” Tim says. After some brainstorming, the Roes came up with a wall decal coloring project to keep kids occupied while sheltering in place.

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The Front Porch Sessions – Photographers Get Creative in the Wake of COVID-19 Photographers by nature, are “people” people, and when sheltering in place and social distancing guidelines went into effect in March, they were among the many who were temporarily out of business. It was no different for Elise Wicklund, and her husband Tracy, of Wicklund Photography in Parrish, Fla. “It virtually stopped our business,” Wicklund says. That’s when she got the idea for the “Front Porch Sessions”. She reached out to neighbors and clients to see if they were interested in doing family portraits on their porches and the popularity of the sessions exploded.

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What They’re Saying: Vescom “Really is Incredible” Earlier this year, the design team at Century Sign Builders in Albuquerque, N.M., partnered with All American Wallpapering to decorate the final phase of Nuevo East – the Graduate Student housing at the University of California San Diego. After researching different products and finishes, DeMenno and the Century Signs team chose Type II compliant Vescom Polster for the wall décor for the UCSD project. “What’s cool about the Polster product is that it has a super light stucco texture to knock down any glare and it just made the whole project seem much more high-end,” DeMenno says.

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What They’re Saying: “The HP Films are Good Quality and They Look Great” For over 30 years, Tony Evans has been living his childhood dream through Evans Graphics. “Ever since I was a little boy, it was my dream to work with fire trucks, and I would say that now, around 80% of my work is on emergency vehicles,” he says. Evans uses HP Adhesive Vinyl and Overlaminates on his HP Latex 115 to print and protect graphics for safety vehicles and work vehicles in and around the Monessen, Pa. area.

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What They’re Saying: “HP Satin Wrapping Paper is a Unique Way for One Small Thing to Have Impact” Andrew and Kristy Hodge, owners of Red Barn Canvas in Lake Hartwell, Ga., have found success creating year-round customized gift wrap and high-end posters with HP Satin Wrapping Paper. Hodge says in the two years since they started offering it, their wrapping paper business has grown exponentially. “Our first holiday, we probably sold about 20 sheets and now, it’s every other day. It’s not just Christmas holidays, it’s birthdays throughout the year, which is fun.”

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Karin Giusti Uses Art to Create Thought-provoking “Third Space” Piece Rhode Island artist Karin Giusti – a Professor Emerita of Art at Brooklyn College – enjoys creating pieces that are close to her heart, but also speak to anyone who sees them. Giusti was awarded an opportunity to create a public art display on the unique exterior of the downtown Providence Civic Center parking garage for PVDfest. Her plan was to treat the exterior of the building as a loom and weave brightly colored ribbons of LexJet 8 Mil Absolute Backlit. “It was an absolute blast! It was so much fun because the backlit and the laminate were manageable and easy to work with.”

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The Frame Room is Gifting Back Using HP Satin Wrapping Paper Last year, Kory Mitchell, owner of The Frame Room in Baltimore, wanted to do something different and creative to help out local charity Friends of Patterson Park, the stewards of Baltimore’s iconic Patterson Park. He heard about the new custom printable HP Satin Wrapping Paper and saw an opportunity to raise money by selling made-to-order gift wrap and donating $5.00 for every sale. Mitchell is partnering with local animal rescue organizations and artists for this year’s outreach program.

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Bringing it Home with HP Latex and Media More people are working from home these days, and Reynoldsburg, Ohio-based photographer Jennifer Marshbank certainly has found a way to make the most of this opportunity: she prints all her work on an HP Latex 365 from her home office. From photos to customized wrapping paper and banners to stickers, she can help her clients celebrate any milestone with multiple applications.

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More people are working from home these days, and Reynoldsburg, Ohio-based photographer Jennifer Marshbank certainly has found a way to make the most of this opportunity. Working with her LexJet sales specialist, Ramiro Torrez, she chose an HP Latex 365 for her home office. “It’s very fun, but it was scary at first,” she says. “I’ve had other printers, but this is my first latex, and I love it. I named it Oscar because when you have something this big in your house, it deserves a name.”

Many photographers have busy and slow seasons, and Marshbank says that working with the HP Latex printer has given her a chance to offer more applications and products for her clients. She recently added HP Satin Wrapping Paper to her portfolio and is currently promoting it as part of a special treat when she sends packages to her clients.

“I printed photobooks for some customers and wrapped them in special ‘Thank You’ gift wrap that also announces the launch of my custom wrapping paper,” she says. “Because it’s customized, people love to see the gift wrap with their face on it or something personal about them.”

Marshbank is excited about the variety of opportunities she now has with the latex printer. From photos to canvas wraps and banners to stickers, she can help her clients celebrate any milestone with multiple applications. Recently, she used HP 13 oz Prime Matte Banner to create a special treat for her mother’s 73^rd birthday, and it was a hit with the birthday girl. “My mom loved it, she told me that she’d never had anything like that before,” Marshbank says.

If there’s one thing small business owners have learned this year, it’s adaptability, and Marshbank certainly has had to adapt long before COVID hit. “I got sick last year, so I slowed down a little bit, but then it picked back up,” she says. “It helps, being able to print from home where you can offer more things.”

When choosing media for her printer, Marshbank discussed her options with Torrez. “She’s working with a lot of HP media right now because all the profiles are pre-loaded on the printer,” says Torrez.

With her customized wrapping paper launch in full swing, her next step is to launch a sticker line using HP Prime Gloss Air GP, which will give her clients even more opportunities to personalize their photos. While once nervous about the prospect of working out of her house, now that she’s doing it, Marshbank is really excited about the way her business is growing.

With so many people looking for alternative ways to keep businesses up and running, Marshbank has certainly come up with a great solution. For those who are unsure of being successful, in her characteristic positive vibe, Marshbank says, “I think you can do almost anything out of your home if you put your mind to it.”

Last year, Kory Mitchell, owner of The Frame Room in Baltimore, wanted to do something different and creative to help out local charity Friends of Patterson Park, the stewards of Baltimore’s iconic Patterson Park. He heard about the new custom printable HP Satin Wrapping Paper and saw an opportunity to raise money by selling made-to-order gift wrap and donating $5.00 of every sale. “Friends of Patterson Park is a smaller organization and it gave us a chance to prototype the idea,” says Mitchell.  “It went well, and we raised several hundred dollars for them in a very short time. This year we will start an outreach campaign with animal rescue organizations and a few others.”

Since it was his first time working with HP Satin Wrapping Paper, Mitchell played around with the settings on his old EPSON Stylus Pro 9800. “It took some time to find the right ink levels and the Epson wouldn’t do a full bleed,” he says. “We adjusted some of the images, and it was fine.”

For this year’s outreach, Mitchell expects a different outcome. Not only does he have more experience with the product, but earlier this year, he purchased a Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4100 printer, which will do a full bleed on 30-in media. Mitchell is excited about helping different organizations raise money. “We want to work with rescue organizations and artists,” he says. “In the past, we worked with Jordan Lawson – a young artist known as Art by JLaw – and he uses it for branding and holiday gifts.”

One of the reasons Mitchell uses HP Satin Wrapping Paper as a way to help raise money for local charities is because he knows he can sell customized gift wrap at a nationally competitive price and still donate a portion of the proceeds to a good cause.

It is an appealing price point that has also opened large-scale opportunities outside of charity work. Recently, Legg Mason – Baltimore’s last fortune 500 corporation – was purchased by another financial firm. Before leaving, the previous owners wanted to do something special for their employees, so they commissioned Mitchell and his team to create 1,050 framed photos of the Thunder Birds and Blue Angels taken during the “America Strong” flyover that recognized healthcare workers on the front lines of COVID-19. For the prints, he used Sunset Photo eSatin paper, framed and matted them, then wrapped them in custom wrapping paper.

Whether printing adorable, adoptable dogs and cats to help raise money for an animal rescue or creating heartfelt parting gifts for a wonderful group of employees, Kory Mitchell and his team at The Frame Room are doing some amazing work with HP Satin Wrapping Paper. “It’s not just for profit, we are doing some good as well,” he says. And it’s the perfect message to remember as the holiday season quickly approaches.

Andrew Hodge, who – along with his wife Kristy – owns Red Barn Canvas, has been running a successful home-based online business for the last nine years. “We started in Connecticut. We were also in Dallas, Ga., for about five years before we relocated to Lake Hartwell, Ga.,” says Hodge. “Because it’s an online model, we were able to move with the business and have no interruptions, which is great.”

Hodge says Kristy is the creative one and he’s the one that looks at his printer and wonders what other exciting things it can do. “I’m always wondering what I can print, other than canvas on the HP Latex 115,” he says. “I asked my LexJet sales representative to keep me updated on other products and one day, he suggested the HP Satin Wrapping Paper.” Realizing the potential, Hodge tried a roll. “I got a roll in, checked it out, ran some tests to see if we liked it, and to see if we could find a way to use it.”

They added the customized wrapping paper to their repertoire about two years ago, right before the holiday season started. They feared they wouldn’t have enough time to get the new product set up online to have an impact on the 2018 holidays. So, they thought outside of the gift box, so to speak, and designed one-of-a-kind wrapping paper with the Red Barn Canvas logo and used it for packages and gifts for special clients.

However, it was when they designed a few sheets of customized wrapping paper for the daughter of a family friend that they realized what that little extra personalized detail can mean. “They sent us pictures of her opening the gifts, and the level of excitement of her seeing her name all over those boxes, it’s hard to replace,” says Hodge. “We knew then that it could be a fun, unique way for one small thing to have an impact.”