LexJet’s Simple Flo Wrap Vinyl is the answer when you need a repositionable adhesive-backed vinyl for wrapping trucks, buses or walls. The 2.4-mil glossy-white vinyl has an air-egress release liner that enables air to escape as the graphics are installed, eliminating trapped air pockets that cause wrinkles and bubbles, and because it’s repositionable, misaligned graphics are easily repaired.
Tuesday Only: 30% Off LexJet Simple Flo Wrap Vinyl
Lady Liberty Lights the Way with an Inkjet Printed Wall Mural
Cohesive collaboration is often the key to creating a successful project. An excellent case in point is the collaboration between fine art print expert Jeff Fina of Hudson Valley Giclee and abstract fine artist Bruce Bleach.
The pair has been collaborating for the past six years or so on a variety of multi-media projects for corporations and other organizations that are dynamic and detailed. One of their latest creations was a 9′ x 13′ wall mural of Lady Liberty for a corporate client.
A seemingly simple image to re-create, Bleach provided subtle touches that both preserve the integrity of the American icon while giving it a distinctive look.
“We first enlarged and sharpened the photography, and then did some Photoshop work to it where we colored the torch and rendered the rest of the image in black and white. We were able to take a fine art aesthetic and apply it to this project,” explains Fina.
Once the image was perfected it was on to printing and applying the giant piece. After consulting with his LexJet customer specialist, Joshua Mott, Fina decided to use Photo Tex repositionable fabric instead of a wallpaper-like material or an adhesive-backed vinyl.
“I watched application videos at LexJet’s YouTube channel, and it seemed pretty easy. We did some overlap, cut between the overlap and then peeled away the excess and it was seamless. The magic of the material is that it is so easy to work with. We made a couple of mistakes during application where the material stuck to itself, but it’s so tough and repositionable you just pull it out and re-apply it,” says Fina. “It makes it a lot easier to price out these projects when you know you don’t have to account for 20 percent extra for difficulties during installation.”
Fina also wanted to ensure the fidelity of the blacks and gradients since those can be difficult to hit with a fabric material. Ultimately, says Fina, he was able to maximize the image potential by adjusting various settings in the driver of his Epson Stylus Pro 9800. Fina printed the piece in 32″‘ x 60″ panels, which were applied with the aforementioned overlap to ensure perfect registration.
“We planned it so that we applied the whole left side from top to bottom. When we did the middle section, we started at the center as an anchor; if there was a mistake we could make up for it from top to bottom,” says Fina.
The results speak for themselves and Fina credits Bleach’s long history in the art market, as well as the personal attention he received from LexJet, for making this project work and work well.
“Bruce has been in the industry longer than I’ve been alive and we’re able to combine our strengths on the projects we work on together. Plus, LexJet has allowed me to go crazy so that there are no real boundaries for what we can do artistically,” adds Fina.
Point of Sale Print Horsepower at Standard Distributing
The top beverage distributor in Delaware requires a top-notch print shop to win space at the point of sale and build the brands they sell. Standard Distributing Co., New Castle, Del., has the advantage of quality and quantity at the point of sale through the work of its print shop, led by sign industry veteran Matt Glick.
Before joining the Standard Distributing team nine years ago, Glick had worked with grand format solvent VUTEk printers. Glick already knew the ins and outs of these 10-foot-wide industrial machines and has translated that experience into an efficient and productive print shop.
Glick recently brought in Epson’s new SureColor S30670 low-solvent printer that he got from LexJet to add to a printer arsenal that also includes an Epson GS6000 low-solvent and HP Designjet Z6100 aqueous printer.
“We had another solvent printer for about eight years and it wasn’t producing the quality and speed we needed, so we got the Epson SureColor from LexJet. The clarity and visibility of the colors is much better; the colors just look richer. Everything I print on the Epson is clear and the resolution is better, and there’s no smell, and the speed is fantastic,” explains Glick. “One prints scrim banners and window perf, the other prints adhesive-backed vinyl, and the Z6100 prints paper posters, banners and temporary stuff. It speeds up production when I don’t have to worry about changing materials every time there’s a different job; we can nest them together on the same printer.”
In addition to the print production horsepower provided by those printers, there’s also a Seal 410 laminator for mounting and laminating, a rotary cutter and a 72″ large-format cutter for finishing.
Glick estimates that about 60 percent of the 400-600 designs created in the shop each month are prints applied to Coroplast, 30 percent banners and 10 percent specialty graphics, like perforated window film, floor graphics and counter-top graphics.
For banners, Glick’s material of choice is LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Polypropylene; for adhesive-backed applications on Coroplast and aluminum it’s LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl SUV; and for window graphics it’s LexJet Simple Perforated Window Vinyl (60/40). Glick adds that perforated window vinyl graphics are an effective way to get tap handles into an account
“My biggest challenge is over-marketing our accounts. We want to be as visible as possible without being so busy that we lose the message in the process,” explains Glick. “Simple is always better and consistency is another important ingredient. From a production standpoint it’s been helpful to work with a vendor like LexJet. My rep, Kyle Stephens, has been very helpful with my questions, he’s accessible, and he always seems to have the shipping down so we get the products we need when we need them; the customer service has been outstanding.”