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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Effective Branding with Perforated Window Vinyl

Branding with Perforated Window Vinyl

Establishing and then reinforcing a brand message from the outside in is a goal that Best Brands Inc., Nashville, strives for at each account that sells its line of wine and spirits. Whenever there’s window space to be had, Best Brands is ready to roll, or squeegee in this case, with promotional graphics.

Best Brands Window Graphics“Perforated window vinyl is the most effective way to brand windows. It’s easier and less time-consuming than setting up a display inside the window. It just goes up as a big graphic and lasts for months,” says Best Brands graphic designer Michael Miller.

The photos here represent a variety of different stores that recently received the Best Brands window treatment. Printed on LexJet Aqueous Perforated Window Vinyl (70/30) on a Canon iPF8000, Miller says the results are bold, brilliant graphics that are surprisingly outdoor-durable for aqueous-ink output.

“The life on perforated window vinyl is supposed to be about six months, but usually the store owners will keep them up between six months and a year. If they’re in direct sunlight they’ll fade after about nine months, but if they’re in the shade they’re still looking pristine even after a year,” says Miller.

Window Graphics by Best BrandsMore importantly, the exterior graphics set the stage for the point-of-sale inside, cementing the brand in the mind of the consumer and leading to more sales.

“I don’t know the numbers as far as the effect the window graphics have on sales, but I do know that whenever there’s an opportunity to cover one of our stores, both our managers and the store owners give it top priority. That tells me that something’s gotta be working,” adds Miller.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Setting the Scene with Special Event Point of Sale Signage

Point of Sale Inkjet Printed Display for Corona

The Nackard Companies and its P.O.P. sign crew are well known for creating enticing displays for all kinds of special events, whether it’s the astronomical anomaly called a blue moon (tied into Blue Moon beer, of course), the annual Dew Downtown in Flagstaff, Ariz., or anything in between.

The Nackard Companies team always seems to come up with something different to help drive beer sales around these events. The most recent example was a collaborative project between shop manager Steve Lalio and account representative Anthony Copetillo for Cinco de Mayo.

The pair came up with a basic concept that would be translated for various Mexican beer brands and placed in a number of different locations. The two projects pictured here were created for Corona and Dos Equis.

Inkjet Printed Point of Sale Display for Dos EquisEach display included a number of elements, highlighted by a faux water tower and an airplane toting a banner with buckets of beer.

Copetillo built the water tower structure with a combination of plywood circles for the top and bottom, held in place with plywood slats, Coroplast and furring strips. The “roof” of the water tower was cut-out cardboard painted black and brown. Copetillo created a palm tree using cut-out and painted cardboard as well.

Lalio printed a banner on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Polypropylene that was about 42 inches tall by 115 inches long, which Copetillo wrapped around the structure. For the Corona display, Lalio designed the piece with a wood-grain background and added the Corona logo. It looks strikingly real, which is a testament to what great design and printing can do for a display.

The airplane, which is about six feet long and has a 38-inch wingspan, was printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene, applied to Coroplast and cut out in the airplane shape. The banner the plane flies behind it, as well as the other hanging banners, were printed on LexJet 8 Mil PolyGloss Banner and laminated with LexJet 3 Mil Gloss UV Premium Low Melt. Lalio laminated these banners because the customer wanted to re-use them.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Wall Wraps Before and After at the Boom Boom Room

Wall Graphics and Murals
The Boom Boom Room received a makeover courtesy of Heineken and DeCrescente Distributing with wall, elevator and door graphics printed on LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl.

Heineken wanted to make a big splash at a popular four-story tavern while making it easy to clean up all the splash-back from spilled drinks and such in the Boom Boom Room, a DJ-powered disco located on the fourth floor of the tavern.

Local beverage distributor DeCrescente Distributing, Mechanicville, N.Y., and its crack graphics design and installation staff took on the project, which required wraps on doors, elevators and walls of the Boom Boom Room.

Bar Makeover with Wall MuralsGraphic designer James Lane chose LexJet Simple WallCal (6 Mil) for most of the project, printing an entire roll to fill the space required, and scrim banner applied with LexJet Heavy Duty Banner Tape on one brick wall area. “That’s the other reason we went with those materials, because they spill drinks and throw stuff on the wall, so we wanted something that would take the abuse,” explains Lane.

“Heineken wanted that floor since they’re promoting their music series and did this as part of the sponsorship. The City Tavern wasn’t too keen on it at first since it had always been Budweiser, but when I was installing the project they changed their minds because they thought it looked great,” says Lane. “It took about 11 hours to apply it. This is not something you rush through; you have to take your time to get it right.”

Elevator GraphicsLane has been designing and installing graphics for years and has the process down to a science (his graphics department comrade Monty Pyle says Lane’s been doing this for “a reeeaaally long time”). While experience helps a lot, Lane says: “We all take pride in our work. We want to do a good job and we don’t stop until it’s done right. It’s better to take your time. I look at the room and get ideas so I know what I’m doing before I leave that room. It’s a matter of pre-planning the project ahead of time and taking exact measurements.”

The project was printed on DeCrescente’s Epson GS6000 low-solvent printer, and Lane says it took a couple of days to print and cut the graphics into the various panel sizes.

“Before I printed everything out I printed a section on the HP to see what the background would look like. It looked good on-screen, but when I printed it out it didn’t look so good, so I had to redo the background as far as tracing the lines and getting the colors right. We always make sure our images aren’t pixilated and are razor sharp before we go into production,” adds Lane.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Point of Sale Print Horsepower at Standard Distributing

Window Graphics on Simple Perforated Window Vinyl by 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.

Standard Distributing recently added the Epson SureColor S30670 low-solvent printers to its printer lineup.
Standard Distributing recently added the Epson SureColor S30670 low-solvent printer to its printer lineup.

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.

LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl SUV“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.”

Window Sign by Standard DistributingIn 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.”

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Printing for Dew Downtown Flagstaff: Year Two for Nackard Companies

Graphics and signs for special events
Dew Downtown Flagstaff was a huge success and Nackard Companies, a regional beverage distributor, pitched in with most of the signs and graphics for the event. Photo by Rick Eselgroth.

When you organize a big special event for the first time it’s a nail-biting white-knuckle ride from concept to completion. While the inaugural year may appear to be the most difficult, an event’s sophomore year may actually be the most difficult, particularly if that first event was successful.

In the case of Dew Downtown Flagstaff, success from its first year would breed a more ambitious approach to the second annual event, which took place earlier this month. One of the key players in both the inaugural and sophomore events was Nackard Companies, a regional beverage distributor, and its always-busy print shop.

Signs and graphics for a special event
Nackard Companies' print shop, led by Steve Lalio, also produced signs, table tents, flyers and banners for surrounding bars and businesses.

Nackard Companies P.O.P. shop manager Steve Lalio was knee deep in signage in the months leading up to Dew Downtown Flagstaff since his shop was in charge of most of the event graphics. As the event grew from last year, so too did Lalio’s responsibilities.

Dew Downtown Flagstaff brings terrain park skiing and snowboarding down from the mountains and into the city of Flagstaff, Ariz. The main event takes place on San Francisco Street in Flagstaff with a series of rails and jumps all the way down, including the centerpiece of the competitive ride, two super-sized Mountain Dew can course obstacles created by the Nackard Companies print shop.

While both “cans” were printed on and wrapped with LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene, one was laminated and the other given a polyurethane coating. It was a test of sorts for future events: which would take the abuse as competitors hucked, slashed and crashed into and onto the cans?

In the end, the polyurethane-coated graphics fared best, but were still sufficiently marred that the can can’t be used again at next year’s event. Ultimately, there is no way to make the graphics ski/snowboard-proof as competitors slice and dice their way through the obstacles. However, if you know of a better way to protect the graphics from the ravages of snowbound competitors, let us know about it.

Printing specialty graphics for an event
The Mountain Dew can that was part of the ski and snowboard course on San Francisco Street in Flagstaff printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene by Nackard Companies' print shop.

Nackard Companies produced a variety of banners, window signs and other event signage for the main venue as well as the various special event and promotion tents, such as the areas promoting Mountain Dew Kickstart and New Belgium beers, and surrounding bars.

For the bulk of the graphics surrounding the event, Lalio printed LexJet 8 Mil PolyGloss Banner, LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Polypropylene and LexJet TOUGHcoat Self Adhesive Water-Resistant Polypropylene, laminated with either LexJet 3 Mil Gloss UV Premium Low Melt or LexJet 3 Mil Luster Standard Low Melt, depending on the application.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Banner Stands Front and Center at Clark Beverage Group

Banner stands for bars and restaurantsYou might say that Brian Walton, print shop manager for Clark Beverage Group, Southaven, Miss., has point of sale design and print production down to a science. It helps that Walton is involved in just about every aspect of the distribution company’s business; it helps provide needed perspective on what resonates in the market.

With what Walton calls flawless printing from his Canon iPF8000S wide-format inkjet printer and inkjet media from LexJet, Clark Beverage Group is able to create competitive advantage with unique point-of-sale displays.

Recently, Walton says they’ve had great success with portable banner stands at various venues that promote both their brands and the lineup of bands playing at those venues. Walton typically uses the LexJet Spring 3 Banner Stand with LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Polypropylene as the print medium for this type of application.

Producing banners stands for bars“It’s not something that gets pushed up against the wall; it’s placed front and center. When you walk in, it’s impossible to miss it. When we tried the banner stands the first time, it was a big hit. If someone gets a banner stand and a competitor sees it, they want their own, so it becomes a kind of tug of war between these bars,” says Walton. “They’re also convenient from a formatting standpoint, so that if I make one Sam Adams band list and I want to push Sam Adams somewhere else I can just swap out the information. They see the connection with the beer and they see the schedule information they need.”

Walton has also used LexJet 11 Mil Blockout Water-Resistant Polypropylene, but only in situations where there’s lots of light that can shine through the back and detract from the message. Most of the banner stands don’t require the blockout since they’re generally in low-light environments.

Whatever the design, Walton says he keeps everything as simple as possible and always works to separate the brands, instead of mixing two or three brands together on one piece.

Window graphics with perforated window vinyl
Another effective point of sale tool for Clark Beverage Group is LexJet Aqueous Perforated Window Vinyl.

“I’m always finding complexity in the corporate world and the challenge is to simplify everything. When I first came here they treated Miller Lite and Coors Light the same. We got out of that and began treating those beers differently since they have their own distinct branding. That way you stay true to the brand and get space at the point of sale for both. We make the package, the brand and the price the stars of the design,” says Walton. “My workflow is to build everything in Illustrator, then to Photoshop. The Canon has the Photoshop plug-in, which really makes production go a lot faster.”