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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles, Technology & Products
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Setting a Canvas Printing Standard at FinerWorks

FinerWorks Sunset by Fredrix Matte Canvas
Close-up of a fine-art reproduction by FinerWorks on the company’s new standard canvas: Sunset by Fredrix Matte Canvas.

As the name implies, FinerWorks, based in San Antonio, is dedicated to reproducing finer works of art on a variety of printable materials. FinerWorks serves mainly artists and photographers, with a focus on high-quality output.

Fine Art Canvas Reproductions
A combination of canvas gallery wraps and canvas mounted to PVC board printed by FinerWorks on Sunset by Fredrix Matte Canvas.

Toward that end, FinerWorks recently set Sunset by Fredrix Matte Canvas as the standard for its canvas reproduction printing. Moreover, founder and COO James M. Theopistos has leveraged the Sunset and Fredrix brand names in marketing to his customer base.

“We’ve been excited about it, and the feedback from our customers has been very positive as well. I attribute a lot of the success with the new canvas to the Fredrix name. Since most of our customers are artists they’re familiar with the Fredrix name, especially if they do oil or acrylic paintings. They’re used to buying Fredrix canvas for their work,” says Theopistos. Given that, it was a no-brainer from a marketing standpoint. The cost of the canvas is the same, we can push the name brand, and customers appreciate the history and quality behind the Fredrix name.”

FinerWorks Canvas Printing
Close-up of Sunset by Fredrix mounted to PVC board using LexJet RubberMount Adhesive.

Moreover, says Theopistos, though Sunset by Fredrix Matte Canvas is OBA-free, it retains a very high bright point and faithfully reproduces the artwork of a given client on the company’s Canon iPF8300 and iPF8400 inkjet printers.

Perhaps most importantly, Theopistos reports that the canvas provides consistency through a print run and from project to project.

As Theopistos put it at a recent blog post at finerworks.com: “Sunset by Fredrix Matte Canvas brings the expertise of LexJet and Fredrix together for a breakthrough in canvas, featuring one of the highest white levels available for an OBA-free canvas. It’s easy to work with for stretching, mounting and framing, and is ideal for fine art and photographic reproductions on canvas. The acid-free, pH neutral, poly-cotton base provides consistency throughout the print run.”

Click here to read the rest of the story at the FinerWorks blog.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Promotions & Rebates
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New Canon Inkjet Printer Mail-in Rebates of up to $1,400 at LexJet

Canon Mail-in RebatesCanon announced today new mail-in rebates of up to $1,400 on four of its imagePROGRAF (iPF) wide format inkjet printers, available at LexJet through Dec. 31. The new mail-in rebates include:

Click here for a video overview of how and why Canon printers pay off almost immediately. And, for a series of Canon printer how-to and production workflow videos, click here. For more information and to take advantage of these mail-in rebates, call a LexJet printer specialist at 800-453-9538.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Prop Making and Printing on the Set of Captain America: The Winter Soldier

While any given film may include the proverbial cast of thousands, it often takes thousands behind the scenes to pull off a big-budget film, such as Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Printing Props for Captain AmericaA key behind-the-scenes player is the property master. The property master is basically in charge of props, and comic-book action movies are prop-heavy with gadgets galore for both the heroes and villains.

The video shown here details some of the work of veteran property master Russell Bobbitt on the set of Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, including his use of wide-format inkjet printing with the Canon iPF8400.

Check out the video to see how the printer is integrated into the prop manufacturing process, and how output from the Canon iPF8400 was used to enhance the sets and backdrops of the movie.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Clear Lake Press Prints Nostalgic Office Décor

Wall Mural by Clear Lake Press

Eric Erickson, prepress systems administrator for Clear Lake Press, Waseca, Minn., loves LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric, and is sticking it everywhere to give customers and prospects a bigger-than-life visual of what they can do with the printable adhesive-back fabric.

The nostalgic photo above was applied at the offices of Clear Lake Press to illustrate the eye-catching displays that can be easily and economically created in similar settings. Erickson has also created visuals in various forms and formats for other environments, like cubicle and bedroom walls.

Cubicle Decor by Clear Lake Press
Clear Lake Press made a cubicle more livable with a view using LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric.

“We’re trying to provide some creative ways of using it, more than just rectangles on walls. You make up something, show it off, and it helps spark ideas for use in their home or business,” says Erickson.

Erickson adds that the unique adhesive, which makes it easy to re-position, remove and re-use is also a big selling point to customers.

“Now that we have offered Print-N-Stick and are showing it off, a lot of people have been asking about it. For instance, we printed some artwork for the Waseca United Way from the front of their brochure. We made a large graphic out of it with Print-N-Stick for use at local businesses to put on their walls and promote the United Way. When they’re done with the promotion, they can peel it off and put it back on the backing paper and hold onto it for future use,” says Erickson.

Printed Wall Graffiti by Clear Lake Press
Wall murals don’t have to be plain rectangles as this cut-out printed wall graffiti illustrates.

For the classic kids’ lemonade stand photo from 1967, Erickson asked the Waseca County Historical Society, a long-time customer, if he could use the photo for their wall. The Historical Society was happy to oblige (with the requisite “be careful with the photo” instructions) and Erickson scanned the original 6 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ black-and-white photo.

The photo was scanned with a desktop Epson scanner and brought into Photoshop for touch-up to get the right tone, and blown up to its final wall mural size of 12′ x 8′. The image was printed in two panels on the company’s Canon iPF8300 and applied horizontally with the help of employees Tonya Wittman and Cory Stencel.

Wall Graphics by Clear Lake Press
Clear Lake Press printed this baby room decor with Print-N-Stick Fabric.

“There’s a little bit of an overlap that you can see. This was our first time applying more than one panel and we learned from the experience. Next time, we’ll include an overlap and slice it right down the middle and take off the excess for a clean, exact cut,” says Erickson. “We love the material and the way the bright white point on the fabric reproduces artwork, whether it’s black-and-white or full color. The coordinator at the Historical Society was thrilled with the mural.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Promotions & Rebates
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Canon Rebates Good through Oct. 31 at LexJet

Canon Inkjet PrintersBuy or lease a new Canon large format inkjet printer from LexJet before Oct. 31 to realize the savings from the following instant rebates:

Click here for a video overview of how and why Canon printers pay off almost immediately. And, for a series of Canon printer how-to and production workflow videos, click here.

For more information, call a LexJet printer specialist at 800-453-9538.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Printing and Sticking Custom Wedding DVD Photo Covers

Custom DVD Cover by Mark Hawkins Photography

Mark and Kelly Hawkins own and operate a high-end wedding photography studio in Green Bay, Wis., where a personal, customized experience for the bride and groom is job one. To elevate their print products, the couple invested in a Canon iPF8400 wide-format inkjet printer they picked up from LexJet and their personal printer specialist, Rob Finkel.

LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric DVD CoverMark has also struck up a friendship with Andy Wredberg, owner of AW Artworks in Sun Prairie, Wis., whose work shows up regularly here at the LexJet Blog. Andy helped Mark take the printer upgrade plunge, a plunge that Mark says made a big splash.

“We only shoot about 30 weddings per year and we want them to get the highest value possible, so the more customization we can do, the better. The Canon is such an easy printer to use, and the Photoshop plug-in that comes with it also makes it super-simple,” Mark says. “I told Rob yesterday that the bottom line is that when I hit that print button it’s exactly the way it looks on my monitor; the LexJet profiles are dead-on with pretty much every media type. It’s mind-blowing. Time is money, and I don’t want to waste time, ink and material, and with this printer I don’t.”

Mark Hawkins PhotographyAfter a wedding, Mark and Kelly deliver two main print products: a wedding album and a wall collage. Mark says that one of the reasons they got the printer was to deliver bigger and better wall collages to their clients.

“What spurred the purchase of the iPF8400 was to do some higher-end artwork; not just canvas wraps, but art paper and boutique applications for the wedding market. There are a lot of cool uses for a variety of print media in the wedding market. People spend all this money already, so they should have nice custom printed products,” Mark says.

The client also gets a DVD of all the photos from the wedding, but Mark ran into an issue when he ran out of DVD cases. The new Canon printer and LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric came to the rescue, not only giving Mark a workaround on deadline, but a new way to present DVDs to clients.

“We were out of the cases yesterday, so I used some scrap art paper that I cut to size and folded in half, printed a nice image from the wedding on one side and the photo release for the DVD on the other side that gives them permission to do whatever they want with the images. That way you don’t have to use another piece of paper to print a release, so it kills two birds with one stone. Plus, the Print-N-Stick makes it easy to take it off and reapply it if I don’t align it correctly,” Mark says. “I love having a fully customizable product that gives us an opportunity to recycle and re-use materials that would otherwise go to waste.”