LexJet brandUP: Cool Community Projects Powered by Print

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next office remodel, retail upgrade or community event, head over to LexJet’s brandUP video page to discover some of the projects we’ve helped bring to life through the power of print.

Over the last few years, we’ve worked with community organizations, businesses, non-profits and event planners to enhance their messaging efforts with printed graphics – from windows to walls and from stickers to signage.

On our brandUP page, you’ll find stories about:

  • How we used a variety of print technologies and applications to help with traffic flow and event messaging at the Suncoast Jeep Festival
  • How students from Ringling College of Art + Design used print to promote a virtual reality game at a SXSW exhibit, featuring branded water bottles, banners, vehicle decals and other eye-catching prints
  • How some clever graphic ideas spruced up a new dog grooming business with window graphics, wall murals, paw prints on the floor and so much more

Check back to the brandUP page to see what we’re dreaming up next!

Do you have a community print project that you’d like to share with our readers? Tell us in the comments below or email us.

Fredrix Metallic Gold Receives SGIA Product of the Year Award!

We’re excited to announce that Fredrix Metallic Gold Canvas has been named a 2019 SGIA Product of the Year winner in the Media – Textile – Canvas category. This product, along with Fredrix Metallic Pearl, was introduced earlier this year, and is available exclusively in the U.S. through LexJet.

Fredrix introduced this cotton-polyester blend canvas with an elegant gold finish that creates high-quality printed canvas. It’s the first-of-its-kind printable gold canvas with a 2-over-1 weave, specially engineered to create brilliant prints with the latest solvent, eco-solvent and latex inks.

Fredrix Metallic Gold delivers a glamorous, stand-out finish for artwork and signage in high-end retail environments, and looks especially dynamic when printed with black ink. PSPs can create metallic-enhanced canvas wraps that work easily with stretcher bars (such as GOframe) and deliver a consistent, subtle texture that Fredrix Print Canvases are known for.

SGIA’s annual Product of the Year competition is one of the most coveted awards for equipment and materials manufacturers in the U.S. The awards will be featured at Printing United in October, and Fredrix Metallic Gold will be featured in booth #6810.

To learn more about how to use Fredrix Metallic Gold, call a LexJet print specialist at 800-453-9538.

Join the #Fredrix150Canvas Contest!

Our canvas partner, Fredrix, is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a huge contest, giving away $4,000 worth of its USA-made canvas — and you can participate, even if you haven’t used Fredrix canvas in the past.

To enter, post a picture showing a canvas print (any brand of canvas, in progress or finished piece) and include the hashtag #Fredrix150canvas on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn. Follow LexJet and Fredrix social media accounts to keep up-to-date on all the contest happenings.

Two winners will be selected from each social media platform (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter). You may enter as many times as you want throughout the month of October. The eight winning posts will be announced Nov. 6 on our blog and we’ll message your social media account directly.

The winning post will be chosen by random drawing. Winners will receive a Fredrix canvas roll of their choice. Please comment below with any questions and we’ll see you on social media!

 

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn. By entering, entrants agree to a complete release of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn. By submitting a picture or video in this contest, entrant agrees to grant contest sponsor (Fredrix and LexJet) a non-exclusive right to reproduce, display, broadcast, or transmit (collectively ‘Use’) the images and/or video submitted without limitation including, but not limited to, reposting of entries on contest sponsors’ social media channels and web pages. 

Captured on Canvas: Memories & Moments That Last

When Kathy Ogg first became a mom 23 years ago, she soon realized she wouldn’t be returning to work as she once knew it. Instead, photographing and printing pictures of her kids, now age 4 through 23, became a hobby, then a passion, then a whole new career.

Five years ago, with her original Canon imagePROGRAF 8400 printer, she started Re:Image Printing, perfecting the art of using photos not only taken by professional photographers, but amateurs who were capturing family moments on their cell phones, as well.

A customer’s candid image captured on canvas.

“I’ve worked with a lot of families who thought that Facebook would be the way to store all their pictures and they got rid of their originals,” Ogg says. “But then they realized that once they’re on Facebook, the photos are tiny.”

So Ogg helps families determine which photos would work best as prints on either photo paper or canvas wraps. She’s now upgraded to the Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-4000 and is a loyal user of Fredrix 777VWR Vivid Matte Canvas and LexJet Sunset Select Matte Canvas.

Often, potential clients shy away from canvas wrap prints because they think they need a professional photographer in order to get professional prints made. However, Ogg says, “I’m trying to teach people that cell phone pictures do print really well now — I can blow them up to 24×36-inch canvases. You just have to ask yourself: Does that picture do something to your heart? If so, then it’s worthy to print to a canvas and put on your wall.”

Memories aren’t only photographs. This recipe card is forever remembered on a canvas print.

Ogg moved from Indiana to Winter Garden, Fla., a few years ago, where she now runs a print and canvas wrap shop. When testing the media that she prints to, she looks for consistent results, vivid, accurate colors without a lot of texture and handling without cracking in the corners when stretched on canvas bars.

She’s opted for the canvas wraps because she finds the finished look to be “timeless,” unlike frames that can go out of style and glass that can stick to — and ruin — the printed image. She tops the canvas with a coating for extra protection — gloss coating for landscape images and colors that need a lot of “pop” and satin for family photos.

“Some professional photographers think there’s no way that canvas can reproduce their colors,” she says. “But I just say – why don’t you let me show you. Between the printer and the Fredrix or LexJet canvas, I can guarantee the quality.”

Ogg has also been experimenting with LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric, a removable repositionable self-adhesive product that delivers great image quality, as well.

LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric used for a nursery room mural.

“Print-N-Stick is the most fun material I’ve ever printed to,” she says. “I love how versatile it is, and it will stay up as long as I want it to. It’s truly removable without peeling paint or damaging the wall behind it. It feels more like fabric and really adheres to the texture of the wall.”

Ogg uses Print-N-Stick mostly for her children’s room murals, but is starting to offer it to her customers, too. Between the fun wall murals and canvas wraps, her own home is a reflection of what she can create for clients’ homes. “There’s a reason behind every picture hanging up on my wall,” she says. “I walk in and I’m home — I’m happy and at peace.”

A Brave New World for SunTrust Park

When the Atlanta Braves moved into their new home, SunTrust Park, this April, they had a lot of blank walls to fill in offices and throughout the stadium. They turned to the corporate design experts at A-R-T & Associates in Atlanta to produce a one-of-a-kind series of canvas prints.

The artwork, supplied from the Braves’ archives, included a variety of baseball and ball-field imagery, both current and historical, with everything from wide-lens captures of an entire crowd to extreme close-ups of equipment, like mitts and grass.

“Some of my favorite pieces were old tickets, when tickets were cool and interesting little works of art,” says Rachael Zaudke Wilkins, who runs the print operation at A-R-T. “We enlarged some of them to 24-by-72-inch prints.”

The Go-to Choice for Consistent Canvas Production

As you head into the busiest season for canvas production, you need a canvas product that you can rely on for consistent results and reliable output, print after print. For nearly 10 years, award-winning LexJet Sunset Select Matte Canvas has been a top seller to busy print shops like yours.

With a smooth, matte-coated surface, this poly-cotton blend is ideal for fine art and photographic reproduction, delivering exceptional color and detail. Plus, it’s lightweight, making it easier to stretch for gallery wraps. It’s the canvas of choice for David Little II of IGLIVISION in Loveland, Colo., who creates and wraps canvas photo and art prints (pictured).

Product highlights:

Watch the video above to learn more about LexJet Sunset Select Matte Canvas, and stock up before the holiday rush hits!

Photos: David Little II