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LexJet Reviews: Easy-to-Install Wall Applications
Posted on by Jennifer Corn Posted in Technology & Products
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LexJet Reviews: Easy-to-Install Wall Applications

We kicked off our new series LexJet Reviews with a look at the top floor products. This week, LexJet’s C.J. Forker talks about some of the top wall graphic products in the market.

From smooth finishes to subtle textures, these wall décor solutions offer easy and personalized alternatives to paint and traditional wallpaper. Take a look at our most popular solutions:

  • LexJet Textured Indoor Floor & Wall Vinyl – This cleanly removable vinyl is perfect for walls that have slight texture or surfaces that have issues with underlying primers and paints. The 6-mil thickness makes it great for wall murals because it’s easy to seam or install in panels. The slight texture gives any graphic a high-end look.
  • GF 229 WallMark™ Canvas Vinyl HTR – Perfect for wall decals from kids’ rooms to man caves, the microsphere adhesive in WallMark Canvas means you can peel them right off without any problems, even after long-term installation. It is ideal for any smooth wall application and offers high opacity to hide minor surface imperfections.
  • Photo Tex PSA Fabric – Aqueous – One aspect that makes this self-adhesive fabric so popular is the repositionable adhesive. Having trouble deciding where to put the graphic? With Photo Tex, you can install, remove, and re-install until you get it just right.
  • panoRama Walk & Wall – This versatile textured vinyl is great for indoor or outdoor vertical surfaces and the fabric backing provides dimensional stability for longer applications. The 12-mil thickness hides wall imperfections and makes installation a breeze, just remember to round the corners to prevent edge-lift.
  • DreamScape™ Caviar Wall + Floor Wrap – The entire DreamScape line-up is, well, a dream for walls. Caviar, Ravello, and Classic help reduce glare, while Brilliant adds a little sparkle to any room. The three-ply technology helps with dimensional stability and it also hides any wall imperfections. To see all the self-adhesive DreamScape selections, click HERE.
Quick selection guide

Now that we’ve taken you through some of our top wall products, it’s important to remember that proper surface preparation is the key to the smoothest installation of any wall décor.

Visit our LexJet Reviews library to see all these products in action.

If you want more information on any of our products, give us a call at 800-453-9538 or visit LexJet.com.

Easy Ways to Start Marketing Your Décor Services Today
Posted on by Shellie Terry Posted in Marketing & Sales, Tips & Tricks
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Easy Ways to Start Marketing Your Décor Services Today

Whether you’ve got full décor printing capabilities, or you’re just dipping your toe into this new market, everyone will eventually need to start marketing their services to build business. We sat down with LexJet’s market development pro Rachel Gamberg to learn how to get a décor-focused marketing plan off the ground.

“Based on your equipment and current capabilities, you can identify markets that you can created product lines for and start to segment these groups,” she says. “And if you have plans to invest in new equipment, started thinking about more applications you can offer in the future.”

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Intro to Décor Printing: You Already Have What You Need to Begin
Posted on by Shellie Terry Posted in Technology & Products, Tips & Tricks
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Intro to Décor Printing: You Already Have What You Need to Begin

Today, we’re kicking off a blog series on how on-demand printers and anyone offering wide-format printing services can jump into an exciting new market within the industry: Décor printing.

Chances are you’ve heard about the booming customizable décor printing opportunities in our industry. With the advances in substrates and printer technology, offering your customers more ways to create one-of-a-kind projects for residential or commercial spaces has become more accessible than ever.

It’s also likely your customers are starting to make requests for projects like wall murals, canvas wraps, floor graphics, customized window screens and even lampshades. In other words, if you can print it, they can decorate with it!

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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles, Marketing & Sales
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Open House Success: Building Business with the HP Latex Printer at Red River Photo

 

Red River Photo Services Open House
Hey! It’s two captions for the price of one! The headline, image and caption above is from an article about Red River Photo Services and the addition of its new HP Latex 330 Printer that ran in The Journal Record, a local business journal. Red River Photo’s open house generated new business and great publicity.

Red River Photo Services in Oklahoma City recently made the big jump to latex printing with the addition of the new HP Latex 330 Printer from LexJet, supplementing the company’s fleet of Epson Stylus Pro aqueous inkjet printers to expand their offerings and their market.

Owners Leighton and Katrina Kirkpatrick have so far been impressed with the additional capabilities and benefits the printer provides and were eager to share those capabilities and benefits with their market.

Red River Photo Services Open HouseLeighton and Katrina hosted an open house at their facility last night that brought in about 75 customers and prospects. The couple provided beer, wine and a spread of hors d’oeuvres Katrina made for the event, but the big draw was the HP Latex 330.

And, the most important goal of the event was to educate and drive new business through the printer. Leighton reports that they reached that goal. In fact, he was working on an estimate for a new museum print project that was a direct result of the open house.

“Our customers were already familiar with our quality and knew the open house would be a good use of their time, but we also scored some new clients, like museums, which was really important,” Leighton says. “There was also someone at the open house who does a lot of wallpaper projects; he said he will use us, so I think we scored there as well. We’ll follow up with sales calls to LEED architects and show them some of the products, like the HP PVC-free Wall Paper because of its environmental certifications for hospitals and other facilities.”

Red River Photo ServicesLeighton and Katrina printed application samples on various media, including HP PVC-free Wall Paper, LexJet PVC-Free Cling, dreamScape Terralon, dreamScape 15 oz. Suede, banner materials and display films.

“We printed different images on the various substrates so people could see an actual wallpaper design on a wallpaper product as opposed to graphics and photos. We had several different 6×8 tables covered with these samples,” Leighton says.

Leighton also used literature from LexJet about the inks and media and an overview of HP Latex printing technologies and the environment. Along with invitations to customers and prospects, Leighton got more buzz going before the event by sharing a video LexJet produced and customized for Red River Photo about HP PVC-free Wall Paper, both through email and posted on Facebook.

“We sent the video out the day before the open house. We got a lot of response to it, and it was very successful in terms of the introduction of the latex printer’s capabilities. It was very effective and did its job by opening people’s eyes to all the possibilities the printer offers,” Leighton says. “We wanted people to know they can get a great product with the same durability as a solvent-based ink system with great imaging and application versatility. The best part about this printer? Kat and I are excited about it, and we can’t sell something we’re not excited about.”

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles, Technology & Products
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A Sparkling Inkjet Alternative for Gallery Wraps, Wall Murals and Décor

Printing gallery wraps on vinyl
Gallery wrap printed on dreamScape Bling and wrapped on LexJet Sunset Stretcher Bars.

The term “bling” is normally associated with clothing and jewelry. As Serena Williams puts it, “It’s a lot of bling to play with. You got to have the bling.”

Be that as it may, Jeff Behlmann, owner of Behlmann Digital, Florissant, Mo., has found a use for bling in a different context. Behlmann’s bling is Bling, an inkjet printable wallcovering medium by dreamScape from LexJet.

Bling has metallic particles embedded in the base film that gives the wallcovering an unmistakable shine. Behlmann has used Bling for wall mural projects ranging from casinos to photography, each designed to catch people’s eyes and draw attention to the message and imaging.

“We printed about 5,000 square feet of wall murals on Bling for a casino. They wanted metallic ink, but we used Bling as an alternative solution. We printed just enough white ink with our UV-curable flatbed so it would still shine through,” explains Behlmann. “It was a repeating pattern and it turned out really slick. When we showed them the proofs they liked it a lot, especially when the light hit it.”

A closeup of the seamless edge of the Sunset Stretcher Bars and the bling of dreamScape Bling.Behlmann adds that they typically print Bling on a Roland low-solvent inkjet printer; the light coating of white ink just worked best for the casino project based on the effect they were after.

Since Behlmann Digital started working with Bling, they’ve experimented with different colors and patterns, laminates and applications. Though lamination is not required, Behlmann says it’s fairly typically for the material to be manhandled during installation, so they use a gloss laminate in those cases. As opposed to a matte laminate, a gloss laminate will retain Bling’s qualities.

“You can print any type of image on it, but it seems you need areas where the color’s knocked out to get the Bling effect. There was a really cool underwater shot of a turtle swimming in a colorful reef. We thought it would look really sharp, but it didn’t because there were too many dark colors,” says Behlmann.

Printing gallery and museum wrapsBehlmann has also experimented with Bling for gallery wraps. Though heavier and thicker than a typical canvas used for gallery wraps, Behlmann reports that it works well, especially when stretched on LexJet Sunset Stretcher Bars.

“We created samples in-house to show what the Bling looks like stretched on frames. The Sunset Stretcher Bars are such a neat system and are very easy to use. They’re beveled so that you don’t see the outline of the wood. I’ve seen other frames that are just a flat piece of board someone might make in their garage so you see that inside edge an inch or so in,” says Behlmann.