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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Custom Décor and the Nature of Wall Murals

Wall Murals and Canvas Prints by Edward Robison

Edward C. Robison, owner of Sacred Earth Gallery in Eureka Springs, Ark., captures stunning landscape and nature vistas that caught the eyes of Bass Pro Shops a few years ago.

Bass Pro Wall Mural by Edward RobisonSince that time, Robison has been providing his unique images to Bass Pro Shops for various environments, as well as printing some of it for the outdoor retailer.

Most recently, Robison created a wall mural and canvas prints for the women’s exercise area at Bass Pro Shops’ corporate headquarters in Springfield, Mo. The idea was to bring the great outdoors indoors and create a relaxing and inspiring environment.

Robison printed the wall mural on Photo Tex PSA Fabric – Aqueous Printers from LexJet on his Epson Stylus Pro 11880 wide format inkjet printer. The mural was printed in 60″ x 16 1/2′ panels, to which Robison applied a matte varnish for extra protection.

Inkjet Printed Tapestry
An example of Edward Robison’s fine art nature photography printed on LexJet Water-Resistant Satin Cloth.

“The image I shot for the wall mural was with a Widelux camera, which is basically a double-wide 35 mm frame, and they really loved that image,” says Robison. “In Photoshop there’s an oil painting filter they’ve added to the newer version and I applied that, along with another filter, which got rid of the grain. Up close it really looks abstract, but when you get back five or ten feet it comes into sharp focus.”

Robison says this was the first wall mural he had installed and considered hiring someone to do it. However, given that Photo Tex is repositionable and relatively easy to work with, even on larger applications, Robison decided to give it a try. Besides, Robison says he’s a do-it-yourselfer and welcomed the opportunity to learn something new.

GigaPan Image Printed on Canvas
This GigaPan image by Edward Robison, printed on canvas, was composed of 162 photos. To get the full effect of this image go to http://gigapan.com/gigapans/101232.

The installation went smoothly, with the help of a friend and a lift to reach the top of the mural and ensure it lined up properly. The most difficult part of the application was cutting around the various obstacles – windows, doorways, outlets, exit sign, etc. – but with great care Robison was able to create seamless transitions.

Robison has been creating nature and fine art images for the past 16 years, and selling his art at Sacred Earth Gallery for the past ten. He uses a variety of inkjet media for his creations, including LexJet Water-Resistant Satin Cloth for the hanging tapestries of his work that feature custom “poles” from which the tapestries hang.

For more about Robison’s work, go to www.edwardcrobisoniii.com, and be sure to check out his GigaPan image of Inspiration Point White River Sunset at gigapan.com/gigapans/101232

iPad Mini Giveaway Countdown
Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Promotions & Rebates
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iPad Mini Giveaway Countdown

Buy a printer and inkjet media and get a free iPad Mini

Starting today (Thursday, Nov. 15), LexJet is giving away an iPad Mini with every purchase of a 42″ or wider printer and/or laminator plus $500 of qualifying LexJet media (inkjet-printable media, laminates, adhesives and backers) for the next 30 days or while supplies last, so act quickly to make sure you get your free iPad Mini before we run out.

Go to lexjet.com/FreeiPadMini to see how much time you have left to take advantage of this special promotion for a free iPad Mini. Then, contact a LexJet customer specialist by phone at 800-453-9538 to cash in on this offer (the promotion can only be redeemed by calling in for it and is not available online).

Qualifying printers at LexJet include, but are not limited to: Canon’s iPF8400S 44-inch printer and iPF9400S 60-inch production printer; Epson’s SureColor S30670 low-solvent production printer and Stylus Pro 11880 64-inch photo printer, and; HP’s L26500 61-inch and L28500 104-inch production latex printers, Z3200 44-inch photo printer and Z6200 42-inch and 60-inch photo printers.

Qualifying laminators at LexJet include, but are not limited to:  GBC’s 2080WFt 79-inch cold, hot laminator, Seal’s 44 Ultra Plus 44-inch cold, hot laminator, Daige’s Solo 55-inch cold laminator, and D&K’s Expression 42 Plus cold, hot laminator. For all the qualifying brands, equipment and media/laminates, go to lexjet.com/FreeiPadMini.

As an added bonus, all printer and laminator purchases come with free shipping and a $9.99 flat rate on all other orders from LexJet’s nationwide network of distribution centers. Plus, you’ll get free and unlimited product and technical phone support from your customer specialist.

With additional bundled offers from LexJet, Section 179 tax incentives from the Federal government, and end-of-year rebates and specials from our printer manufacturer partners – Canon, Epson and HP – this iPad Mini Giveaway Countdown offer is the perfect head start into the Holiday season.

For more information and to take advantage of this offer, contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538. 

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Moving on Faith and Vision at Lizza Studios

Moving to a new studio space
Lizza Studios' new space in Forty Fort, Pa. Lizza was recruited by the building's owner, David Koral, to bring an extra splash of panache to the 130,000 square-foot multi-use building.

Faith can move mountains, but can it move a two-ton custom-built Cruse Scanner? Bob Lizza, owner of Lizza Studios, thought so and the results – a successful move – reinforced his faith.

Printing custom elevatory graphics
The Lizza touch can be found just about everywhere in the new building. Here, it's art reproduced on Photo Tex and applied to the interior of one of the elevators.

But this isn’t really about moving a Cruse Scanner from one location to another, or even faith, per se. It’s really about vision: the vision of David Koral who recruited Lizza Studios to move to his eclectic location in Forty Fort, Pa., just outside of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and the vision of Lizza Studios.

Years ago, Koral bought an old cigar factory, all 130,000 square feet of it. As the owner of UbU Clothing, the space was a perfect fit for manufacturing. It was also the perfect fit for a diverse range of commercial and residential tenants, from a fine dining establishment (Canteen 900) to doctors, lawyers, a yoga studio, lofts, and the fine art powerhouse Lizza Studios.

Lizza Studios effectively completes the space, bringing fine-art sensibility and the ability to brand and decorate it with a variety of inkjet materials from LexJet.

Printing window graphics
Lizza Studios printed the window graphics for the patio outside the fine dining establishment Canteen 900 on Simple Perforated Window Vinyl (60/40).

“I have found great use for the sticky papers Bob uses, like window treatments, door poles and elevator graphics. His ability to take images and reproduce them on all sorts of things is an incredible experience for me; it helps put my madness on the walls,” explains Koral. “I found an old album of photographs of this building prior to starting the work on it ten years ago, and he blew them up and put them on canvas. They’re clean and clear. People are coming from all over the East Coast corridor.”

The timing was perfect. Lizza loved his studio in rural Pennsylvania, but wanted to simplify his product offering and get closer to the East Coast action. It was Lizza’s combination of faith and vision that sparked the move following a discussion with Koral about bringing Lizza Studios into the fold.

“Dave is such a visionary and such a great guy. He has placed a flourishing oasis in a desert. Our space is spectacular, and we’re moving to this building to be one of the finest fine art sources in the Northeast. He found me and talked me into moving here, and once I got down here and saw what he was doing, it was clear that it needed to be where we moved,” explains Lizza. “Now I’m seeing the bigger picture of what we can bring to the Northeast related to fine art – from sculpture to paintings – and making that a real experience for people to come here with all walks of life.”

Moving to a new buildingLizza adds that their previous location was a hindrance of sorts for attracting high-end clients from the Northeast corridor and big cities like Philadelphia and New York City. Moreover, Lizza says it was time to concentrate on what really differentiates Lizza Studios: incredibly detailed and spot-on fine-art reproduction. Framing and other peripheral services would be left behind, while the scanning and printing equipment would travel to the new location.

“The biggest lesson for me was to keep an open mind. I was able to move to an area closer to the action and really get rid of the services that really weren’t going to fit the mold of what our business really is, rather than sticking with rigidity to an old decision,” says Lizza.

Ultimately, says Lizza, it boiled down to working with the right partners, from Koral down to the vendors Lizza chooses to work with, including LexJet.

“LexJet has been an amazing part of it all; they’ve given us all the leeway we need because they’re so focused on customer service, and LexJet products are the best because of the way the company does business,” says Lizza. “When I can call at 5:55 in the afternoon on a Thursday to get canvas the next day because I need the weekend to get it done, the customer service is in place to get it done with distribution centers everywhere. It all fits together.”

As far as the physical move itself, the most important component was safely transporting the two-ton, custom-built Cruse scanner. As usual, Lizza had faith that he would find the right people to do it, though the initial mover dropped out at the last minute.

Printing decor for buildings“Moving the scanner was monumental. It’s a two-ton piece of equipment and there’s a risk that something will go wrong. There might be 100 scanners in the world like this, but this was custom built by hand; I have three lenses on my scanner, giving me a bit of an edge,” explains Lizza. “We thought we had a moving company in place, but they backed out because they had fear. We ended up finding someone just down the street from our new location who stepped in. They were flawless; we moved that scanner in four hours.”

Of course it took about four days to put it back together, and there was all the other printer equipment that needed to be moved – Lizza Studios’ Epson Stylus Pro 11880, 9900 and the low-solvent GS6000. Lizza plugged in quickly and soon made his mark all over the building with murals printed on Photo Tex Repositionable Fabric, LexJet Simple Flo Wrap Vinyl, and Simple Perforated Window Vinyl (60/40).

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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A Festival of Sight and Sound Printed on Canvas

Stephen Kerner, the Woodstock, N.Y.-based fine artist (www.stephenkerner.com) and fine-art printer (www.stonerivergiclee.com) profiled here at the LexJet Blog about this time last year, is no stranger to the abstract. Nor is Kerner a stranger to complicated, outside-the-lines projects that challenge and perplex.

Printing graphics for music festivalsBoth of these qualities – the abstract and the complicated – as well as Kerner’s 20-plus years of experience came to the fore on a recent project he completed for big-show set designer and promoter Marco Ferrero, who also owns Vivo Fine Art gallery in Woodstock.

The result was a giant pyramid structure, covered in canvas and complete with projected video and extensive LED lighting designed for music festivals. The structures most recent stop was at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival held earlier this month in Manchester, Tenn.

This design, which was really creative, was totally his. One night he approached me about the job. I thought it was fantastic and didn’t realize he was ready to go into production. It happened very fast, as a lot of things do. A lot of people were involved in a lot of different levels.

“He approached me about creating 18-foot tall pyramids and printing his design, which was triangles within triangles. Marco designed them in many different colors and we tested them on a lot of different substrates: backlit, canvas, vinyl and even metals. We printed a lot three-foot test panels, and he chose LexJet Instant Dry Satin Canvas. He liked that look and the canvas looked beautiful; there was such vibrancy to the colors,” says Kerner.

Inkjet printing on canvas for a music festivalKerner printed four panels for each triangle that made up each three-sided pyramid on his Epson Stylus Pro 11880. These panels were seamed together by printing a two-inch bleed area, folding it over and joining the panels with either LexJet Heavy Duty Banner Tape or an industrial adhesive.

Then, the canvas was attached to the metal framework with grommets on all three sides placed at three-inch intervals. The final pieces were then coated with a solvent-based ClearStar coating from LexJet.

“The satin canvas is durable up to a certain point, but the festivals are outdoors and there’s typically a lot of rain down in Tennessee this time of year so they wanted to make sure they were heavy duty,” explains Kerner. “The problem we had here was with curing times on both the coating and the adhesives were using to the seam the canvas. It rained here constantly, so the humidity was high, making those curing times much longer than normal.”

The pyramids open up and reveal 12×12 video screens while hiding all the video equipment that runs the screens in the base while another pyramid houses huge speakers. Ultimately, the pyramids were designed as both festival décor and as practical working devices to bring the show closer to the thousands who throng the festivals Woodstock-style.

Coating and finishing canvas“It was very complicated and it’s probably the most difficult project I’ve worked on. It took many weeks of collaboration and tons of math to make everything fit just right and work together,” says Kerner. “When you’re dealing with triangles everything is on an angle so it’s a lot different than dealing with a square piece.”

Kerner adds that he also collaborated with world-renowned Nevessa Studios and its owner, Chris Anderson, on the fine details of the project.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Promotions & Rebates
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Big Instant Rebates from Epson: $4K, $2K, $1K

Epson GS6000 solvent inkjet printerIn addition to a slew of incentives, promotions and rebates from Epson, Canon and HP, as well as great extra bundles and savings only available through LexJet, Epson announced the following instant rebates that bring the total cost of its widest printers down significantly…

For more information about these rebates and all the rebates from Epson, Canon and HP, go to www.lexjet.com/rebates.aspx or call a LexJet account specialist at 800-453-9538.

Posted on by LexJet Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Graham Editions: Appreciating the Art in Art Reproduction

Not all companies that offer fine-art reproduction services are equally well equipped—particularly when it comes to the most important phase of the process: the digital capture. Significant variations exist in the type of capture equipment and lighting set-ups used.

If the original artwork isn’t captured at sufficiently high resolutions and under the correct lighting, the intricate brushstroke detail that adds texture and nuance to a work won’t reproduce as well as you might like—especially if the painting is enlarged from its original size. And some areas of the reproduced painting may show more detail than others. Color quality can become a concern if the printmaker lacks sufficient experience in the finer points of digital color reproduction.

One printmaker who values the importance of high-res capture and color management is Geoff Graham of Graham Editions in Canoga Park, CA.

 

Geoff Graham regards his printmaking atelier as a fine-art boutique, offering whatever high-end scanning, capture, and fine-art printing services a client might require. Graham Editions routinely produces large editions of high-end works for art publishers, but also enjoys working with individual artists and photographers who just need a few prints. www.grahahm-editions
Geoff Graham regards his printmaking atelier as a fine-art boutique, offering whatever high-end scanning, capture, and fine-art printing services a client might require. Graham Editions routinely produces large editions of high-end works for art publishers, but also enjoys working with individual artists and photographers who just need a few prints.

Having worked as a commercial photographer for more than 25 years, Graham has acquired an in-depth knowledge of color along with the high-end imaging equipment needed for top-quality fine-art reproduction. He is totally committed to achieving the best possible quality during every step of the art-reproduction process.

For capture, he typically uses a Sinar P2 4×5 view camera with a PhaseOne FX scanning back. Combined with his powerful North Light 900 HID lighting set-up with UV filters, he can create ultra-high-resolution files with all of the detail required to make beautiful, consistently detailed reproductions.

“I’ve been using large- and medium-format cameras since I can remember,” says Graham. “The scan back cost $37,000 when I first purchased it, and the quality it reproduces is mind-blowing. It has an area of 10,500 x 12,600 pixels and the detail is phenomenal. I use high-end reprographic lenses so I can get as close to the image as I need to. I also have lots of flexibility in my lighting.” This flexibility enables him to adjust the lighting according to the nature and texture of each piece of art.   

He typically reproduces originals painted with oil and acrylic on canvas in sizes from 16 x 20 in. up to 48 x 72 in. but he has captured paintings larger than that.  He says, “If it’s any bigger than 48 x 72, I can shoot it in sections and blend in Photoshop.”

The files are output on one of three Epson printers. Graham generally uses the 44-in. Epson Stylus Pro 9600 for black-and-white printmaking, the 44-in. Epson 9800 with fine-art papers, and the 64-in. Epson Stylus Pro 11880 with LexJet Sunset Select Matte Canvas. Having each printer dedicated to certain types of jobs makes it more efficient to keep the workflow totally color managed. 

Geoff Graham has considerable expertise in color management, which he regards as the key process in fine-art reproduction. He did some consulting in the early years of the digital color management, and knows how to use and interpret profiles. He uses ProfileMaker software and i1 color-measuring devices now sold by X-Rite to create custom profiles for all of his capture, display, and output devices.

He keeps the studio exceptionally clean, which is particularly important during the printing and finishing phases. Graham meticulously coats all canvases by hand. He typically applies two coats of varnish and creates profiles for his print media based on how the prints will look after the varnish is applied.

Graham doesn’t expect clients to understand all of the technical reasons why this fine-art reproduction workflow produces great-looking results. Instead, he simply shows them the high level of printmaking skills he has attained since going into the fine-art reproduction full-time business several years ago.

All of the cameras, scanners, printers, and monitors at Graham Edition are color managed. “Everything is closed-loop,” says Graham. “What I see on the monitor is exactly what I print out.” In order for the colors in a reproduction to be accurately viewed, the studio has neutral gray walls and overhead lighting that simulates pure daylight
All of the cameras, scanners, printers, and monitors at Graham Edition are color managed. “Everything is closed-loop,” says Graham. “What I see on the monitor is exactly what I print out.” In order for the colors in a reproduction to be accurately viewed, the studio has neutral gray walls and overhead lighting that simulates pure daylight

Clients can inspect the high-end reproductions on the walls of the studio, view samples of previous jobs, or examine some of the high-res files that he has captured. “I zoom in 100% and let clients see the dots in the canvas,” explains Graham. “Even at 100%, each corner is razor sharp.” 

 When you talk to Graham, you quickly understand that he’s not only passionate about reproducing the art to the best of his ability, he’s also passionate about the art. As he explains to visitors to his website, “I serve the vision of you, the artist, and put you in the driver’s seat while using state-of-the art technology.”

When some customers ask why doesn’t do serigraphs or lithographs, he explains that those methods aren’t “print-on-demand.” The prepress set-up requirements for serigraphy or lithography make it cost-prohibitive to produce only a few prints as needed. The ability to print only as many copies of a print as you can sell is a key advantage of digital-printing technology.

Plus, advances in inks and materials make it possible to produce prints on canvas and paper that will last for 100 to 150 years under typical gallery display conditions.

Inkjet printing technology has improved to the point that it’s nearly impossible to tell that the print is created from dots. As Graham observes: “Digital printing technology is so evolved, I don’t think anyone will go to lithography again.

For more information, visit the Graham Editions website: www.graham-editions.com