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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Window Perf-ection: Hitting the Right Note with Window Graphics

Printing promotional window graphics for a bar

If you’ve got windows, use ‘em. At least that’s Billy Owen’s attitude, and it helps that Grellner Sales & Service’s accounts like what Owen creates on their windows. “Window perf is real popular with our accounts and they come to us because we do a better job for them,” says Owen.

Using perforated window vinyl for promotional graphicsOwen, who is Grellner’s graphic designer, designed this tour de force, musically-themed window graphics project for The Neptune in Warrensburg, Mo., just east of Kansas City and west of Grellner HQ in Sedlia, Mo.

If you haven’t guessed already, The Neptune is a live music bar on Warrensburg’s Pine Street. Owen perfectly captured the atmosphere with an inviting combination of guitars, amps and stage. The branding is subtle yet clear enough to put those brands in the minds of patrons as they walk in.

The biggest challenge, from a design and application standpoint, was the large, multi-paned area to the side of the main entrance. Owen says he took a picture of the space and measured it from pane to pane, as well as each divider between the panes.

Owen then set up a template into which he poured the design so that he knew exactly where the breaks came in the panes according to his measurements. Once printed on a Canon iPF8000S, everything fit perfectly, says Owen. “I love this printer, and the material is awesome as well,” says Owen.

Owens used LexJet Aqueous Perforated Vinyl (70/30) for the project, as well as a previous project highlighted here at the LexJet Blog for Fisher & Browns Speakeasy completed earlier this year.

“They haven’t asked for any replacement pieces at the other window perf project so I assume it’s holding up well,” says Owen.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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A Window into Brand Building

One-way window graphics for business

Billy Owen, graphic designer for Grellner Sales & Service, Sedalia, Mo., is a master at getting Grellner’s brand messaging out to an adult beverage-consuming audience in and around the beverage distributor’s HQ in Sedalia.

It’s not an easy task as the venues that host point of sale messaging – from bars and restaurants to c-stores and liquor stores – are often plastered with advertising messages, mostly focused on price. Owen, as detailed in an earlier blog post about his creative work at a fair, finds ways to get past the clutter and down to business.

Owen’s most recent project for a 1920s-themed bar in Rolla, Mo., was designed to dominate. The bar gave Owen some general direction, namely to maintain the ‘20s theme and use black-and-white imagery, and Owen ran with the concept.

Window graphics for a restaurantThe creation, as you can see in the photo, perfectly evokes the time period and gets the distributor’s brands a very nice play. The key here, beyond Owen’s appropriate design work, was placement and print material.

Given an opportunity to use window space, and after consulting with his LexJet customer specialist Kelly Price, Owen chose LexJet Aqueous Perforated Vinyl (70/30). He says he was a little nervous about using the product at first, but soon found the film performed far beyond his expectations after he printed it on his Canon iPF8000S.

“I was a little concerned that you wouldn’t really see the image that well since 70/30 means that 70 percent of the printing actually appears on it. I had no idea that it would turn out so well. I put a lot of texture and detail in it and everything showed up as I had designed it,” says Owen. “It takes a little longer to dry, but I always set the prints out for at least a day before I send them out, so it wasn’t a problem. Since then I’ve had three or four different requests for the window perf, so I expect I’ll be printing more of these projects.”

Printing more means more window space and more visibility for Grellner’s brands, which ultimately helps sales and builds market share. With LexJet’s help, Owen continues to find and use unique materials to complement his stellar design work.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Winning the Advertising Turf Battle with Tabletop Graphics

Printing and wrapping tabletops for advertisingSometimes the solution is right in front of you, even on the table where you rest your beer. At least that was the solution that Billy Owen, graphic designer for Grellner Sales & Service in Sedalia, Mo., came up with to cut through the advertising clutter and boost the visibility of the company’s beverage brands at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia.

“It’s difficult to get our name out there because every inch of the fair is covered with ads. You have to be creative about it, so we thought we’d decorate these tabletops at the fair for the various brands we carry, like Boulevard, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Coors Light and Smirnoff,” explains Owen. “We put some more eye-grabbing elements together in Photoshop, printed the images on LexJet Extreme AquaVinyl w/ PSA, applied them, and they turned out pretty awesome.”

Wrapping tabletops to promote a brandOwen chose Extreme AquaVinyl based on the recommendation of his LexJet customer specialist, Kelly Price. He was looking for something durable enough to withstand the abuse of fairgoers without lamination and removable. The material fit the bill perfectly. “Kelly is great,” says Owen. “When I’m looking for the right material for a project, especially unusual applications, Kelly is always there to help.”

The tabletops were printed on the beverage distributor’s new Canon iPF8000S, which has become the workhorse printer for Grellner and its four additional branches. “I print most of the big projects for our branches, especially in the summer with events and concerts, so my workload has increased quite a bit and the printer has kept up with the demand. It’s a great printer; I love it,” says Owen.

Printing and applying graphics to tabletopsOwen says that the idea didn’t come completely out of the blue since one of Grellner’s other branches had printed a successful tabletop project. For the fair, they wrapped about 18 different tabletops and the application to each one was seamless and flawless.

“We have a lot of experience with similar applications, so we were able to apply them quickly and smoothly. We just peeled the liner back, smoothed the vinyl down with a squeegee and wrapped it around the edges,” explains Owen. “Everybody loved the tables, and it’s another way we can try to boost our sales over last year. I just went to check them out last night and they’re holding up very well.”