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Achieve a New Standard of Excellence with the Right Media
Posted on by Liliana Wright Posted in Marketing & Sales, Technology & Products
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Achieve a New Standard of Excellence with the Right Media

Schools and universities require a high volume of signage throughout various campus locations. One key to a school’s success is choosing the right media that will convey the appropriate message at the right place, and at the right time.

Printing your own signage is a flexible and cost-effective way for your school or university to promote school spirit and safety protocols from the classroom to the football stadium. LexJet offers a complete line of HP products for all your signage needs. Looking for matte, gloss, permanent, temporary, or repositionable vinyl for your indoor and outdoor campus spaces? We have it all with the high-quality, consistency, and performance you expect from the HP brand.

High-impact signage comes alive with HP Prime Gloss CP.  Budget friendly with ease of installation and lay-flat properties. It’s an excellent solution for schools to create colorful displays throughout campus announcing special school events, dressing up boring walls, or displaying safety signs. This product is compatible with latex, eco-solvent, solvent, and UV curable printers.

When searching for outdoor vinyl that is dependable and affordable, two great solutions are HP Prime Gloss Air GP and HP Prime Matte Air GP. Both products feature gray permanent adhesive that provides opacity for maximum coverage and high image quality. These products are ideal for long-term permanent outdoor signs at school bus stops, outside buildings, or as directional signs guiding students and guests. The air release liners also enable fast, easy, and bubble-free installation. Both products are compatible with latex, solvent, eco-solvent, and UV curable printers.

HP Prime Gloss Air GR and HP Prime Matte Air GR both offer outstanding image quality and “pop”. The gray removable adhesives are opaque for maximum coverage, making them a great solution for featuring long-term removable school logos or visually enhancing windows that may also provide privacy, such as locker rooms. This vinyl is easy to install with a low-profile air release liner. HP Prime Gloss Air GR provides a glossy finish with durable print performance with over ten years laminated display permanence. HP Prime Matte Air GR provides a matte finish. Both products are compatible with latex, solvent, eco-solvent, and UV curable printers.

For campuses that have challenging surfaces that make installation difficult, the right solution is HP Grip Matte Polymeric Air. It is a high-performance, calendered vinyl with a high-tack, clear permanent adhesive designed for hard-to-stick surfaces like low-energy plastics and rough or powder-coated surfaces. It’s the tough solution that can handle your toughest challenge.

HP Clear Gloss Cast Overlaminate can withstand many demanding outdoor weather conditions, as well as cleaning. With this overlaminate, long-term applications like school bus or van graphics are built to stand the test of time with UV protection and maximum flexibility. Pair this optically clear laminate with HP Optimal Gloss Air GRP, an easy-to-apply vinyl for wall graphics and fleet graphics, and you have a winning combination. .

Additional powerful solutions are HP Gloss Polymeric Overlaminate and HP Matte Polymeric Overlaminate. These two products offer the extra bonus of being calendered vinyl for long-term indoor and outdoor signs and vehicle graphics with brilliant image quality, as well as being overlaminates for printed images with the utmost protection.

There are countless school signage opportunities to announce career fairs, tournaments, performances, and so much more! For all your education media needs, please contact a LexJet Customer Specialist at 800-4-LEXJET.

HP Adhesive Vinyl: ‘The Colors are Amazing’
Posted on by Jennifer Corn Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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HP Adhesive Vinyl: ‘The Colors are Amazing’

About a year ago, William Roll opened a Signarama franchise in Dothan, Ala., and he’s been growing ever since. Working with an HP Latex 365, Roll and his team create vinyl signs, car wraps, box trucks, yard signs, etc. As a franchisee, Roll was given a pallet of a variety of adhesive vinyl products to kickstart his business. “Those products made things difficult,” he says. “We were redoing jobs over and over.”

Roll reached out to his LexJet sales specialist to see if he could help find a solution. That’s when he first heard about HP Prime Matte Air GP and the Matte and Gloss laminates. “We got a sample roll and did some color calibrations on it,” he says. “The colors are amazing, and it makes us look good. It’s important for a new shop to work with good products.”

The versatility of the product has also helped Roll keep his expenses down, another key to success for a new shop. “We use it for yard signs now because it’s cheaper. I can have the guys use the Graphtec and cut a square, adhere it straight to the yard sign,” he says. “You don’t have to lay it out, face tape it or anything else. It saves time and makes the project more cost-effective.”

While he has a rack full of vinyl, he narrows the selection to just a few products. “We use HP almost exclusively. I have two types of perforated vinyl and we use Avery 1105 for car wraps, but the rest is HP,” Roll says. “If it’s not backlit, we’re going to use it first.”

The wide color gamut is important to Roll and his customers, but another reason he and the team enjoy working with HP vinyl products is because they are easy to install. “We do our own installations. This stuff is the easiest stuff to lay down. It’s probably got the best air-release out of all the products we use,” he says. “The learning curve with HP is excellent.”

Roll had a project in the winter when conditions were less than ideal, and the HP products installed easily. “It was extremely cold, and our guys were on a lift 20 feet in the air. We were afraid it wasn’t going to stick because it was freezing, but we got it done,” he says. “It still looks amazing today.”

Whether creating yard signs, menu boards and food trucks or decorating his store for Christmas, Roll has discovered the versatility of the HP Adhesive Vinyl line keep his customers happy. “It doesn’t matter how cheap a product is, if your customers aren’t happy, it’s expensive. Our customers love the results when we use HP.”

For more information on HP Adhesive Vinyl products, call a LexJet sales specialist at 800-453-9538 or visit LexJet.com.

What They’re Saying: HP Matte Polymeric Overlaminate is ‘Dynamite’
Posted on by Jennifer Corn Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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What They’re Saying: HP Matte Polymeric Overlaminate is ‘Dynamite’

About a year ago, Adam Koppelman bought the SpeedPro Imaging in Totowa, N.J., from its original owner. “We’re growing, which is terrific. I’ve brought on a few large corporate clients,” Koppelman says of his clientele.

One corporate client that he and his team are working with is the Dave & Busters at Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, N.J. “The staircase is about 23 feet wide and 36-steps high, with a landing. The graphic isn’t going on the tread, only the risers,” Koppelman says. “I knew it wouldn’t be stepped on.”

Needing to protect the graphics from the occasional kick, Koppelman chose to use HP Matte Polymeric Overlaminate. “We’ve used it for other projects like wall murals,” he says. “With Dave and Busters, there’s corporate branding and color is important, I need it to be right and we didn’t have any issues. It looks dynamite and they are pleased with the results.”

Having used other brands through the years, Koppelman knows there are some issues when using a matte laminate: silvering, bland or faded colors, even installation issues. Laminates can be expensive, so replacing graphics can get costly if they need to be reprinted. “I switched over to the laminate because it is a nicer product than what we were using. Also, it is more efficient from a cost perspective.”

Not only does he feel the HP matte laminate enhances the colors, but his installers are also pleased with the way the product goes down.

“We printed a 6-foot by 10-foot wall mural and the installer asked what kind of laminate we used. He felt that install was easier for him due to the rigidity and thickness of the laminate and vinyl.” With the success of the smaller wall mural in his portfolio, other companies have requisitioned larger pieces for their corporate spaces. “We recently did one that was 8-and-a-half by 26-feet. The customer was very happy with the results.”

Koppelman is not only using the HP matte laminate on his projects, but he is also talking to other SpeedPro owners and they’ve started using it as well. “We’ve been going through the rolls pretty quickly over the last few months.”

What he likes most about the product is the rigidity, his customers like the look of the finished graphics, and his installers like the way it handles. Of course, saving money is also an added benefit.

If you are interested in learning more about the HP Matte Polymeric Overlaminate or the other products in the portfolio, call a LexJet sales representative at 800-453-9538 or visit LexJet.com.

Posted on by Jennifer Corn Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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HP Adhesive Vinyl Case Studies: ‘The Easiest I’ve Ever Used’

Shannon Norwood of Fullmoon Graphics in Athens, Tenn., has been making graphics for race cars for more than 22 years. Recently, his LexJet sales representative, Dave Mayer, told him about the new HP Adhesive Vinyl products. “At first, I was hesitant to switch,” Norwood says. “I’d never had any complaints, but nobody ever said anything about the other stuff I’ve used.”

That’s not the case anymore. “I have one driver who usually installs his own graphics,” he says. “After I switched to the HP vinyl, he called me and wanted to know what material I’d used to print his images. I was initially worried. Usually, nobody asks. I asked him why and I knew I’d get a straight answer from him because he’s very blunt. He said ‘I love it! It went on so easy, it almost falls on. It’s the easiest I’ve ever used.’ I was glad to hear it.”

Norwood orders 2-3 rolls a week, using the HP Prime Gloss Air GP with both the HP Gloss and Matte Polymeric Overlaminates, depending upon his customers’ requests. “I used the matte finish for a rust effect on a car and the finish was perfect. After all, you don’t want glossy rust. Some matte finishes are too coarse and when you take pictures at night, there’s a glare.”

Norwood created a faux rust look using HP Matte Polymeric Overlaminate

While he has been getting positive feedback from his customers who install their own work, it’s the person who is doing the printing who is the hardest to please: himself. “It prints much brighter than my last vinyl. My colors seem to pop better. Also, the images don’t have the mottled look,” he says. “My ink goes on real heavy and on other products, it would look like it was puddling. When I print with this on my 64-in Mutoh, the image is completely smooth, no mottling.”

With drivers all over the country, from Blue Ridge, Ga., to Arizona, to Mississippi, Norwood says that all of them tell him the product is a dream to install. “Nearly everyone tells me it almost installs itself, it’s so easy. All of my guys have worked with products from 3M and other brands.”

If you are working with adhesive vinyl and laminates and would like to learn more about the benefits of the HP Vinyl portfolio, call us today at 800-453-9538 or visit LexJet.com.

Streamline Your Inventory to Save Time and Money
Posted on by Jennifer Corn Posted in Tips & Tricks
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Streamline Your Inventory to Save Time and Money

Many print service providers have a fight on their hands for prime real estate known as “roll storage.” If you have limited space, you know how difficult it is to find room for the different products that you keep on hand for everyday use and the specialty products that are taking up space and collecting dust.

Keeping the right products on hand to reduce inventory will help you save money and storage space. When looking to consolidate, it is important to make sure you select versatile products that will meet the needs of the applications your customers request most often.

Take a look at your current inventory. Do you have different products stocked to create indoor signage, outdoor signage, die-cut stickers, fleet graphics, clear window graphics and to laminate? If so, consider finding products that allow you to streamline your inventory, which means you have fewer rolls to organize, an easier workflow and ensures you have the right product for the right project.

If you have been looking for ways to reduce your print shop inventory by using versatile products, the HP Adhesive Vinyl and Laminates line that was introduced at SGIA last October is a good place to start. A roll of HP Optimal Gloss Air GRP can produce a variety of signage and fleet graphics as well as stickers, while HP Matte and Gloss Polymeric Overlaminates are printable, which means they can be used as protection and when customers request graphics on a clear backdrop.

Noting the importance of having a multipurpose product, William Roll of Signarama in Dothan, Ala. says that his team loves the new HP Adhesive Vinyl line of products. “They grab it for every application they can use it on,” he says. With a high-quality, versatile product in the print shop, you can meet the demands of your customers as well as the needs of your team.

If you would like additional ideas on how to consolidate your print shop inventory or have questions about the HP Adhesive Vinyl and Laminates, contact one of our sales specialists at 800-453-9538 or visit us at LexJet.com.