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Posted on by LexJet Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Short Term Promotions with Punch at Colonial Beverage

Printing fabric with a wide format inkjet printerVersatility is the name of the game at Colonial Beverage in North Dartmouth, Mass. With a print shop headed by Tennyson Lacasio that’s deluging the local beer market with point of sale graphics to ensure its brands get top billing, Lacasio needs consistent, reliable, high-quality inkjet materials that keep Colonial in front of the consumer.

A lot of Lacasio’s printing is in the form of banners for just about every application imaginable, indoors and outdoors, from table drapes and entryway banners to flags, awnings and stage displays for special events. Lacasio recently switched from a scrim banner for the bulk of that work to LexJet’s new Poly Select Heavy fabric.

Printing on fabric for banner applications“It has better image quality,” Lacasio explains as the primary reason he’s continuing to use Poly Select Heavy. Print quality is one of Lacasio’s top priorities, if not the top priority, for the prints that leave the shop. Lacasio takes extra care with his designs to ensure the biggest impact for Colonial Beverage at the point of sale, to which the photos of his work on the fabric shown here certainly attest.

Of course there are other reasons he likes this new fabric so much: “It’s much more durable in the wind; we’ve been using it for about two months and we haven’t had to replace any torn banners, so we’re saving money by not having to replace banners as quickly,” he says.

Inkjet printing on fabricAfter picking Lacasio’s brain and getting a feel for what he was looking for, Lacasio’s customer specialist, Chris Piersoll, suggested Poly Select Heavy as a solution. “I asked if a lighter, airy banner that comes in longer rolls to eliminate some waste in production would work for him. He liked the idea of a new banner material that could help show off his product better and differentiate him from his competition,” recalls Piersoll.

Piersoll’s recommendation turned out to be just what the printer ordered. “I’ve been using it for about two months now printing on an HP Z6100 with really good results. It’s also very popular with our customers. I’ve never been disappointed with anything Chris has recommended we use,” adds Lacasio.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Making a Difference with Metallic

C2 Reprographics prints this flyer on Sunset Photo Metallic Paper to highlight the pearlescent qualities that make a distinct difference on high-contrast, high-end images.

In its quest for a competitive edge, C2 Reprographics in Costa Mesa, Calif., was one of the first companies to try LexJet’s Sunset Metallic Photo Paper after it was introduced this summer. C2 Reprographics’ marketing director, Eric Monroe, says the company has been on the lookout for a way to replicate the unique pearlescent qualities of a paper that had previously been available only for chemical process, continuous-tone printing systems like the LightJet.

“I was dying to get this paper because we often compete with companies that have LightJets. We were looking for an inkjet version of that look so that we could compete in that space,” says Monroe.

Now that an inkjet version is available, C2 Reprographics can use its battery of HP Z6100s to produce a similar effect without having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a photographic system. For C2 Reprographics, the paper has made the biggest impact in the architectural market.

“When architects create 3D renderings and modeling for their presentations, you’re seeing a lot of vibrant images, like the colors they use in the buildings, trees and sky. We have one architect who uses it exclusively. At first, I wasn’t thinking of my architect clientele as the main market for this paper, but they really like it,” says Monroe.

Monroe says that making a presentation splash has become increasingly important for architects who have been competing in smaller niche markets in response to the tighter economy of recent years. He says the paper gives the presentations a higher-end, more professional look that makes a difference.

Monroe adds that you should choose images with a lot of contrast to bring out the qualities of the paper that cause it to stand out from the crowd. “I purposely pick images I know will play well with the paper, like the flyer we printed on Sunset Metallic that shows a nighttime cityscape with lots of darks contrasting against reflections and light. If it’s a sterile image on a white background you probably won’t notice the difference, so you should just use a less-expensive paper for those applications,” says Monroe. “We charge more per square foot for prints on Sunset Metallic, and so far that’s flown. No one has said, ‘Wow, that’s too expensive.’ Instead they say, ‘I want to try that, because it gives me a distinctive look.’”