Spectra Imaging, Louisville, Ky., is always on the lookout for a challenge. As owner Brian Rogers puts it: “Those are the projects we love to get; the ones that make you think and find new and different ways to make it successful.”
In the case pictured here, the challenge was turning an eyesore into something both pleasing and promotional for a restaurant/bar called Down One Bourbon Bar. Located at the ground floor of an upscale hotel in Louisville, the covered outdoor seating area had an industrial feel with a yellow generator dominating the scene.
Down One Bourbon asked Spectra Imaging to transform the space into something unique and inviting. Working from a file supplied by Down One Bourbon’s ad agency, Spectra Imaging wrapped the generator with LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl SUV – Gloss (5 Mil) and laminated it with D&K 6 Mil UV Textured Vinyl PSA from LexJet.
It was a fairly time-consuming process as Spectra Imaging had to ensure the integrity of the generator, meticulously cutting around and wrapping the access door, panels and louvers.
The coup de grace on the project was the illusion of bourbon flowing out of the top barrel and splashing down on the bench. Spectra Imaging routed the flow of bourbon out of 1/4″ acrylic and applied LexJet 9 Mil Opaque Display Film to the back of it with LexJet GraphicMount Clear Adhesive. And since it’s located in the “zone of destruction” it was further backed with the textured laminate.
The individual drops that fly off the splash were included in the main graphic panel since those pieces were too small to route out individually. “We drilled three small holes, put spacers behind it and screwed those into the generator offset about 1 3/4” so it gives the illusion that it’s away from the graphics and coming out of the barrel,” adds Rogers.
The sign shop’s owner, Steve Holden, says the project called for everything from locker wraps, graphics inside each locker, locker name tags, perforated window graphics, wall wraps and action photo reproductions writ super-large. The “crown jewel,” as Holden calls it, is the 10′ x 10′ logo that sits on the carpet in the middle of the locker room.