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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Converting a Plain Display Case into Advertising Art

Allison-Kaufman DisplayAllison-Kaufman Company, a manufacturer of fine diamond jewelry, played to win at a recent jewelry show. Given a blank slate with which to work, Allison-Kaufman’s graphics department led by graphic design manager Jeremie Rothman transformed a boring display case into a brilliant promotional piece.

Unveiled at a cocktail party the night before the show, Rothman says, “Everyone loved it and took pictures of it. They liked the concept, design and how the final piece looked. It started as a concept for our Queen of Black Diamonds set we’re promoting based on a postcard we created.”

Attendees voted on the best display cases and Allison-Kaufman’s display renovation got second place. Rothman says they were likely edged out of first, not by the rival display case design itself, but due to the fact that the winners dressed up in crazy costumes.

However the voting turned out, Allison-Kaufman’s display accomplished the primary goal, which was to draw attention to the display and elevate the brand with its customers.

Allison-Kaufman Jewelry Display
Inside the tower display, LexJet Opaque AquaVinyl Removable PSA was used for the chess board and embellishments on the chess pieces.

To decorate the display case, Rothman used LexJet Opaque AquaVinyl Removable PSA, printed on a Canon iPF8400 wide format inkjet printer, applying the vinyl to the four lower and upper panels. Rothman also printed and applied the chessboard on the inside of the case, and added the Allison-Kaufman logo and diamond embellishments to the chess pieces, including the chess queen that tops the display. The oversize chess pieces were acquired from megachess.com.

“The graphics look very sharp and it’s almost 100 percent opaque, which is a big bonus. The material is amazing,” says Rothman.

LexJet 8 Mil Absolute Backlit
Allison-Kaufman also prints photo-quality backlits on LexJet 8 Mil Absolute Backlit and other point of sale materials for its retail jewelry customers.

Rothman adds that they use AquaVinyl for in-store wall displays that they give to their retail customers for point of sale advertising, as well as LexJet Aqueous Perforated Vinyl (70/30) for window displays and LexJet 8 Mil Absolute Backlit for photo-quality backlits.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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A Growing Market for Wide Format Printing at PostNet North Port

PostNet North Port Showroom
PostNet North Port’s show room features numerous samples of the store’s wide-format inkjet capabilities with a Canon printer and LexJet inkjet media.

 

The PostNet store in North Port, Fla., like other PostNet locations across the world, provides a full slate of printing-related services. Over the past three years or so, the North Port location has seen its wide-format printing operation grow substantially each year.

North Port PostNet owner Joyce Klingle estimates that wide-format printing now accounts for about 30 percent of the store’s sales, which is quite a jump over three years given the plethora of products and services the store offers its clients.

PostNet North Port Storefront
PostNet North Port’s storefront features LexJet Aqueous Perforated Vinyl used to promote the store’s printing services.

A big break came when a local Perkins Restaurant manager noticed samples of perforated window graphics at North Port PostNet. The manager asked for pricing and a sample to send to Perkins’ headquarters, which led to a contract to ship window graphics all over the U.S.

“Our customer specialist at LexJet, David Iannotti, first told us about what we could do with perforated window film. Any time we have a question about anything all we have to do is call David; he’s our go-to guy for information about wide-format printing,” says Klingle. “We printed more than 1,500 window perf graphics for this project and laminated them since we knew they would be displayed outdoors.”

Backlit Prints by PostNet North Port
This sample at PostNet North Port is printed on LexJet 8 Mil Absolute Backlit.

The project came off without a hitch and helped contribute to the positive word of mouth so crucial to this PostNet location since it’s not located on busy Highway 41, which bisects North Port.

“We’ve been at this location for three years. We were located across the street from here for about two years before we moved into this location,” explains Klingle. “We rely a lot on word of mouth and people coming in to see what we can do.”

And they can do just about anything with their Canon iPF8000S, though the bulk of their wide-format printing is for canvas gallery wraps printed on LexJet Sunset Select Matte Canvas and coated with Sunset Satin Coating, banners typically printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat ThriftyBanner and window graphics on LexJet Aqueous Perforated Vinyl.

“Every year our wide-format printing increases by about 50 percent,” adds Klingle.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Turning a Bar Mitzvah into a Basketball Court with Inkjet Printing

Printing floor graphics on a dance floor

With the large-format inkjet printing tools and media now at your disposal you can decorate just about anything, and turn the humdrum into something special.  That’s exactly what Brett Feldman, owner of Unlimited Exposures, Manalapan, N.J., did at a recent bar mitzvah.

Printing graphics for a bar mitzvahThe party planner, Marquis Florals & Event Design by Kim in Matawan, N.J., was interested in doing something completely off the wall, both literally and figuratively, and asked Brett if he could create a basketball court on the dance floor at the venue. Having worked with Photo Tex PSA repositionable fabric from LexJet before, Brett thought this material would be the perfect one-night dance floor material.

“The Photo Tex surface is not officially slip resistant, Michael Clementi [Brett’s personal customer specialist] made sure I knew that. However, when I discussed it with the party planner we both agreed that it was actually less slippery than the marble floor,” Brett says. “There were more than 100 kids and 50 adults at the event and the dance floor was packed all night. The floor held up great; the graphic didn’t peel off the floor and stick to anyone’s feet, and no one slipped on it. In fact, someone dropped a glass with liquid in it on the floor and it wiped right off.”

Inkjet printing floor graphicsThe total size of the basketball court graphic was 50′ x 20′. Brett printed it in 15 panels on his Canon iPF8300 44″ inkjet printer. Each panel was printed at about 38″ x 20′ and applied to the marble dance floor area, which is surrounded by carpet.

“I’ve used Photo Tex for our walls, as well as LexJet Aqueous Perforated Vinyl for our storefront windows, so this application was a breeze,” Brett says. “Now I’m getting requests for more of the same, and I say, ‘No problem…'”

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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The Keys to Product Placement at the Point of Sale

Printing cooler wraps for liquor stores

As everyone in the beverage distribution market knows, point of sale sign placement is a crucial component of sales. Though it can’t always be quantified there’s no doubt that a restaurant, bar or c-store account that’s happy with their signage is more than happy to place more orders and try different brands offered by the distributor.

Printing cooler wraps for a convenience store
Cooler wrap printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene by Brent Lee and David Raszka, Atlas Distributing, for Renaissance Wine & Spirits, Worcester, Mass.

An excellent case in point of this maxim in operation is Atlas Distributing Inc., and its print shop headed by graphic design manager Brent Lee. Lee says the two most important keys to ensuring high-visibility point of sale placement for Atlas Distributing’s brands – primarily MillerCoors, Samuel Adams, Corona and Heineken – is quick turnaround and colorful, photo-quality graphics.

“Turnaround time is easily the number one factor for us. One of our competitors here promises a turnaround time of two weeks for all their signs. We have a turnaround time of two to three days, so that’s our number one selling point,” explains Lee. “As far as winning signage space at the point of sale, we always use the most current graphics supplied by the brand. Our competitor’s graphics are very simple – logo and price; they won’t use any background graphics, so we have a leg up there as well. Also, we provide the account with a digital proof if is it’s a larger sign before we print and install it.”

In order to fulfill their two- to three-day turnaround promise, Lee says they rely on LexJet’s shipping and logistics infrastructure to get materials into the shop exactly when they’re needed.

“I’ve been using LexJet since I’ve been here, which is almost four years now. LexJet is the leader in this industry. I’ve used a lot of different suppliers and LexJet is the best and shipping is number one; it’s absolutely killer how quickly my orders get placed. If I send Chris [Piersoll, Atlas Distributing’s customer specialist] an email in the morning it’s out before I know it.”

Moreover, the recent addition of a Canon iPF8000S to supplement the shop’s older HP 5500 has also helped speed up the pace. “The Canon printer is incredibly fast. It saves us a lot of time and allows a very quick turnaround, and our clients love that. Plus, when we first got the Canon our sales guys and accounts noticed the quality immediately,” says Lee.

Since the HP 5500 is 60″ wide and the Canon is 42″ wide, larger work is printed on the HP, which allows flexibility and greater efficiency in the print shop workflow. The print shop uses LexJet UV Ink Replacement Cartridges for HP 5000/5500 and Lee says the switch was seamless.

“The LexJet Ink is awesome. We’ve had no problems with it, there’s no difference in color, it’s just as good as the original ink, it was easy to switch, and when you see the savings it’s a no-brainer,” says Lee.

Lee uses Adobe Photoshop CS4 for design and the FlexiSIGN RIP to queue up and send designs to the printers, which also include two OKI laser printers for table tents, case cards, menus and other smaller signage. The print shop’s product purchases and workflow enhancements are driven by those two keys to successful product placement in the field – speed and quality – and it’s working.

Printing point of sale signage for a bar“A few months ago I made a sign for an account and put the wrong brand on it, and instead of returning the sign they actually took the product because they liked the sign,” relates Lee. “We have another account that wanted to make their entire store a Samuel Adams brewery so we made 10 to 12 signs that were just brewery images. That was a very custom job and the account was very happy with it.”

Nor is Lee afraid to experiment with different materials to get that edge in the market. He’s tried any number of banner materials, setting on LexJet Poly Select Heavy fabric reinforced with LexJet Heavy Duty Banner Tape on the edges as his favorite, as well as LexJet Aqueous Perforated Vinyl (70/30) for one-way window graphics.

“We use the Heavy Duty Banner tape to help with fraying on outdoor banners, and that’s been working well. The Poly Select Heavy fabric with the banner tape on the ends is very strong and durable. In New England we’ve had some strong winds, but the banners stay up and the quality is still awesome,” says Lee.

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.