Do You Have a Winning Lineup for Outdoor Graphics?

Now more than any other time of year, outdoor signage and graphics are front and center and in demand. We hold outdoor graphics to higher expectations in terms of durability and longevity, but also in photo and color reproduction and overall strength and visual appeal. We gathered some of our customers’ favorite outdoor products for a variety of applications. Check out this list to find your tried-and-true choices, as well as some new products that you’ve yet to discover:

Although it’s not technically specified for outdoor use, our customers have found that LexJet TOUGHcoat ThriftyBanner can take the heat … and the rain. Photographer Carl Caylor reproduced football player images, shown above, and displayed them on the field in frames attached with BannerUps for an entire football season. “We had a few games with really nasty weather, and they really held up great,” he says. “The ThriftyBanner got wet, but after the game we hung them up to dry, and everything was fine. It was amazing for a product that’s not really rated for outdoor longevity.”

LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl SUV is a tried-and-true outdoor self-adhesive option. It can be used to cover up eyesores, like Spectra Imaging achieved quite stylishly by covering a generator and finishing it with a film laminate for extra outdoor protection, pictured here. Another self-adhesive favorite is LexJet TOUGHcoat AquaVinyl PSA, a go-to choice for durable outdoor signs, like those used for election season yard signs when paired with Coroplast or foam boards. And don’t forget that LexJet now carries a full line of Avery Dennison films and laminates made specifically for long-term outdoor use for vehicles, transit and marine graphics, as well as floors, windows and walls.

Need a lasting window option? We’ve got dozens of window graphics choices, but if it’s a retail space and you want to see through the graphic, a favorite option is LexJet Simple Perforated Window Vinyl (70/30). Because 70% of the surface area is printable, you get great graphic reproduction and color punch with the added benefit of not obstructing the visibility through the window. Compatible with solvent, eco-solvent, UV-curable and latex inks, it’s designed to mount on the exterior of the window and will cleanly remove from the glass within the first year of installation.

Try LexJet Production Display Film SUV for banner stands. If you’ve got a customer request for banner stands that’ll be used outdoors, this is an ideal option for you. Our Production Display Films were a huge success when they launched, and it’s not hard to see why — this true lay-flat option won’t curl on the sides the way some material will, especially when they’ve been displayed for some time. The solvent option means you don’t have to apply a laminate top coat, and it’s super versatile. LexJet Production Display Film SUV is ideal for trade shows when you don’t need it to stand up to the outdoor elements.

If you’ve got dye-sublimation capabilities in your facility, a high-end, durable solution is ChromaLuxe EXT, made specifically to be used outdoors and guaranteed to last up to and beyond three years. These metal panels create stunning, high-end signage or décor with the vivid color reproduction we expect from dye-sub transfers. Stay tuned to our blog for more information and real-life examples featuring ChromaLuxe EXT!

Wall Wraps Before and After at the Boom Boom Room

Wall Graphics and Murals
The Boom Boom Room received a makeover courtesy of Heineken and DeCrescente Distributing with wall, elevator and door graphics printed on LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl.

Heineken wanted to make a big splash at a popular four-story tavern while making it easy to clean up all the splash-back from spilled drinks and such in the Boom Boom Room, a DJ-powered disco located on the fourth floor of the tavern.

Local beverage distributor DeCrescente Distributing, Mechanicville, N.Y., and its crack graphics design and installation staff took on the project, which required wraps on doors, elevators and walls of the Boom Boom Room.

Bar Makeover with Wall MuralsGraphic designer James Lane chose LexJet Simple WallCal (6 Mil) for most of the project, printing an entire roll to fill the space required, and scrim banner applied with LexJet Heavy Duty Banner Tape on one brick wall area. “That’s the other reason we went with those materials, because they spill drinks and throw stuff on the wall, so we wanted something that would take the abuse,” explains Lane.

“Heineken wanted that floor since they’re promoting their music series and did this as part of the sponsorship. The City Tavern wasn’t too keen on it at first since it had always been Budweiser, but when I was installing the project they changed their minds because they thought it looked great,” says Lane. “It took about 11 hours to apply it. This is not something you rush through; you have to take your time to get it right.”

Elevator GraphicsLane has been designing and installing graphics for years and has the process down to a science (his graphics department comrade Monty Pyle says Lane’s been doing this for “a reeeaaally long time”). While experience helps a lot, Lane says: “We all take pride in our work. We want to do a good job and we don’t stop until it’s done right. It’s better to take your time. I look at the room and get ideas so I know what I’m doing before I leave that room. It’s a matter of pre-planning the project ahead of time and taking exact measurements.”

The project was printed on DeCrescente’s Epson GS6000 low-solvent printer, and Lane says it took a couple of days to print and cut the graphics into the various panel sizes.

“Before I printed everything out I printed a section on the HP to see what the background would look like. It looked good on-screen, but when I printed it out it didn’t look so good, so I had to redo the background as far as tracing the lines and getting the colors right. We always make sure our images aren’t pixilated and are razor sharp before we go into production,” adds Lane.

Louisville Slugger: How Spectra Imaging Built a Thriving and Growing Business

Window graphics for a grocery store chain

Brian and Leslie Rogers started Spectra Imaging in their 500-square-foot garage about seven years ago with a Mac mini and a Canon iPF8000. Since that time, Spectra Imaging has grown exponentially, eventually occupying 6,000 square feet of space in a Louisville, Ky., office building, adding additional employees and ramping up its production capabilities.

Main identification sign for a companyWhile Spectra Imaging’s success is based on the usual ingredients – high-quality output, customer service and finding the right products for production – it’s the intangibles that have helped set the company apart.

First, Spectra Imaging is debt-free. All of its equipment purchases are paid for, alleviating the additional burden that debt payments can have on a company. Second, Spectra Imaging emphasizes a show-and-tell approach to sales.

“The growth of our company is attributed to our drive and determination and just getting out in front of people,” explains Brian Rogers. “You can’t just walk in there, hand them a brochure and tell them that this is what you can do. When our salespeople meet with customers they have a sample case and an iPad. There’s an image on our site of a very large sign on the front of a building for a hardware company, for example, and our salespeople have a smaller version of that exact sign, printed on the same material and applied to the same substrate. That way, they can see how the material works and what it looks like when it’s done. A brochure is not good enough.”

Wall decor graphicsRogers says this is especially effective with Photo Tex PSA Repositionable Fabric from LexJet. Customers can see first-hand how easy it is to work with and how versatile it is in a variety of applications.

Whatever the material used, Spectra Imaging is armed with physical samples and various options for a collaborative, consultative and ultimately productive meeting.

“Customers are looking for something different and unique; they don’t want the same stuff they’ve been getting. LexJet has been instrumental in keeping us updated about new products we can add to our sample case so we can show customers what’s available and what they can do with them,” adds Rogers.

Spectra Imaging can provide just about any imaging product and service to its customers, including graphic design, scanning original artwork, printing and stretching canvas, custom framing and practically any large-format application.

Photo reproduction for interior decorNow armed with two HP 9000 solvent printers, two HP Designjet 5000 aqueous inkjet printers and two Canon iPF8000s, as well as fabrication and finishing capabilities with a CNC router and a laminator, Spectra Imaging is well positioned to make its next move: hiring an additional salesperson and production specialist as well as adding more printer fire power.

Rogers says his favorite materials are the aforementioned Photo Tex PSA Fabric (both Aqueous and Solvent), LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl (Semi-Matte and Gloss), LexJet 10 Mil Opaque Display Film, LexJet Production Satin Photo Paper PSA and LexJet Sunset Fine Art, Photo and Canvas media.

“The great thing about Sammi [Spectra Imaging’s LexJet customer specialist Samantha Calabrese] is that she’s familiar with the products we’ve used and is quite helpful about making recommendations and letting us know about new products,” says Rogers. “Even if we’re not buying a product from LexJet, like our HP 9000, Sammi did some research and helped us find other LexJet customers who had one so we could get some feedback from them about the printer before we bought it.”