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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Another Promotional Brick in the Wall

Faux Inkjet Printed Bricks Wall Mural

Brian likes bricks. See Brian make bricks… out of Photo Tex PSA Fabric – Solvent Printers from LexJet.

Brian is Brian Rogers, founder and CEO of Spectra Imaging in Louisville, Ky. He recently brought brick indoors to cover the outside of Spectra Imaging’s showroom.

Inkjet Printed Wall MuralThe outside of Spectra Imaging’s building is covered in brick so Rogers wanted to continue that theme inside to give the space more character, instead of just boring painted walls. More importantly, it makes visiting customers and prospects stop and look, and to ask how Spectra Imaging did it.

“We’ve had a lot of people say that when they first glanced at it they thought it was real brick. Then, the more they looked at it they realized that it wasn’t brick at all and wanted to know more about it,” says Rogers. “We’ve sold a lot of wall murals to companies that see it and want it on their walls; not necessarily brick, but once they know we can print any image on the material, then that’s what they want.”

Inkjet Printed Bathroom DecorAnd sometimes they do want brick, like the customer who requested a brick wall mural for their bathroom décor (pictured here).

“It’s great for companies to dress up their offices because they can use any image. And, if a year later they want to take it down, they can remove it without leaving any residue behind or damaging any of the drywall,” adds Rogers.

Ultimately, the interior décor at Spectra Imaging is a powerful sales tool. And what makes it that much more powerful in this case is the print of a seemingly infinite hallway in and amongst the “brick” on the back door of the showroom.

Rogers could have wrapped the door, but chose instead to print the image directly to a big piece of foam board with a flatbed UV-curable printer. Once the door handle and deadbolt were removed, the printed foam board was stuck to the door with double-sided tape.

The longer wall with just brick is 32 feet long and 82 1/2″ high; the shorter wall with the door is about 20 feet long and the same height. Rogers applied the brick graphics on the longer wall in two panels horizontally. The graphics for the shorter wall were applied in three panels horizontally.

“When we created the file we factored in the door and basically cut it out in the file. Then, we printed the top and bottom panels for the left and right side of the doors and a third smaller panel to apply above the door,” explains Rogers. “To make it as seamless as possible we apply it horizontally. A lot of people apply theirs in vertical panels, but even though it’s a little more difficult to apply it horizontally, I don’t like doing it that way because you create more seams. With this project there was only one seam on each wall in the middle of the wall. We also take our time and use two people for the installation. One person holds the roll and starts applying while the other pulls the release liner.”

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Printing the Town’s Grocery Store at Spectra Imaging

Inkjet Wall Mural

Spectra Imaging in Louisville, Ky., has a way with walls. When the opportunity to provide wall graphics rolls around, as it does quite a bit, Spectra Imaging takes it to the next level.

One of Spectra’s most recent projects involved turning blank walls into a grocery store for Junior Achievement’s BizTown in Louisville.

BizTown is a 7,000 square foot town where kids learn about life in the real world, like budgeting and finance, as they buy goods and save their money at the local “bank.”

Inkjet Wall GraphicsKroger sponsored two rooms and sent Spectra Imaging photos taken at one of their stores to replicate on the walls. Spectra put the files together to create one seamless image that would cover the walls from floor to ceiling in both rooms. Spectra also routed out dimensional letters and logos for the rooms.

“The walls are fairly textured so I asked my LexJet rep, Sammi Calabrese, what would work best. She told me that an adhesive vinyl would be more likely to peel off the walls, so she recommended we use something designed for rough and textured walls,” says Brian Rogers, owner of Spectra Imaging. “The project turned out really cool.”

Spectra used LexJet Simple MTS Adhesive Vinyl for the application. Simple MTS Vinyl has a more aggressive adhesive for textured walls and surfaces that don’t form a secure bond with conventional removable adhesives. The vinyl can also be easily removed for up to a year after installation.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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An Inkjet Wrap with Dimension that Hides and Promotes

Down One Bourbon Louisville Graphics by Spectra Imaging

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.

Spectra Imaging Generator Wrap for Down One BourbonIt 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.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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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.”