The secret to creating successful trade show displays that bring customers back for more is durability. After all, as Glenn Braasch, production manager for Graphicolor Exhibits in Livonia, Mich., points out, you can’t control what happens to a display once it leaves your shop.
“We were always looking for something to help ensure that our customers weren’t coming back to replace panels that failed,” says Braasch.
The combination Braasch found to work with the company’s Mutoh mild solvent printer was LexJet Matte Light Block Polyester (12 Mil) laminated with LexJet Elite Textured Coex Laminate (5 Mil).
“We love this stuff. One of the benefits is the white point, which contributes to better color reproduction, but mainly it’s the durability of the 12-mil film with the overlaminate,” explains Braasch. “This combination helped us realize the goal of reducing the amount of re-prints.”
The display pictured here has six center panels and two end caps. For the end caps, Braasch used LexJet Matte Light Block Polyester (7 Mil) with the 5-mil laminate. The thinner material makes it easier to wrap the tight curves of the end caps.
“On any kind of pop up we use the 12-mil polyester with the 5-mil overlam; that seems to be a good thickness for roll-able pop-up panels. When we produce other displays, like retractable banner stands, we use the 7-mil printable material,” says Braasch.
These combinations strike a nice balance: not too thick, not too thin. Braasch uses a standard panel trimmer on a 4×8 table that has a clamping system. “It’s not anything special or secret; it just seems to trim nice, which may also have to do with the fact that we keep the total thickness of panel down so we don’t have to cut it with more than one pass.”
