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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Creative Interior Imagery Combines Fine Art and Industry on Canvas

Canvas Decor by Creative Interior Imagery

Creative Interior Imagery is located at the epicenter of an oil and gas boom in Pennsylvania. Williams, an energy exploration and production company, recently opened new offices in nearby Tunkhannock, Pa., as part of its continued expansion in Pennsylvania over the past several years.

Inkjet Canvas by Creative Interior ImageryWilliams and Creative Interior Imagery collaborated on interior décor for the new offices, combining the industrial work Williams specializes in with a fine-art ambiance on canvas.

From Williams’ initial direction, Creative Interior Imagery took the project from photographic capture through the print process to installation.

“When we first met with Creative Interior Imagery, we were comfortable with them right away. They took extra time with the images and produced quality work,” says T.J. Gentile, facility services rep. sr. for Williams.

Gentile adds that Williams was looking for a clean, timeless look and felt that framed pieces would not have the same impact and could start to look a bit dated over time. The solution was to reproduce photos of Williams’ machinery and pipelines on canvas, which fit the company’s distinct vision of what it wanted the décor to portray in the new building.

“After an intensive two-day photo shoot at Williams’ production sites we gave them a choice of hundreds of photos and they picked out the ones they wanted to use in their offices. We zoomed in and cropped some of the photos as necessary to prepare them for printing,” says Betsy Green, design consultant for Creative Interior Imagery. “We wanted to merge the industrial look with fine art using the technology in our business.”

Canvas Wrap Creative Interior ImageryCreative Interior Imagery produced about 20 canvas wraps, most of which were 4′ x 6′, on Sunset Select Matte Canvas with an Epson Stylus Pro 11880. One 10′ x 5′ giant gallery wrap hangs on the wall in a stairwell just outside the lobby.

“Northeast Pennsylvania is considered one of the top production areas for natural gas in the world. The fact that Williams built this brand-new gorgeous building up here me says to me that this company intends to be here for many years to come,” adds Green.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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High Definition Quality from Capture to Print at Digital Sports Photography

Digital Sports Photography Epson SureLabe

Bob Critser, owner of Digital Sports Photography in the small town of Herkimer, N.Y., is a self-described “technology freak” who recently acquired the latest photo printing technology to help boost and streamline his sports photography print sales.

He’s also particular about color consistency and image fidelity. And, he doesn’t have time to fix inconsistent output or finicky printers. That’s why the acquisition of an Epson SureLab D3000 Single Roll Printer from LexJet, coupled with KODAK PROFESSIONAL Inkjet Photo Paper, Lustre DL / 255g has been such a boon to his business.

“I’m taking sports photos with a $16,000 camera, and it’s killer stuff. I create templates with color borders for the schools, Little League, Pop Warner, and other team photos, and when I print them out with the SureLab and the Kodak paper every one of them is the same color blue or burgundy. I can’t deal with inconsistent color and get an orange that prints a burnt orange, for instance,” says Critser. “When I got sample prints from a company with the SureLab, the color was dead-on, whether it was a bright green border or a photo with a blue screen background. As soon as I saw the sample prints I knew I needed the printer.”

Moreover, Critser says the printer is super-fast, allowing him to deliver a variety of print sizes quickly to his clientele.

“I set up the prints in Lightroom and use it to send out all the team photos to the printer, with only five minutes for the 8x10s and maybe five to seven minutes to do the smaller prints,” he says. “And with the Kodak paper we use with the printer it’s nice because you can touch it. We bag the prints, but even when you handle the prints you don’t leave marks.”

Besides the durable, high-quality imaging surface the Kodak paper provides, Critser says the Kodak mark on the paper gives his clients confidence in the print. It’s subtle and subconscious, but the brand carries weight.

“Everyone knows Kodak. For me, to have that on the back of a print makes a big difference. People like the quality, bottom line,” says Critser.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Clear Lake Press Prints Nostalgic Office Décor

Wall Mural by Clear Lake Press

Eric Erickson, prepress systems administrator for Clear Lake Press, Waseca, Minn., loves LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric, and is sticking it everywhere to give customers and prospects a bigger-than-life visual of what they can do with the printable adhesive-back fabric.

The nostalgic photo above was applied at the offices of Clear Lake Press to illustrate the eye-catching displays that can be easily and economically created in similar settings. Erickson has also created visuals in various forms and formats for other environments, like cubicle and bedroom walls.

Cubicle Decor by Clear Lake Press
Clear Lake Press made a cubicle more livable with a view using LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric.

“We’re trying to provide some creative ways of using it, more than just rectangles on walls. You make up something, show it off, and it helps spark ideas for use in their home or business,” says Erickson.

Erickson adds that the unique adhesive, which makes it easy to re-position, remove and re-use is also a big selling point to customers.

“Now that we have offered Print-N-Stick and are showing it off, a lot of people have been asking about it. For instance, we printed some artwork for the Waseca United Way from the front of their brochure. We made a large graphic out of it with Print-N-Stick for use at local businesses to put on their walls and promote the United Way. When they’re done with the promotion, they can peel it off and put it back on the backing paper and hold onto it for future use,” says Erickson.

Printed Wall Graffiti by Clear Lake Press
Wall murals don’t have to be plain rectangles as this cut-out printed wall graffiti illustrates.

For the classic kids’ lemonade stand photo from 1967, Erickson asked the Waseca County Historical Society, a long-time customer, if he could use the photo for their wall. The Historical Society was happy to oblige (with the requisite “be careful with the photo” instructions) and Erickson scanned the original 6 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ black-and-white photo.

The photo was scanned with a desktop Epson scanner and brought into Photoshop for touch-up to get the right tone, and blown up to its final wall mural size of 12′ x 8′. The image was printed in two panels on the company’s Canon iPF8300 and applied horizontally with the help of employees Tonya Wittman and Cory Stencel.

Wall Graphics by Clear Lake Press
Clear Lake Press printed this baby room decor with Print-N-Stick Fabric.

“There’s a little bit of an overlap that you can see. This was our first time applying more than one panel and we learned from the experience. Next time, we’ll include an overlap and slice it right down the middle and take off the excess for a clean, exact cut,” says Erickson. “We love the material and the way the bright white point on the fabric reproduces artwork, whether it’s black-and-white or full color. The coordinator at the Historical Society was thrilled with the mural.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Printing and Framing Notre Dame

Notre Dame Print by Sharpeye Framing

It’s estimated that there are more than 100,000 Notre Dame Fighting Irish alumni out there. They live among us and they likely wear their alma mater on their sleeve, both literally and figuratively.

Now, those alumni can wear their alma mater on their walls with limited edition Notre Dame panoramic specialty prints produced by Sharpeye Framing, Michigan City, Ind.

Notre Dame’s marketing communications department first contacted Sharpeye Framing for its print fulfilment services. Then, Sharpeye Framing was commissioned to produce the limited edition prints based on the quality, efficiency and detail of its work the company provides.

Prints by Sharpeye FramingThe prints are created from photos of Notre Dame’s campus today and one of the original structures from the school’s founding in 1849 taken at sunset.

Sharpeye Framing chose the matting and frames to border the prints and will also produce limited edition canvas gallery wraps. The photos are reproduced on Sunset Photo eSatin Paper 300g for the framed pieces and Sunset by Fredrix Matte Canvas for the gallery wraps on a Canon iPF8400.

“The Sunset Photo eSatin is our standard photo paper that we use for all of our photography reproduction. It’s a great heavyweight and durable product we’ve used for years,” says Ryan Wanke, president of Sharpeye Framing. “Fredrix has the best canvas weave out there, so the new Sunset by Fredrix canvas has become our stock canvas. It’s great for stretching because there are no issues with cracking.”

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Prints that Win: The Economic Recovery

The Economic Recovery by Nick Jones

In a print competition, the print itself should have some say in who wins the top award. At the Professional Photographers of Idaho competition, The Economic Recovery, created by Nick Jones, made it to the finish line for the coveted Sunset Print Award, but it was the print that took it over the top.

Jones, who co-owns Harmony and Nick Portrait Artists in Blackfoot, Idaho with his wife, Harmony (of course!), had his winning image, The Economic Recovery, printed on Sunset Photo Metallic Paper to help bring out the detail and give it an almost three-dimensional quality.

“When it came time for the Sunset Print Award there were a couple of rounds of judging and it kept getting split between mine and another print. The clincher was when one of the judges said that if any image is going to push the print and the printer it would be mine, and that put it over the edge,” says Jones. “We do a lot of printing on the Metallic; most of our client work is printed on it because it gives it that pop. I think it’s awesome. When it’s under the light it gives a new dimension to it; it’s almost 3D.”

Jones put a lot of himself into the image. In fact, Jones is actually in the image, standing next to the burning barrel on the far right side of the final composite. The main subject is his father, and you can see in the six panels below the main image all the pieces and parts Jones brought into a cohesive award-winning whole.

“I was planning on doing a different image with my father, because he has interesting features. It was a quick setup in house. I put it together with a background I like that has warm and cool tones. Then, I put it on Facebook and it got a lot of attention just as it was,” recalls Jones. “I looked for some additional elements to put in there to provide more storytelling. It grew from there. It built itself in a way. It was over several months that I added elements and tried some different ideas.”

Jones used Photoshop to create the composite from the six original images, painstakingly “hand-painting” the divergent images to create an accurate blend; a blend that makes the final image look like it was shot as-is, rather than composited. To bring out additional contrast and saturation, Jones applied nik Software filters.

“We do a lot of composite imaging with our sports teams and portraits. I first came into the studio doing Harmony’s retouching work. Along the way I starting seeing cool artwork, by Mark Bryant and others who are masters at composite work, and it intrigued me. So we started taking their courses and now use it in a lot of our photography, such as the pinup work we do in the summer,” explains Jones.

In addition to a Sunset Print Award, The Economic Recovery also won Photographer’s Choice at the Idaho print competition and went loan at the International Photographic Competition (IPC).

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Art Foundry International Renovates with Photo Canvas Inkjet Prints

Art Foundry International Sunset Photo Canvas Paper

As noted in an earlier post here at the LexJet Blog, there’s a new photo paper in town, and its name is Sunset Photo Canvas Paper 230g.

Since its introduction a couple of weeks ago a lot of different types of print shops, designers, décor specialists, artists and photographers have made it a go-to photo paper for framed and mounted art and photo applications.

Take Art Foundry International, based in Lawrenceville, Ga., which recently completed a décor renovation for a hotel that featured around 300 framed abstract photo art pieces. The texture of Sunset Photo Canvas Paper was ideal for the project at hand.

“The designer requested artwork that would stay true to their color scheme. They didn’t want the usual floral or nearby landmark prints, but more of an abstract take on the nature which surrounds the location of their hotel. The warm colors of the wood bark really popped out on the paper, and complemented the room design very well,” explains Saloni Desai, President of Art Foundry International. “The images, such as the wood bark and moss-covered tree trunk, have a natural, textured feel, so they were looking for the right paper to highlight that.”

Art Foundry International produced about 300 framed prints on Sunset Photo Canvas Paper with the company’s inkjet printer at sizes such as 20″ x 34″, 34″ x 22″, 22″ x 35″, and 11″ x 11″.

“LexJet’s new canvas paper allows me to enhance the vision even further by really bringing my photography and artwork to life and giving it a lot of depth. It mimics a real canvas painting, which really helps hit a home run with the customization aspect. I am very pleased with the innovative quality of this paper and look forward to marketing the exclusivity I can offer my clients for their projects. The feedback we’ve heard from this project is that the pictures look so real they make you want to walk up to the frame and actually touch it, expecting to feel the tree bark’s texture,” says Desai.

Art Foundry International designs, interprets, creates, develops and distributes a diverse portfolio of artistically inspired products as a result of relationships with artists and designers globally.

The company markets these creations to its customers and clients, presenting value and beauty in the form of unique commercial, hospitality, and residential designer products.

A major part of Art Foundry’s decor furnishings business revolves around its custom framed artwork and mirrors that complements the design in each unique space.