Video Tip: Install Floor Graphics Using the Hinge Method

Floor graphics are becoming more popular in retail spaces, with new products that make installation as easy as 1, 2, 3: print, peel and stick.

In the video above, we demonstrate an easy hinge method to keep the graphic in place while you apply it to the floor. All you’ll need is your printed graphic, painters tape, a squeegee and a pair of scissors.

To install the graphic, simply:

  • place the graphic where you want it
  • create a hinge in the center of the graphic
  • peel the liner away from the top hinge and trim it off
  • squeegee the exposed adhesive from the center out
  • remove hinge and repeat those steps on the bottom half of the graphic

LexJet offers a variety of products that work with this quick and easy method. They include:

LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric: Photographic image quality with high ink saturation

LexJet Solvent Print-N-Stick Fabric: Smoother weave with satin sheen for photographic detail

panoRama Walk & Wall: Slip-resistant certified without a laminate

LexJet Simple Indoor FloorAd: Durable solution that can withstand heavy floor traffic

LexJet Extreme AquaVinyl w/PSA: Long-lasting, waterproof with permanent adhesive

Photo Tex PSA Fabric – Aqueous: Won’t rip, wrinkle or shrink

Photo Tex PSA Fabric – Solvent: Great for windows and walls, too

Get Inspired: 10 of Our Favorite Customer Projects of 2015

Throughout the year, we’ve been awed and inspired by the innovative work our customers have created: from wall murals and tote bags to gallery exhibits and social statements. As the year draws to a close, we’ve been reflecting on some of our favorites, and thought we’d share them with you again. While there were many more excellent projects that we featured over the year, here are 10 of the blogs we thought our readers would enjoy revisiting as much as we did:

6 FInishedChurch’s Sleek New Student Center: Clear Lake Press transformed St. Thomas More Catholic Newman Center in the Minnesota State University Campus’ student center into a fun gathering spot. “It was one of those projects, when it started, I was extremely nervous about it,” says Eric Erickson, who used LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric for the wall mural. “All of those nerves were laid to rest as we were installing it.

Lending a Hand to Contemporary Arts

CoCA featured image
The Center on Contemporary Art’s opening reception for “Change-Seed: Contemporary Art from Hong Kong and Beyond.” Photo credit: Annie Lukin

 

In late March, the Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle, Wash., opened a ground-breaking exhibit called Change-Seed, featuring a group of Hong Kong-based contemporary artists. The show, which runs through May 15, 2015, is a mixture of edgy prints, mixed media and video installations.

Although Hong Kong is a financial mecca for well-known artists, the lesser-known artists have very limited visibility, says Nichole DeMent, CoCA’s executive director.

“When we put the call out, we said to the artists: Let us be your voice,” DeMent says. “Let us tell your story that you weren’t able to tell in China.”

So CoCA curated an eclectic mix of art projects and asked the artists to send in digital files. CoCA then turned to Rock’s Studio, a fine art digital print service provider in Seattle. Stephen Rock, a multifaceted artist himself, contacted LexJet about the project, in hopes to acquire media to print the photographic works on.

Rock used Photo Tex, a printable self-adhesive polyester fabric, for large-scale prints, such as Laurent Segretier‘s “Untitled 17,” a 72-by-95-inch collage of what looks to be a cliff under construction, lined with vulnerable bamboo scaffolding. “It’s a big, gritty, dirty-looking print,” Rock says. He increased the scale of the artist’s work, which had several cut-out pieces around the print’s edges, which Rock decided to honor, creating a funky, urban piece.

“Since we had no budget to frame and mount these pieces, I suggested Photo Tex,” Rock says. “We can go really big with it and put the print right on the wall.”

He used his HP Designjet Z3100 printer (now available in the Z3200 model) for the prints. “HP just works so great on this material,” he says.

Change_Seed_Install__NCD9225
Photography installations by artist Laurent Segretier: “Untitled 7,” “Untitled 15,” “Untitled 17” and “Untitled 24.”

 

Rock printed other photographic installations on Sunset Velvet Rag 315g. “As a printmaker, I just cringe at having to print big black areas on matte paper,” he says. “Any mishandling and those flat matte areas are prone to flaking. But with the Sunset Rag, it was like: Wow, these are deep and black and matte. They looked really sharp.”

Images in the prints included “Untitled 15,” objects wrapped with black trash bags and “Untitled 24,” an unidentifiable but intriguing image — guesses as to what it is range from rotting fabric to a dead insect.

“What are these guys trying to say, culture-wise,” Rock ponders. “Is it about consumption? There are so many layers and mystery. It’s very appropriate that they left it undefined.”

CoCA was thrilled to be a part of the dialog. “The artists appreciated the opportunity to have their work seen,” DeMent says. “It took them coming across the world to make that happen.”

Rock says he often does what he calls “benevolent printing” for projects like this, using as high-quality media as he has access to. “I don’t do cheap printing,” he says. “And thank you to LexJet, too, for helping. That’s what makes these shows work.”

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Yael Bronner Rubin’s “Connecting to the Spirits,” printed on Sunset Velvet Rag 315g.

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.”

Securing Valuable Advertising Space with Removable Wall Graphics

Inkjet Printed Wall Mural

The name of the game in the beverage distribution business is branding and securing as much space as possible to advertise the brands at the point of sale, whether it’s in a beverage center, a bar or any other place that sells beer.

Inkjet Printed GraphicsOne of the hurdles to overcome when it comes to plastering an establishment’s walls with branding is the potential damage adhesive-backed graphics can do to it. One solution is Photo Tex from LexJet, a repositionable and removable printable fabric.

In the case pictured here, that’s what sold the job promoting Brown’s Brewing Company and Angry Orchard. The owner of the beverage center expanded his office, creating new walls that screamed out for branding.

Seeing an opportunity, DeCrescente Distributing proposed wall graphics. The owner hesitated, concerned about the potential damage to the wall.

“We proposed using Photo Tex, and explained that it would come off the wall easily without damaging it or leaving residue behind. That’s a big selling point for us,” says James Lane, DeCrescente graphic designer. “It also applies a lot easier than a typical adhesive-backed vinyl. It’s been up for a few weeks and we expect it will be up for a long time.”

Wall Graphics for Angry OrchardAs you can see from the photos, the design the DeCrescente graphics team came up with printed flawlessly on the print shop’s Epson GS6000 low-solvent printer, and provides an almost three-dimensional illusion of walking toward an actual brewery as you saunter down the aisle.

The new wall mural also promotes the growler taps that protrude from the office wall. Lane says that was an important element the customer wanted to highlight.

“One of the reasons he extended his office was so he could have keg coolers in there with the taps coming out of the outside wall. People can come in and fill up their growlers with the beer specials of the day listed on the white board, which is what he has on tap,” adds Lane.

Color Services Inspires with a Unique Photo Collage Wall Mural Print

Wall Mural Collage by Color Services

“We try to connect with people, inspire them, and figure out different ways they can live with their photos,” says Gabe Cano, co-owner of Color Services in Santa Barbara, Calif.

The guiding principle at Color Services is not simply photo reproduction for its clientele, which is mainly retail but also includes a healthy dose of photographers and artists. Instead, Color Services finds unique ways to produce and display images. Cano calls it “specialty retail,” since much of what they produce is more than just 4×5 or 8×10 reproductions.

Collage Close-UpA recent point of inspiration is the wall of photos Color Services created for its lobby. Originally, the lobby featured a number of prints mounted to Gator Foam that covered the wall. Cano wanted to update the wall and create something that was different, impactful and inspirational.

Cano gathered photos taken by friends and the staff at Color Services, and laid out the approximately 3,000 photos in InDesign. The final collage design was printed on Photo Tex from LexJet with a Canon iPF8300 44″ inkjet printer in about 12 panels, and applied to the wall.

“The impact has been insane. The wall treatment we had before was one thing, but this really draws a lot of attention. They got lost in the photos, way more than they did before,” says Cano. “We’ve found that many our clients who see it want to do something similar, or put their own spin on it.”

Photo Wall MuralFor instance, Cano took that concept and applied it to a 25-year portrait photo retrospective that local portrait photographer Stephanie Baker is putting together. Cano created a mockup on a partial wall at Color Services’ studio to show Baker how it would look.

“She freaked; this is exactly what she wants to do. Now she’s looking for a space to exhibit it. She has 20,000 to 30,000 portraits from over the years and wants to completely wallpaper a gallery space with this retrospective,” says Cano.