Printing for Dew Downtown Flagstaff: Year Two for Nackard Companies

Graphics and signs for special events
Dew Downtown Flagstaff was a huge success and Nackard Companies, a regional beverage distributor, pitched in with most of the signs and graphics for the event. Photo by Rick Eselgroth.

When you organize a big special event for the first time it’s a nail-biting white-knuckle ride from concept to completion. While the inaugural year may appear to be the most difficult, an event’s sophomore year may actually be the most difficult, particularly if that first event was successful.

In the case of Dew Downtown Flagstaff, success from its first year would breed a more ambitious approach to the second annual event, which took place earlier this month. One of the key players in both the inaugural and sophomore events was Nackard Companies, a regional beverage distributor, and its always-busy print shop.

Signs and graphics for a special event
Nackard Companies' print shop, led by Steve Lalio, also produced signs, table tents, flyers and banners for surrounding bars and businesses.

Nackard Companies P.O.P. shop manager Steve Lalio was knee deep in signage in the months leading up to Dew Downtown Flagstaff since his shop was in charge of most of the event graphics. As the event grew from last year, so too did Lalio’s responsibilities.

Dew Downtown Flagstaff brings terrain park skiing and snowboarding down from the mountains and into the city of Flagstaff, Ariz. The main event takes place on San Francisco Street in Flagstaff with a series of rails and jumps all the way down, including the centerpiece of the competitive ride, two super-sized Mountain Dew can course obstacles created by the Nackard Companies print shop.

While both “cans” were printed on and wrapped with LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene, one was laminated and the other given a polyurethane coating. It was a test of sorts for future events: which would take the abuse as competitors hucked, slashed and crashed into and onto the cans?

In the end, the polyurethane-coated graphics fared best, but were still sufficiently marred that the can can’t be used again at next year’s event. Ultimately, there is no way to make the graphics ski/snowboard-proof as competitors slice and dice their way through the obstacles. However, if you know of a better way to protect the graphics from the ravages of snowbound competitors, let us know about it.

Printing specialty graphics for an event
The Mountain Dew can that was part of the ski and snowboard course on San Francisco Street in Flagstaff printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene by Nackard Companies' print shop.

Nackard Companies produced a variety of banners, window signs and other event signage for the main venue as well as the various special event and promotion tents, such as the areas promoting Mountain Dew Kickstart and New Belgium beers, and surrounding bars.

For the bulk of the graphics surrounding the event, Lalio printed LexJet 8 Mil PolyGloss Banner, LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Polypropylene and LexJet TOUGHcoat Self Adhesive Water-Resistant Polypropylene, laminated with either LexJet 3 Mil Gloss UV Premium Low Melt or LexJet 3 Mil Luster Standard Low Melt, depending on the application.

A Pot of Point of Sale Gold

Point of sale window display

What’s the point of point-of-sale advertising? As the term “point-of-sale” implies, it’s to drive more sales. In the beer market, there are a number of ways to do that, whether it’s focusing on pricing, special promotions or branding.

For Tennyson Lacasio, print shop manager for Colonial Wholesale Beverage in North Dartmouth, Mass., it’s all about driving sales with displays that make potential customers stop, look, think and buy.

The project pictured here for Landry’s Liquors did exactly that as part of last year’s St. Patrick’s Day promotion for beers brewed by Diageo: Guinness Draught, Guinness Extra Stout and Smithwick’s Ale.

“Those three front windows face the main road, so you can’t help but notice the display. There were people stopping by just to look at the sign, which brought Landry’s more business for those brands,” says Lacasio. “They kept the display up through July 4 because it was getting so much attention and the owner said the sales of those brands went up. It was definitely an impact display and high-quality advertising for the store itself.”

The display was created in three panels for each of the front windows, printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene, applied to Coroplast and laminated with LexJet 3 Mil Matte UV Standard Low Melt laminate.

“We didn’t have to wrap the laminate around the edges of the Coroplast since the panels are placed inside the window and there’s no danger of moisture getting in between the laminate and the print. The matte is popular because it cuts down on the glare so you don’t lose the image from different perspectives,” explains Lacasio.

Lacasio adds that this is one of the most intricate designs he’s created, especially when it came to finding and working with all the different varieties of leprechauns from which to choose.

“I found that there were two basic types of leprechauns: cartoon and scary. We obviously went with the cartoon style. From there, I had to find those that matched from a compositional style and then properly crop and size them so they fit with the overall design,” explains Lacasio.

LexJet Introduces Versatile New Polypropylene Blockout Media

Polypropylene inkjet media for displaysLexJet introduces two new lay-flat polypropylene inkjet printable materials that have a gray back coat for added opacity: LexJet 11 Mil Blockout PolyGloss and LexJet 11 Mil Blockout Water-Resistant Polypropylene.

Both can be used as a cost-effective alternative to the typical polyester inkjet materials for trade show and in-store point-of-purchase graphics, as well as long-term indoor banners and short-term outdoor banners.

“We already offer a fantastic water-resistant polypropylene, but our customers were looking for something more opaque that wouldn’t allow as much light to shine through the back and detract from their graphics,” says Jeff Leto, LexJet’s product manager. “The great thing about the new blockout polypropylene materials is that you can use them for practically any type of display graphics applications.”

The water-resistant materials have a bright-white inkjet-receptive coating that yields additional color and contrast. LexJet 11 Mil Blockout PolyGloss is compatible with aqueous inkjet printers and LexJet 11 Mil Blockout Water-Resistant Polypropylene is compatible with aqueous and latex inkjet printers.

Both blockout polypropylene materials are available in 24″ x 75′, 36″ x 75′, 42″ x 75′, 50″ x 75′ and 60″ x 75′ rolls. For more information and to order, contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538. To find out more about these new blockout polypropylene materials, check out the video embedded below…

Printing Branding Backgrounds for Beers

Wall murals and graphics for stores

The cooler wrap is tried and true for selling beer at the point of sale. It becomes even truer when you can translate it to any room in the house, so to speak, and create a branding background that gives your brand the highest visibility.

Printing wall murals for store signageTennyson Lacasio, sign shop manager at Colonial Beverage in North Dartmouth, Mass., took the inkjet printed cooler wrap to the next level with two recent projects at local liquor stores. Both projects were printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene and laminated with LexJet 3 Mil Matte UV Standard Low Melt.

Lacasio says he laminated the prints first (each project had anywhere from three to 12 printed panels) then applied the laminated pieces to Coroplast. This method helped hide the ridges that normally show through when you apply the print material directly to Coroplast before laminating.

“When you run print material through the laminator directly to Coroplast it bonds so closely that it shows the creases in the Coroplast. When I laminated the material first, it gave it a nice, fine, seamless finish,” says Lacasio.

Inkjet printed wall muralsAlso seamless was the paneling, particularly on the Blue Moon background display. Lacasio says this was mostly due to the fact that the wall he applied the panels to in the new building was perfectly square. Moreover, and most importantly, this 12′ x 19′ Blue Moon mural did its job rather effectively.

“You see it right off the bat when you walk into the store. The walls are light blue, which complements the graphic and draws your eye to the back of the store. The owner just wanted to do one brand, which allows you to focus on the strong points of the brand,” says Lacasio. “The image is not pixilated at all and it’s very impressive to stand right in front of it. After we installed it, people were walking out of the store with Blue Moon and they commented on the enticing feel of the image.”

As per usual Lacasio paid special attention to brand details in the designs, including such minutia as the types of glasses in which you serve the beers.

The other two wall murals – featuring Coors Light, Miller Lite and Leinenkugel’s – are on either side of a walk-in cooler door. The Coors Light mural, themed as an American fall, is 8′ x 13′. The Miller Lite/Leinenkugel’s mural, themed as a German Oktoberfest, is 8′ x 10′.

“Fortunately, they’re placing a minimal amount of cases at each display and replenishing them regularly so that you can see most of the display from just about anywhere in the store,” says Lacasio. “I had huge canvases to work from, which makes all the difference in wall branding graphics.”

Selling Beer with Banner Stands

Printing banners for banner standsThere are a million and one ways to promote beer (or anything else for that matter) at the point of sale, but one way that’s often overlooked is the use of a simple retractable banner stand.

“They’re lightweight, portable and collapsible so that it’s easy for our account reps to take the banner stands from one place to another,” says Bob Korabek, POS designer for Caffey Distributing in Greensboro, N.C. “They’re also great for tight spaces. You can utilize them in small areas, like c-stores, where you can put them next to a beer display. And, since it’s retractable, you can also create a smaller banner that’s not as high if ceiling space is an issue.”

Korabek recently completed a couple of winning projects using retractable banner stands. One was a promotion for Blue Moon, which was tied into today’s (Aug. 31) astronomical event called, coincidentally, a blue moon (click here for another project with the blue moon promotional tie-in).

Using banner stands for point of sale displaysThe other banner was designed to be displayed in the entrance to sports bars, featuring the 2012 Carolina Panthers schedule. Since the schedule goes through the end of the year, it’s a perfect relatively long-term promotion that puts Miller front and center at least through December.

“For shorter promotions we can easily take out the previous promotion and re-use them for another one,” explains Korabek. “I just use the usual LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Polypropylene that I get from LexJet for all my banners and apply Heavy Duty Banner Tape on the edges of the tall sides to strengthen the edges and prevent long-term curling possibilities.”

LexJet carries a full line of banner stands for any budget and any application. Here are three to check out initially:

XStand: Available in 24.5″ x 63.5″, 26.5″ x 71″ and 32.5″ x 71″ fits the bill for a cost-effective, lightweight indoor display. Click here to see the demonstration video.

MediaScreen 1: Available in 33 7/16″, 39 3/8″ and 60″ widths, this more-durable banner stand also includes a lifetime warranty and the telescoping pole adjusts the height from 63″ to 88 5/8″. Click here to view the demonstration video.

MediaScreen 3: Available in a 33 7/16″ width, this banner stand features changeable graphic cassettes so you can change the message in seconds, a lifetime warranty, a base that compensates for uneven floors, and more. Click here to see the demonstration video.

For all of the Display Hardware demonstration and how-to videos at LexJet’s YouTube channel, click here. And, if you’d like to read more about banner stand applications, tips on production and the right banner stand for the job, download LexJet’s educational white paper, Making the Most of Banner Stands, at www.lexjet.com/banner-stand-white-paper.aspx.

And, as always, if you need any additional help or information, contact a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538. Happy Labor Day weekend!

Step Back in Time with a Printed Cooler Wrap

Vintage London tavern design

Give the people what they want is an excellent phrase to keep in mind when you’re designing anything. In the case of Douglas Liquors in North Attleboro, Mass., the owner – who happens to be English – wanted to immerse his customers in a traditional London tavern.

Printing a themed cooler wrapColonial Beverage’s sign shop manager, Tennyson Lacasio, was happy to oblige. Lacasio did some research and brought all the elements of a vintage pub to the fore: stone walls, barrels, candle and lantern lighting, and so forth.

The tricky part is combining a themed décor-like cooler wrap with the necessary branding. And, as you can see by the design and the accompanying photos, Lacasio expertly and seamlessly worked the beers Colonial Beverage sells into the picture.

Branding and advertising at the point of sale“The only things I snuck in that were modern were the Blue Moon and Coors neon signs, but all the other brands were given a more vintage, aged look. Still, those neon signs worked well and did not distract from the theme, and that was most important to the owner,” says Lacasio.

The 44.5″ x 46′ cooler wrap was printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polypropylene, laminated with LexJet 3 Mil Matte UV Standard Low Melt, and applied to Coroplast.