5 Creative & Inspiring 2018 Customer Projects

Every year, we look back on the innovative work our customers have created, and we’re never anything less than amazed. This year has been no different. Take a look back through five of the coolest projects our customers printed for their customers in 2018.

Reproducing Art for a Good Cause at A-R-T & Associates Each year, Ronald McDonald House Charities and Coca-Cola Company commission an art partner to create an original painting that is auctioned during a fundraising event to raise money for the charity, which provides housing for a family while a child is receiving life-saving care at hospitals around the country. This year, A-R-T & Associates won the bid to do the poster printing. Check out how they created this year’s super cool poster using LexJet TRIBUTE Satin Photo Paper 240g. READ MORE

Printer Challenge: Reproduce the 30-foot Painting, African Menagerie Christopher Glassman, general partner at Casual Graphics in Hays, Kan., was asked to reproduce an enormous painting by Brian Jarvi titled “African Menagerie.” The painting, which captures 210 species living in Africa now, was 17 years in the making. It’s been part of a traveling exhibit and Jarvi wanted a more manageable version for smaller venues, as well as prints for reproductions. Check out how the Casual Graphics team made it happen. READ MORE

LexJet Print-N-Stick: Encouraging Students to Explore the World Year after year, LexJet Print-N-Stick Fabric continues to be a customer favorite, especially for temporary wall murals. Elementary school teacher Rachel Montisano is thrilled with the results of the images on Print-N-Stick and says that the size and scope of the graphics played a huge part in bringing the environments to life in her classroom, which continue to generate excitement and learning among the students. READ MORE

HP Adhesive Vinyl Case Studies: ‘The Best We’ve Ever Used’ Whenever we launch a new product, our hope is that customers gain the most value possible from it, and the new line of HP Adhesive Vinyl did not disappoint for AlphaGraphics in Rexburg, Idaho, who used HP Prime Gloss Air GP and the Polymeric Matte Overlaminate to create a wall mural that was full of detailed text, spot-on colors, and multiple image depths. READ MORE

Listen Up: Before & After Acoustic Sound Panels + EnduraFab OK, we admit it — we’re suckers for musicians, but that doesn’t take anything away from the cool acoustic panels that Ryan Moore, Vice President of DFMGraphics in Newnan, Ga., made using EnduraFab™ Frontlit Premier and Rockwool acoustic boards. You can even hear the difference in the sound files Moore recorded. READ MORE

Do you have print projects that you’d like to share with the LexJet blog? Email us your story!

Capturing and Printing Wildlife for Charity

Limited edition coffee table book
This photo, featured in Brian Hampton's book, Captured I: Africa, was the 2008 Grand Prize winner of the annual Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Award. Book photo by Nels Akerlund Photography.

Brian Hampton’s coffee table books are much more than just coffee table books; they’re works of art that benefit four worthy charities: the Rochester, Minn. chapter of the Ronald McDonald House; Carpenter’s Place in Rockford, Ill.; the Salvation Army; and Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in the Everglades.

The books – Captured I: Africa and Captured II: Everglades – are the culmination of Hampton’s global wildlife photography, meticulously captured, printed on LexJet Sunset Photo eSatin Paper, bound and packaged.

Both are available in 12″ x 12″ and 18″ x 18″ sizes, which retail for $1,895 and $2,500 respectively. There are only 15 copies of the 18″ x 18″ version available.

Printing a coffee table book
Brian Hampton prints the coffee table book's pages three-up on LexJet Sunset Photo eSatin Paper.

“I don’t make a profit on the books, nor do I want to: 40 percent goes to the causes and the rest goes toward helping me recover my costs on the project. I want to raise as much money as I can for those organizations,” explains Hampton. “The books are printed using the highest quality printers, either a Canon iPF8300 or an Epson 9900 through ImagePrint RIP software, on Sunset Photo eSatin Paper. I like detail. For that reason a glossy paper would be my favorite for detail, but it falls short because it’s generally too touchy; it can show a dimple or wrinkle so you have to be very careful handling it. Sunset Photo eSatin shows very good detail, and it’s a friendlier to handle.”

Everglades coffee table bookHampton prints the pages and sends them to Mel Englander, Englander Studios in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to be bound and packaged. The books come in a velvet case inside a black box, to which Hampton applies the book cover image, printed on Photo Tex from LexJet.

A successful entrepreneur and corporate turn-around artist who has been CEO of five companies over the past 40 years, his success in business allowed him to pursue two of his favorite pastimes – photography and philanthropy – and then blend both with the creation of his wildlife photography books.

“When I first started shooting I began with an area in the Everglades where we have a home. I bought a digital camera and started taking pictures of wildlife, mostly birds at first. Six years later I had a little over 20,000 images, and in between that time my wife and I took several trips to Africa. I got more involved in wildlife photography and my wife got into HD video production,” explains Hampton. “I produced the Africa book first and then began working on the Everglades book. At the same time I began thinking about ways to raise money for non-profit organizations.”

Africa coffee table bookOne of Hampton’s shots from Africa, which captures a lioness charging through the water on its way to a kill, was the 2008 Grand Prize winner of the annual Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards, for which it was featured in a special exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. that same year.

Hampton is working on a third book based on his travels to Alaska. Hampton says he has 50-60 images that are “book-worthy,” and he would like to take a photography trip in the winter to capture the unique snow-covered beauty of Alaska and its wildlife that time of year.

Alaska coffee table book
Brian Hampton is working on a third book documenting his trips to Alaska.

Hampton adds that perhaps the most difficult aspect of producing the books was choosing from the literally tens of thousands of images he’s captured over the years. When Hampton is out in the field, he shoots with a Canon 1-series professional camera with “L” glass. As he puts it: “I only shoot with the best possible equipment from the best possible locations. The nature of photography, especially wildlife photography, is that you have very little time to capture the perfect moment so you had better be prepared.”

For more information about the limited-edition, custom books and the charities they support, go to store.brianhamptonphotography.com.