Spectra Imaging Prints a Giant Fleur de Lis for an Awards Show

LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl SUV

The icon for this year’s annual Greater Louisville Inc.  (GLI) Inc.credible Awards was the venerable and versatile fleur-de-lis.

While it may look great on a football helmet or atop a standard, it was not only used as a logo, but as an on-stage backdrop for the small business awards gala held to honor the winners on Sept. 12.

Spectra Imaging Print on LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl SUVRendered at around 10 feet high for the banquet, the fleur-de-lis icon would not be applied to a conveniently smooth and flat surface. Instead, the backdrop would be built with 36 frosted plexiglass panels, all brought together into one framework unit.

GLI turned to one of its sponsors, Spectra Imaging, to see if a giant version of its fleur-de-lis could be somehow applied to the backdrop.

The solution was to print the entire graphic on LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl SUV – Gloss (5 Mil), laminate it with a textured pressure-sensitive vinyl, send the file to Spectra’s automated cutter/router to cut out the individual panels and adhere each of those graphic panels to a plexiglass panel using a laminator.

“We had a mockup of the piece for reference, and after the graphics had been applied to the panels we numbered the back of each panel, including the blank panels,” says Spectra Imaging founder and CEO Brian Rogers. “We also included a sticker on the back of each panel that indicated where the top of each panel. That way, when they put it all together on the stage they wouldn’t waste any time trying to figure out how each panel was supposed to go into the framework.”

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.”

Printing the Town’s Grocery Store at Spectra Imaging

Inkjet Wall Mural

Spectra Imaging in Louisville, Ky., has a way with walls. When the opportunity to provide wall graphics rolls around, as it does quite a bit, Spectra Imaging takes it to the next level.

One of Spectra’s most recent projects involved turning blank walls into a grocery store for Junior Achievement’s BizTown in Louisville.

BizTown is a 7,000 square foot town where kids learn about life in the real world, like budgeting and finance, as they buy goods and save their money at the local “bank.”

Inkjet Wall GraphicsKroger sponsored two rooms and sent Spectra Imaging photos taken at one of their stores to replicate on the walls. Spectra put the files together to create one seamless image that would cover the walls from floor to ceiling in both rooms. Spectra also routed out dimensional letters and logos for the rooms.

“The walls are fairly textured so I asked my LexJet rep, Sammi Calabrese, what would work best. She told me that an adhesive vinyl would be more likely to peel off the walls, so she recommended we use something designed for rough and textured walls,” says Brian Rogers, owner of Spectra Imaging. “The project turned out really cool.”

Spectra used LexJet Simple MTS Adhesive Vinyl for the application. Simple MTS Vinyl has a more aggressive adhesive for textured walls and surfaces that don’t form a secure bond with conventional removable adhesives. The vinyl can also be easily removed for up to a year after installation.

Practical and Promotional Window Graphics

Window Graphics by Spectra Imaging on LexJet Vinyl

It’s always nice when you can kill two proverbial birds with one proverbial stone. In the case pictured here, the stone used was LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl SUV – Gloss, and it was thrown, so to speak, by Spectra Imaging, Louisville, Ky.

The practical issue Spectra Imaging set to solve for this Kroger wine and spirits store was to hide the wine racks that sit across the windows. It’s just not a particularly pleasing presentation.

Applying Vinyl Window GraphicsBrian Rogers, owner of Spectra Imaging, says when the stores first started opening a few years ago the windows were covered in black window tint to hide the racks. The problem with that was that it appeared the store was closed, at least to the casual passerby.

Spectra Imaging did a test project in Lexington shortly thereafter, and it solved all the problems: it hid the racks and brought more business in the doors. “The first week after we put the graphics up in Lexington my contact there said sales went up about 37 percent. We’ve produced several window graphics for them since then.”

This is the latest version, found in La Grange, Ky. Rogers said he chose to use an opaque vinyl, rather than perforated window vinyl since you can still see the racks at night with the lights from the store backlighting them.

“This store was brand new and the windows weren’t tinted, so all you saw were the back of the racks. To get the project started I took a picture of the windows, came back into Photoshop, dropped the images into the windows and emailed it to them,” explains Rogers. “If they want to make changes I can do that in Photoshop quickly. Then, when they sign off on the design, we lay out the panels, print them and laminate them. It took us about six and a half hours to apply the panels.”

An Inkjet Wrap with Dimension that Hides and Promotes

Down One Bourbon Louisville Graphics by Spectra Imaging

Spectra Imaging, Louisville, Ky., is always on the lookout for a challenge. As owner Brian Rogers puts it: “Those are the projects we love to get; the ones that make you think and find new and different ways to make it successful.”

In the case pictured here, the challenge was turning an eyesore into something both pleasing and promotional for a restaurant/bar called Down One Bourbon Bar. Located at the ground floor of an upscale hotel in Louisville, the covered outdoor seating area had an industrial feel with a yellow generator dominating the scene.

Down One Bourbon asked Spectra Imaging to transform the space into something unique and inviting. Working from a file supplied by Down One Bourbon’s ad agency, Spectra Imaging wrapped the generator with LexJet Simple Adhesive Vinyl SUV – Gloss (5 Mil) and laminated it with D&K 6 Mil UV Textured Vinyl PSA from LexJet.

Spectra Imaging Generator Wrap for Down One BourbonIt was a fairly time-consuming process as Spectra Imaging had to ensure the integrity of the generator, meticulously cutting around and wrapping the access door, panels and louvers.

The coup de grace on the project was the illusion of bourbon flowing out of the top barrel and splashing down on the bench. Spectra Imaging routed the flow of bourbon out of 1/4″ acrylic and applied LexJet 9 Mil Opaque Display Film to the back of it with LexJet GraphicMount Clear Adhesive. And since it’s located in the “zone of destruction” it was further backed with the textured laminate.

The individual drops that fly off the splash were included in the main graphic panel since those pieces were too small to route out individually.  “We drilled three small holes, put spacers behind it and screwed those into the generator offset about 1 3/4” so it gives the illusion that it’s away from the graphics and coming out of the barrel,” adds Rogers.

A Professional Showroom that Sells at Spectra Imaging

Spectra Imaging Showroom

When opportunity knocks Spectra Imaging’s owner, Brian Rogers, answers. Rogers has had his eye on a space adjacent to Spectra Imaging’s offices and production facility for the past couple of years and when it became available he jumped on it.

It's a natural progression from Spectra Imaging's new showroom into the conference room.
It’s a natural progression from Spectra Imaging’s new showroom into the conference room.

“The area is perfect for a showroom because it naturally leads into our conference room. Our sales staff can take clients through the showroom first and then go into the conference room for a meeting,” says Rogers. “People are so visual and if you have the products set up then they sell themselves a lot easier than simply showing them photographs of your work.”

The makeover was simple: they took the doors off the hinges, replaced the carpet and painted the walls to match the rest of Spectra Imaging’s interior. The overall effect is professional, which is exactly how Spectra Imaging prefers to position itself, and happens to be how it operates as well.

Spectra Imaging's lobby is tastefully decorated, providing a professional atmosphere in which to conduct business.
Spectra Imaging’s lobby is tastefully decorated, providing a professional atmosphere in which to conduct business.

Spectra Imaging is tastefully decorated, as you can see in the photos, while it promotes its work through well-conceived pieces, from the displays in the showroom to the inkjet-printed images in the conference room, as well as framed pieces touting the company’s recognition from both inside and outside the industry.

Rogers reports that the showroom has more than its duty and exceeded expectations as far as generating interest, and ultimately, sales. The key is to set it up so that it makes sense. In other words, there’s a natural progression from one display to the next so that potential clients see options from good to best to meet their needs from both a budgetary and messaging standpoint.

Of course you can’t show everything, particularly those larger projects that would take up the entire space if they were replicated in the showroom. However, and perhaps most importantly, it shows the variety of inkjet materials and finishes on which their graphics can be printed.