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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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A Million and One Uses for Photo Tex Repositionable Fabric

Printing home decor with an inkjet printer

Okay. So the headline is a bit of an exaggeration. Still, print shops are finding various unorthodox ways of using Photo Tex Repositionable Fabric from LexJet.

Printing office and home decor with an inkjet printer
It looks real, but it's printed on Photo Tex and leads visitors to Spectra Imaging to find out more.

Brian Rogers, founder and CEO of Spectra Imaging in Louisville, Ky., recently took Photo Tex for a spin in his newly remodeled kitchen. A long-time user of the aqueous version of the material for commercial projects, Rogers started using the solvent version when he added solvent printers to the production mix this year.

“We love the solvent version because it’s more durable, and the color and saturation we get from it is superb,” says Rogers.

The idea to cover his kitchen walls with “slate” printed on Photo Tex was born of necessity and the intriguing faux environment he could create. Following the remodel, Rogers found that the kitchen would need to be re-painted. Instead of painting, Rogers decided to give the kitchen the custom wallpaper treatment with Photo Tex.

Printing corporate advertising
Spectra Imaging founder and CEO Brian Rogers says the graphics on these columns, printed on Photo Tex, were so seamless that passersby thought they were painted.

“We’ve done several bedrooms and a den with the same material and the applications have been remarkable,” says Rogers. “Photo Tex is very easy to work with and applying it is a breeze.”

As shown in the photos, Spectra Imaging has done a number of wall-oriented projects for its customers.

Spectra Imaging also features Photo Tex in its lobby and conference room. The larger-than-life images turn heads and lead to sales for similar applications.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles, Marketing & Sales
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Promotions that Work: Free Fabric Wall Clings

Printing mobile photo apps for wall decorFree isn’t always truly free, but the free giveaway concocted by Color Services Photo Lab in Santa Barbara really was free and drove additional business to its doors. Marketed through email, the company’s blog and social media like Facebook and Twitter, with a twist of Hipstamatic, the photo lab’s promotion for free Fabric Wall Clings was over Memorial Day weekend only.

Fabric Wall Clings are prints on Photo Tex Repositionable Fabric from LexJet. Those who took advantage of the promotion were directed to the Wall Art section on Color Services’ website where they plugged in a coupon code and uploaded a photo to receive either an 11×11 or an 11×14 print.

Here’s where the iPhone app Hipstamatic comes into play; Color Services included 11×11 prints since that size works with the Hipstamatic format. Plus, Color Services is the official print lab for the Hipstamatic app, so the lab has custom-tailored products that work well with square images.

“Since the promotion we’ve had a number of orders for the Fabric Wall Clings and we just got a sizeable order for one today, including a 12″ x 4′ panoramic photo. We had 118 people take advantage of the promotion and about 45 to 50 of those were shipped internationally,” says Glen Hodges, owner of Color Services. “It was well worth it; we probably spent less than $500 to do it. It’s hard to figure out a way to market the material so that people can really understand what it can do. Getting samples in their hands through a free promotion did that, and brought them back to place a real order.”

Color Services prints the images with its Epson Stylus Pro 9900 on Photo Tex and then puts two coats of water-based lacquer to provide extra protection and give the images more pop. Hodges reports that through a combination of the promotion and simply showing it to clients – including commercial and interior décor clientele – the product is taking off following its launch in mid-May.

Pictured here is Color Services’ IncrediBooth Fabric Wall Cling product, which is printed at 5.5″ x 30″. IncrediBooth is a mobile app that recreates the photo booths of yore. Color Services has made a savvy play to weave the proliferating photo apps into its business, giving the company greater reach with creative products.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Deck the Walls and LexJet Team up for Extreme Home Makeover Wall Mural

Printing wall murals for Extreme Makeover: Home EditionThe last time we talked to Chris Knight, owner of Deck the Walls in Joplin, Mo., he was doing his part to help replace priceless keepsake photos residents of the town lost during the horrific day an EF5 multiple-vortex tornado brought vast destruction to Joplin this past May.

Knight got another chance to donate to the cause when Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EM:HE) came to town to build seven homes for seven families. Knight volunteered on the website to help if any printing was needed for the project.

However, it wasn’t the website inquiry that attracted EM:HE to his print shop. EM:HE project manager Bill Crowley happened by Deck the Walls and noticed the sign on the shop’s truck. So, he walked in and discussed a project at one of the homes that seemed to be right up Deck the Wall’s alley, a Denver Broncos wall mural in Home 7 (Knight doesn’t know which family will be in Home 7).

“I wish it was Kansas City,” Knight sighs, “even though they’re not playing well either. Extreme Makeover had the Denver Broncos contact us and send us some images and the Extreme Makeover crew ended up choosing the bird’s eye view of the stadium so it looks like you can walk into the picture.”

Applying custom inkjet printed wallpaper to a wallLexJet donated a roll of LexJet Velvet WallPro SUV to the cause, which Knight printed on his Epson GS6000 low-solvent printer, which he bought from LexJet in late July.

“I love the new Epson printer and it’s helped expand our business into other commercial work with banners, adhesive backed vinyl and the WallPro. The WallPro printed great; it looked like it did on the monitor to the printer. When I bought printer I also got the Onyx RIP software to go with it so I can be more accurate with color management,” says Knight.

The image was printed in two 48” panels with no overlap and installed by professional paper hangers who volunteered for the project. Though it may seem out of place in Missouri it will surely make someone devastated by the tornadoes happy.

The episode of Extreme Home Makeover: Home Edition featuring Joplin is scheduled to run later this fall on ABC. For more information about the project and the families, go to www.joinextreme.com/joplin.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Inkjet Printed Wall Murals Communicate and Create Ambience

Printing wallpaper with an inkjet printerUnlike signs and other forms of commercial advertising, museum exhibit graphics serve various functions beyond simple promotion and must work on multiple levels to be effective… They support the purpose of the exhibit, communicate its message, create an environment consistent with the subject and draw people in to take a closer look.

Take, for instance, two wall murals San Francisco-based The Blow Up Lab printed for the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s summer exhibition of Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories, which runs through Sept. 6 at the museum.

One mural is a reproduction of a pattern that would serve as a wallpaper-like background, while the other is an 8 ft. x 12 ft. reproduction of a photograph taken of Stein in the 1930s. The Blow Up Lab was responsible for not just simply reproducing images, but ensuring that they coalesced and conformed with the exhibit to create a cohesive whole.

Printing wall murals for exhibits with a large format inkjet printer“With the photo reproduction, Gertrude Stein was in the center with the door behind her. Off to the right, from the viewer’s perspective, the image faded out and was very distracting. We spent some time working on the detail and where we couldn’t get details where it was blown out, we cloned in details,” explains Frank McGrath, owner of The Blow Up Lab. “We basically reconstructed the picture. We lightened the center and did a vignette in that area so that your eye would not be distracted to the side, but focused on the subject. The original photo was somewhere in the 2 MB range and it was a grayscale image, so we brought the resolution up in Genuine Fractals so that the print was as sharp as possible.”

Both murals were printed on LexJet Velvet WallPro SUV on The Blow Up Lab’s 72-inch Roland SOLJET low-solvent printer. The wallpaper mural was a different story. The image was in the multi-gigabyte range and spliced it into six sections. Each section was printed separately on WallPro and installed as a 9 ft. x 20 ft. background.

“The museum was very happy with the material. It’s low glare, totally scratch resistant, and was easy for our professional paper hangers to install. The color spectrum we’re able to get out of the combination of the WallPro and our printer is fantastic,” adds McGrath.

Posted on by Sean McGettigan Posted in Tips & Tricks
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Installing LexJet WallPro SUV Video

Installing custom inkjet printed wall muralsIn February, LexJet moved its headquarters to a new location in Sarasota, Fla. To personalize the space even more, we decided to print custom wall murals on LexJet WallPro SUV and hired a professional paper hanger to take care of the install.

In the video embedded below, you’ll see the highlights of the installation, including:

  • A technique for lining up panels containing straight lines and text
  • How to trim overlapped graphics for a seamless seam
  • Techniques for smoothing out the wallpaper on the wall
  • Before and after footage of the installation

Check out these case studies and a guide for more application ideas and information…

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Printing a Legacy on Canvas

Printing wall murals on inkjet canvasPhotographer and entrepreneur Brian Hampton approaches everything he does conceptually. A photograph is not just a photograph and a print is not just a print. When Hampton’s friend and Chicago-area fine artist Tom Heflin was commissioned to paint a collage celebrating the 100th anniversary of a local hospital, Hampton saw an opportunity to help create a lasting legacy.

“Tom does a lot of work with a Midwest flavor and I’d like to print the original artwork he’s created over the past 40 years or so in tribute to him as an icon of the Midwest. It would be neat to see other people from around the country who reproduce fine art do this for the artists who have made an impact in their communities,” says Hampton.

The mural Hampton reproduced from Heflin’s original artwork is a great first step in that direction. The 4-ft. x 6 ft. original was taken to a high-end lab that specializes in digitizing fine art. Hampton made sure the artwork was digitized in the Adobe RGB 98 color space since that’s the space he works in throughout his workflow, from Photoshop and the ImagePrint RIP to his Epson Stylus Pro 9900 printer.

The mural would take up a 10-ft. x 15-ft. space of prominence in the hospital, so Hampton decided to print in six strips 31 inches wide with an inch of overlap on either side to make it as simple as possible for the professional wallpaper hanger who would install it. Each strip was centered in the ImagePrint RIP instead of printing full bleed, again to ensure ease of installation.

Hampton used LexJet Sunset Reserve Bright Matte Canvas with the extra protection of Sunset Satin Coating. After the mural was installed, Heflin embellished it with acrylics so the coating provided a surface to work on and extra durability.

“I called my customer specialist at LexJet, Michael Clementi, and let him know that I was looking for the best possible canvas for this project. Michael suggested the Sunset Reserve Bright Matte Canvas with the Sunset Coating and sent me the profile for the canvas,” explains Hampton. “The combination was perfect. The colors were right on, and if they weren’t I can guarantee you that Tom would have said something to me. Every artist is extremely particular about each color in their artwork and this turned out exactly as he painted it.”

Hampton adds that the installation went seamlessly (pun intended). The professional wallpaper hanger chose to apply the paste to the wall instead of directly to the back of the canvas to make sure none of the paste would bleed through.

“The wallpaper guy did an excellent job of making sure the registration was right on, but that’s what they do; they’re matching patterns all the time when they put up wallpaper,” says Hampton. “The overall result was spectacular. I went over to the hospital last weekend to take pictures of it and almost everyone who came through stopped, looked and talked about it.”