PUBLICATION CENTER

Central Coast Sign Factory is making a name for itself with a tasteful blend of interior decor and signage. How design talent, the right print production methods, and detail-oriented installation combine to create showcase projects.

Central Coast Sign Factory brims with talent. Gifted both mechanically and artistically, the Central Coast Sign Factory team is able to translate those gifts from exterior to interior for its customers and markedly improve their image and branding.

Recently, the company has been making a push with digitally-printed thematic wall murals of various sizes and themes. Central Coast Sign Factory, based in Salinas, Calif., kicked off the concept at La Plaza Bakery, a local shop that gave owner Julio Gil carte blanche to do whatever he deemed necessary to make it work.

"La Plaza Bakery is one of our best clients who called and said, 'Julio, we have a new restaurant. Make it look good.' They let me get creative," recalls Gil. "Since we installed the bakery mural we've taken clients out to see what we've done and have picked up a couple of other jobs out of it."

The La Plaza Bakery project included two separate murals – one that's long and thin (37 feet long, two feet tall), and a shorter, wider one (17 feet by four feet). Each mural was printed in sections; six sections for the longer one, and three sections for the other.

Central Coast Sign Factory printed the panels on its Roland VersaCAMM SP-540V low-solvent printer. Recommended materials for this type of application include FLEXcon BUSart™ V 400 F White A-69 Vinyl for removable wall graphics, and FLEXmark® BILBRD™ BWV White Opaque Vinyl w/ Permanent Adhesive for more permanent applications.

Gil says that though it's a relatively straightforward and simple installation process, and is much like applying vinyl to any other substrate, the difference is in the level of the wall, or more precisely, the lack of level.

"We've learned that a wall inside a restaurant or a home will not be exactly straight. When you're applying to a 4x8 you know it's going to be straight, but when you apply vinyl to a wall, you find out very quickly that the people who built the wall are not as exacting. And, when you're doing wall graphics you can really tell," says Gil.

Because the wall is usually uneven, and runs down or up anywhere from a half-inch to two inches, there has to be some room for error built into the printing of each panel. Gil says they overprint an inch or two both top and bottom. That way, if they have to make an adjustment up or down to keep up with the slope of the wall it shouldn't be a noticeable problem.

"The first thing we do is tape up each panel and made sure that it's at the exact size we need it. Once we have it taped up there and we know it will fit, we pay very close attention to the alignment," says Gil.

Central Coast Sign Factory has also installed a mural at its shop to greet customers and sell them on the concept as they walk in the door. One client liked the overall concept of the mural, designed by Laura Santana, and asked Central Coast Sign Factory to print a big poster utilizing the basic design.

Another market possibility is children's rooms. Central Coast Sign Factory installed the USC mural pictured here, and Gil says that people are willing to spend money when they want to do something special for their children.

"What I really like about printing interior wall murals is the flexibility; we're able to come up with different designs to suit totally different needs," says Gil.

Gil adds that they tell customers if they need to take the graphics off the wall somewhere down the road, it will peel right off, but he can't guarantee it won't take some paint with it. "The worst-case scenario is that you'll have to re-paint the wall there," he says.