In Focus Vol. 2 No. 11
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Texas Legends: Sunset Select Matte Canvas Wraps Tell a Uniquely Texas Tale
Renovations provide great opportunities for photographers and fine art reproducers. Case in point is a recent hotel renovation undertaken in Austin by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Wyndham purchased an older hotel just north of downtown Austin off of I-35. The location was great, but the building needed work.
An integral part of the successful renovation would be the décor. Wyndham turned to Austin-based Canvas Press to give the hotel a unique feel and one that would be distinctly Texan. Or, more accurately, distinctly Austonian.
The concept was to represent Austin icons in a big way with photography on canvas. Local themes included the University of Texas, downtown Austin and the state capitol, Texas rivers, and Texas music legends.
Canvas Press had already provided new framed prints on photo paper for the hotel’s 200-plus rooms, and would now print and gallery-wrap dozens of images for use in the hotel’s common areas, like the lobby, hallways, conference and meeting rooms.
Doak Walker, owner of Canvas Press, says the standard size of the canvas prints was 24x30, with a few that were output at 36x54 (Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan). Some spaces included unusual applications, such as a 52x52 print of the Texas Rotunda at the capitol building attached to the ceiling, which peers down on the conference table.
The addition of canvas prints throughout the property gives the hotel a unique museum gallery flavor. Each Texas artist gallery wrap includes a biographical plaque next to it. This “Austin Music Hall of Fame” stays true to the overall theme of the hotel, while providing additional interest and information about the Austin music scene to out-of-town travelers.
Canvas Press printed the entire project on LexJet Sunset Select Matte Canvas. “We print exclusively on Sunset Select Matte Canvas. We tested about 20 different canvases, and it’s the highest grade canvas we have been able to find. The overall quality and imaging of the canvas really showcases our level of quality to our customers,” says Walker.
Canvas Press used an Epson 9800 with ImagePrint, and a Canon iPF9000 for the project. Walker says, “When I’m looking for a printer, I look at more than print quality. I also look for the quality of the printheads, ease of maintenance, speed, and durability since we print almost exclusively on canvas, and volume printing on canvas can be tough on a printer.”
One of the most important factors when printing on canvas is to clean up any debris and particles after each print run. Effective printer maintenance often boils down to a clean work environment.
Quick Change: Giant Casino Art on Canvas
Lizza Fine Art Studios, located in Tunkhannock, Pa., recently produced a monstrous project at Mount Airy Resort and Casino in the Poconos. Hanging up two stories inside the casino, Lizza Fine Art reproduced nine 8 ft. x 8 ft. panels on LexJet Sunset Select Matte Canvas.
The project began as a collaboration between the architect, Hemmler + Camayd Architects, and Laura Craig Gallery, who commissioned popular local artist Brian Keeler to render the Delaware Water Gap, which spans Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Keeler’s oil paintings, originally rendered at 3 ft. x 3 ft., were brought to Lizza Fine Art Studios for the Lizza treatment. The Lizza treatment includes capturing the original on its Cruse 5 ft. x 8 ft. flatbed scanner, a tight color-calibration system, the trained and discerning eye of owner Bob Lizza (who’s also a fine artist), and final printing on the studio’s Epson printers.
“We usually print normal giclee sizes, so it really pushed the envelope of what we typically do here. This was about a 280-300 percent enlargement from the originals, and the scanner played a big part in maintaining the quality of the paintings,” says Lizza.
Lizza explains that the original plan was to output the 8x8 canvas panels on the studio’s HP 5000 in two strips, which would meet in the middle and be stretched like a typical canvas gallery wrap. But about two days before the project was due the client decided they’d rather have better color fidelity, so the smaller Epson 9800 printer was called to the front lines.
“When they decided to go with three strips printed on the Epson we knew there would be too many visible seams if we were to stretch all three strips, so we applied the strips to flat panels instead,” says Lizza. “Our LexJet account specialist, Dustin Flowers, was a big part of the success of the project. He really pulled through for us. We already had the 60-in. Sunset Select Matte Canvas in stock, but we needed the 36-in. canvas the next day, as well as a re-supply of inks. Dustin did a quick shuffle, and we had the supplies to get the job done in time.”
Lizza adds that this type of project will be easier to produce in the future as the studio received shipment of two 64-in. wide Epson 11880s shortly after completing the casino project.
Once everything was in place and the strips printed, the flat boards which would hold the prints were primed to take the adhesive, 3M Super 77 spray adhesive. They first pre-placed the images, made register marks where each one would fit, applied the adhesive, and then applied the printed strips, taking special care not to get any of the adhesive on the prints.
“We ended up printing one-inch overlap on each strip with a crop mark. We did what wallpaper people do, which is line up the crops on both prints and make a slice right down the middle on that crop. We used a 120-in. straight edge trimmer and replaced the blade after each slice,” says Lizza.
Lizza also built the hanging hardware for the finished prints, and the installation went off without a hitch. There was some concern about the seams, but those concerns dissolved once the panels were hoisted two stories up by an installation crew as the viewing distance effectively eliminates the seams.
Another surprise – which could have been unpleasant, but turned out to be fortuitous – was the LED spectral lighting that shines on the prints. The lighting system slowly changes through the light spectrum, from cool to warm, during the course of the day.
“The light source changes the color of the prints, which in our market is usually not a good thing, but in this case it was a nice finishing touch because the scene appears to shift from dawn to dusk,” says Lizza.
Post-and-Panel Printing with Extreme AquaVinyl
Calvin McDaniel says that the addition of wide-format printing has helped his studio, C. McDaniel & Co. Photographers, build a million-dollar facility on multiple acres in Morgantown, W.V.
A big part of McDaniel's wide-format success has been in finding additional applications and profit centers for his Canon iPF5000 and iPF8000 printers. One recent application is a need many small business owners have for relatively inexpensive, changeable signs.
Because of McDaniel's abilities as a photographer, color expert, and artist, he is able to offer alternative advertising products that exceed the print quality small business owners would be able to get elsewhere.
McDaniel has devised a post-and-panel sign system that he's currently using for the studio's main identity sign. The components, which are basically two plastic fence posts and a plastic panel that can be secured between the posts and easily swapped in and out of the posts, are readily available at home improvement stores like Lowe's.
The graphics are printed on LexJet Extreme AquaVinyl, which provides about a year of outdoor durability. The vinyl is self-adhesive and applies easily to the plastic blank.
"The goal is to be able to swap the signs out whenever you feel like it. Initially, we printed and installed our primary sign, and when people became acclimated to that message, we would go out on a monthly or bi-monthly basis and slide in a new one. It becomes a mini-billboard, and every 30 days because of the inexpensive nature of the material we're printing on, we can change the sign. People get so used to seeing something that they just blank it out after awhile, so you have to make it fresh and exciting," says McDaniel. "You have about a year of durability with the material, but the key to it, just like any other industry, is to get people used to the idea of switching it out regularly so that you're pushing more product out the door."
McDaniel adds that the concept is extremely flexible. Customers can either take the sign panel out and put a new one in, or simply apply another layer of vinyl graphic over the old one. "You can also keep your primary sign, and have another panel ready for special promotions or different messages every 30 days or so," says McDaniel.
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