Expand Vol. 3 No. 8

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• Bringing Basketball to Life with FLEXcon Low-Tack Vinyl
• Master Designer Masters Fine-Art Solvent Printing
• Six-Pack Attack

Bringing Basketball to Life with FLEXcon Low-Tack Vinyl

MBE Digital is no stranger to teamwork. It’s the foundation upon which the company is built. Owner Brian Rayner even eschews the title of “owner,” preferring instead to stress the importance of the employees who make projects like the one pictured here come together perfectly.

“All of the people who work here are trained and understand that this is their livelihood, and they treat everything they manufacture and install as if they were paying for it out of their own pocket, “ says Rayner. “There is no such thing as ‘we can’t do it,’ or ever letting a customer down. In the case of this project our four-day installation window was squashed down in a day and a half, so we used three 80-foot crane trucks and put more people on the job to make sure we got it done on time and did it right.”

The three graphics that ring the arena were installed in 54-in. x 46-ft. vertical strips from the top down and over the moldings. Each finished graphic is about 50 ft. x 46 ft. The panels were printed with the company’s three Mimaki JV3s on FLEXmark® V 400 F White V-327 Low Tack Vinyl.

As with all MBE Digital projects, and even though the typical viewing distance was relatively far away, the graphics were printed at 300 dpi. MBE is dedicated to printing graphics that look just as good from six inches away as they do from 600 feet.

Rayner estimates it took about 30 hours to print all of the images on the three Mimakis. After each panel was printed, and before lamination, the graphics were double-checked for color consistency and any variance that could alter the image from panel to panel. If it didn’t check out, it was re-printed. The panels were then numbered for installation and sent to the job site for the extra-fast installation.

“The graphic was up for about ten days. It held up perfect and came down just as easy because we bought it from LexJet and used the right substrate that doesn’t leave any residue. There was no adhesive residue whatsoever; the material we used was perfect,” says Rayner. “Nobody else has been allowed to install PSA vinyl on those windows like we have.”

MBE also used FLEXmark® V400 F White Opaque A-109 for Indoor Floor Surfaces on the inside of the building, as well as LexJet White Static Cling Vinyl for door windows and SEETHRU-SIGN® Perforated Window Vinyl for other windows.

Master Designer Masters Fine-Art Solvent Printing

David Butler is one of the original originals in the sign business. Butler has been a master of the craft, from hand painting and gilding to the Photoshop era, mixing and matching the two as necessary over the years.

Though a true craftsman and now a digitizing expert, Butler is best known for his design prowess. He has a distinct style that resonates with anyone who comes upon it. That’s why when someone is planning a big “walldog” event where sign artists literally paint the town, they call on Butler to lend a hand, as was the case at a recent event in Minneapolis organized by Carole Bersin called Walldogs on Nicollet.

Butler’s wall mural project was to memorialize the old Nicollet Baseball Park, located in the Nicollet neighborhood of Minneapolis. The wall mural was eventually turned into four fine-art reproductions that Butler and his wife, Susie, printed on LexJet Sunset Fine Art Satin SUV by Hahnemuhle with his Mutoh printer.

“I really like the look of the paper. We’ve printed on a lot of stuff, from vinyl to canvas, but as far as showing the details, it’s perfect,” says Butler. “We have a lot of digital artwork we think could be printed on this material, matted, and framed. One of the big holdbacks we’ve had on doing this type of work is the kind of material we’re going to put the artwork on to really market it. You don’t want to put it on a piece of vinyl; that’s crazy. We thought about the wallpaper, and I suppose that’s an option they can go with. But this material would work perfect, and it’s easier to work with than canvas.”

Case in point is a recent digital mural Butler created for a local grocery store. The approximately 6 ft. x 20 ft. mural depicting the history of Syracuse, Ind., where, by chance, Butler Design Agency is located, draws more than its fair share of attention. It’s a stunning piece consistent with Butler’s extreme attention to detail and design skills.

Many shoppers have expressed an interest in having a smaller version of the design hanging in their home, business, or vacation cottage. Now, Butler feels like he’s found a material that allows him to fulfill those requests.

Butler’s typical design process is to start off, literally, at the drawing board with pencil and paper. For the Nicollet Walldog mural he then took his sketch, scanned it in, and worked on the sketch from there in Photoshop.

So, ironically enough, for what will be an almost purely analog production technique (painting on a wall), Butler creates a digital image of the design. He also vectorizes the image, uses the pounce pattern function on his plotter, and pounces the pattern on paper, so the design can be chalked up on the wall and filled in with paint.

“I start the process in the most basic design mode, then I get into the most modern design mode we have, and then I get on a wall and paint. It’s awesome because you can blend these two disciplines together. You can live in both worlds and benefit from both of them,” says Butler. “My whole existence revolves around creating a problem and trying to solve it, and that’s the way I design. I create a problem and then I look for solutions to make that design work, like putting a rectangle in a square as I had to do when converting the wall mural to a framed digital reproduction. And in Photoshop, you have just got to get in there with a little magnifying glass and look around. The solution’s hiding in the corner sometimes, so go in there… don’t be afraid… go in that dark corner… look close… and there it is.”

Six-Pack Attack

James Lane, graphic designer for DeCrescente Distributing in Mechanicville, N.Y., recently decorated a six pack on wheels for Coors.

The rolling six-pack in question, DeCrescente’s Six-Pack Truck that travels to various special events and dispenses beer from kegs hidden in the super-huge cans, required some trial-and-error to get it right since the unusual application was round and multiplied by six.

“I’ve done trailers before, but they’re flat. This has a rounded surface so I wasn’t used to the application,” says Lane. “I was trying to lay the vinyl on the surface like you would on a board, and what finally worked for me was to wet it down as much as possible using a spray bottle filled with soap and water. You wet it down completely and it works.”

Lane says an unscented dishwashing liquid, like Ivory, works best for a wet vinyl application. All it takes is a drop or two of soap in a bottle of water, and the solution should be just right. Rapid Tac is another wetting solution developed specifically for vinyl application (www.rapidtac.com). Rapid Tac also carries other products for vinyl work, including preparation and removal fluids.

Lane used FLEXcon BUSart™ V 400 F White A-69 Vinyl for Bus & Train Wraps for the project, printed on a low-solvent Mutoh printer. Usually, vehicle graphics require lamination, even if they’re printed with more-durable and lightfast solvent inks, because of the extra wear and tear they endure on the road. However, Lane didn’t laminate since the Six-Pack Truck is only on the road for special events, where it sits in a parking lot dispensing beer.

Each “beer can” graphic was printed on panels about 76 in. tall by 64 in. wide. Each can required one and a half panels with a quarter-inch of overlap.

“It’s been out twice since we installed the graphics. It always draws attention and boosts beer sales, which is why they do it,” says Lane.