Support the Troops!

Got this e-mail as a Thank you for the Sign Design gang. According to Lisa at Fralin and Waldron, soldier Ben is back home and safe.

Dear Sign Design Team:

Last year, your company made a banner for my church (Slate Mountain Presbyterian Church). The banner was signed by our church members and sent to one of our own who was stationed in Afghanistan. Attached, please find a picture of Ben and the Sign Design banner. It was hung in their rec. room at the base so that everyone could enjoy it .

Thanks for your great work!


Lisa Mauk
Fralin & Waldron, Inc.

And We Still Do The Greatest Sandblasted In Town!

Would you take a look at that? That is our proud painter, Lisa, with her latest and greatest work of art. A local Bistro is opening verrrry soon, and they are getting this beautiful sign for their place...

What a blast it was to make. Sandblasted 2" high-density urethane (it's 2-sided, by the way and looks just as cool on the other side), with hand-painted graphics, a hand-carved additional "globe" with "Trio" blasted into it and smaltz applied. The line of copy Bistro Bar Bottle is 1/2" black acrylic mounted with studs.

It's a fine piece of work! If you'd like something amazing for your own place, give us a call!

Full-Color Mimaki JV3 Solvent Inkjet Printer

Sign Design has purchased and is now running "full-tilt boogie" a Mimaki JV3 Solvent Inkjet Printer!

What does that mean for our customers?

We now have the capability to print photo-quality graphics on banners, vehicles, plywood signs, aluminum signs--the possibilities are practically limitless! These signs are not as long-lasting as vinyl, but they are a lot snazzier! The prints have a three-year outdoor durability with no lamination. The maximum resolution is 720x720 dpi (which for you non-techies means "it looks good!")

Although the Mimaki only rints panels up to five-feet wide, larger prints and banners can be produced with the use of tiling.

Full color print on signs

Question:

Is the life of the regular ground based sign still only 5 yrs due to the color printed on vinyl?

Answer:

It is simply the outdoor durability of the printed graphics, i.e. "photos". If aluminum is the substrate, the aluminum will last 10 plus years (I'm talking about the paint on the aluminum) The aluminum itself will last until a tornado blows it away.

A sign would be constructed using aluminum and it is painted with automotive enamels. But the printed graphics will begin to fade after some time.

We have been producing "full color" graphics for some time. The first process we used was called "wax thermal transfer" where spools of color were passed over a print head in the machine and the colors were fused to the vinyl. We are still using this process, but we are also printing with an inkjet machine which uses solvent based inks. These will not "wash-off" the sign and are unaffected by moisture, but they will degrade over time with UV light. By adding a "UV" lamination over the graphics we can get 5 years durability and life. This is the same for any print process I know of presently. If anyone tells you otherwise, I would get the name of the process and get some clarifications- because it does not exist.

Thanks,

Al Willamson
Footnote:

The entire graphic world has gone crazy over digital printing and all of the neat "special effects" that can be produced. The only problem is that none of the designers (except us) are trying to relay to the end user that all those special effects come at a cost. Certain indoor graphics could not be done without a real artist and full-color print. These things have their place.

Our job is to continue to tell our customer WE CAN PRODUCE FULL-COLOR GRAPHICS, but let them know what we suggest and what is currently available along with the expected outdoor life.

Until someone comes up with 15 year inks- nothing can take the place of well constructed signs with tasteful lettering in vinyl with some white space.