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A Vinyl Apps Gallery: Making Faces

A trio of wall graphics

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Overestimating vinyl’s importance to the sign industry is nearly impossible. For every type of job, in any type of environment, some variation of this material is suitable. Better inks, printers and implements will only continue to enhance this market.
After browsing through 2014’s International Sign Contest archives – yet another perk for entering the contest; even if you don’t win an award, there’s a good chance your work will appear within the pages of a subsequent issue – we present several examples of the material’s expansive possibilities.

Good Wraps for Good Eats
With two Atlanta locations, Yeah! Burger provides a unique, burger-eating experience. The restaurant offers grass-fed beef, bison, turkey, chicken or vegetarian patties, plus such unusual toppings as fig jam and sriracha mayo, with an emphasis on organic and locally sourced materials. To help create in-house atmosphere, Yeah! Burger hired Option Signs & Environmental Graphics (Alpharetta, GA) to create wall graphics, which are installed throughout the restaurant, to develop a creative aura that befits its unusual menu. Tad Carpenter Creative (Kansas City), which devises all of Yeah! Burgers’ brand communications, designed the graphics.
Option Signs decked the walls with a 3-mil, opaque, white Oracal calendered film that comprises a polymeric/monomeric hybrid construction. The shop printed approximately 800 sq. ft. of the material on a Roland DGA VersaCamm SP-540V printer/cutter, and protected it with a matte-finish overlaminate.
“The long hall within the restaurant is a maze of doors framed with graphics,” Option Sign’s Patti Huxford said. “Visible from the outside, they provide a powerful statement.”

Nothing to Sneeze at
The Univ. of Cincinnati (UC) has honored George Rieveschl, MD, who earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at the school, and later served on the faculty. Most notably, during his research to develop a drug to control muscle spasms, he discovered diphenhydramine, the powerful antihistamine better known as Benadryl®, which effectively counters allergic reactions, motion sickness and Parkinson’s disease symptoms (users can attest it’s also a powerful sleep inducer).
UC hired Cincinnati-based Worldwide Graphics & Sign Co. to fabricate a layered display installed in Rieveschl Hall on campus (Dr. Rieveschl was also a very generous university benefactor); UC’s in-house design team developed the graphics.
After having shaped the 5-ft.-wide graphics from custom-made, ½-in.-thick, acrylic sheets on a Zund cutter, and flame-polishing the edges, Worldwide printed the graphics, which were installed on the acrylic’s second surface, on MACtac BFree JT 5999M clear vinyl on an HP LX 850 latex-ink printer. White, opaque vinyl was imprinted for the supporting, textual messages.
“The trick for this job was to keep the heavy display’s message in unison, because both pieces have second-surface applied material that had to align perfectly,” Christian Beebe, Worldwide’s owner, said. “We were thrown a curve when we found out the supporting wall was hollow, but 3M P9473PC VHB tape provided a fast, clean, effective installation solution.”

Have a Drewski Dog
Andrew “Drewski” Blaskovich manages one of the most successful food-truck fleets in the Bay Area – the Bay Area triad of San Francisco, Sacramento and Oakland is the mecca of sustenance-peddling vehicles, so that’s no small feat. Buoyed by his success, Drewski decided to open his first standalone diner, Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen, which serves an array of eclectic grilled-cheese and hot-dog choices (and, for those with a sweet tooth, s’more sandwiches).
He hired Palmer Signs (Roseville, CA) to print and install two murals that convey different themes, but highlight his food trucks. Designer Justin “Juice” Lee initiated the graphics with a pen-and-paper sketch, and then digitized the raw graphic with Adobe Photoshop, CADlink’s SignLab 9.1 and SA Intl.’s Flexi 11 software. Palmer Signs used 3M Controltac IJ180 vinyl that was imprinted with the shop’s Mimaki JV33-160 solvent-ink printer. 3M’s Scotchcal 8518 glossy overlaminate provides the wrap’s vibrant sheen.

 

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