Elite Sign Gives Texas Tech Stadium Spirit

Although Lubbock is only the 11th-largest city in the Lone Star State, with roughly 300,000 metro-area residents, it’s known as The Hub City because it’s the largest urban area in the Texas region known as the South Plains. Thus, its economic significance is greater than its sheer size would indicate. It’s the home of the Buddy Holly Center – which honors the Lubbock native and “Father of Rock Roll” – and Texas Tech Univ.; both make tourism an important cog in the local economy.

In its fourth year in business in Lubbock, Elite Sign & Design devotes approximately 25% of its business
to window graphics, shop owner Toby Stephens said. One of its more high-profile projects involved creating frosted window graphics for Jones AT & T Stadium, home of the school’s Red Raider football team. In 2012, the University embarked on a stadium-expansion phase; school officials hired Elite to create frosted window graphics as both a subtle iteration of the school’s signature “Double T” logo and to conceal the construction mess from fans.

Initially, the university wanted the windows covered completely. But, the material’s [3M’s 7725SE-14 dusted-crystal vinyl] rigidity would’ve required seams. Instead, Stephens suggested adding a reverse-applied logo and stripes to create a more appealing pattern and conform the graphics to the material’s roll size. After the shop devised the graphics with Adobe Creative Suite 5, Stephens plotter-cut the pattern for the 122 x 72-in. window graphics on a Roland SolJet Pro III XC-540.

From website traffic, the shop has also gained several tanning salon and spa customers. After having created the graphics with Adobe software, or implementing an iStock photo, Elite created graphics with either 3M IJ35-10C short-term film, if the customer prefers opaque windows, or Clear Focus Imaging’s perforated film, if two-way vision is required. For these, it prints graphics on the XC-540.