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Mark Kissling

Office Graphics That Make You Want to Work There

A sign company did so well their installers “considered” moving to the client.

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Several rounds of proofs to design firm and client before settling on these colors and images.

TWO EXPERT VINYL installers from AJ Sign Co. (Burnt Hills, NY) recently spent a couple of days taking great care to ensure perfect alignment of their wall wraps, recalls Tim Szablewski, AJ Sign’s director of marketing, given the sheer size of the graphics and the need to maintain consistency across different walls in the new Latham, NY office space for client Mechanical Dynamics & Analysis (MD&A). “During the installation, our installers had such a good time working at MD&A that they joked about wanting to work there full time,” he says. “They loved the atmosphere they had created and it turned into a funny conversation about switching careers!”

A major reason for their impromptu skit about job-hopping to MD&A — which provides repair, services and parts for steam, gas and industrial turbines and generators — was the client’s wanting such a wide range of elements for their office, allowing AJ Sign to create a comprehensive 360-degree branding package to truly bring their space to life, Szablewski says.

Design for a Small Planet (Troy, NY) provided the initial creative concepts for the wall wraps, then supplied AJ Sign with high-resolution files and detailed design layouts, focusing on incorporating MD&A’s turbines, generators and patent art into the visuals. Using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and SAi Flexi, AJ Sign’s in-house designers worked with these files to ensure they could be adapted for large-scale wall wraps, Szablewski says. “Some adjustments were made to color profiles and resolution to ensure optimal print quality, as well as paint-matching their existing walls.”

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The process of adjusting and refining the design files took some back and forth. “We had several rounds of proofs with MD&A and Design for a Small Planet to fine-tune the branding elements and make sure everything fit the vision for their office space,” Szablewski says. “The revisions were minor, mostly color and scale adjustments to ensure the final prints would be crisp and impactful.”

Once ready for the shop’s Roland TrueVIS VG2-640 Printer/Cutter, AJ Sign Co. chose 3M Controltac IJ180Cv3 Graphic Film for its reliability and ease of application, especially for large wall wraps. “Ease of application is very important for achieving the seamless look of the graphics,” Szablewski says. 3M Scotchcal 8520 Matte Graphic Protection Overlaminate was selected to reduce glare from office lighting, so the graphics would look clean and professional from every angle.

“One key takeaway from this project is the importance of collaboration between design teams and sign fabricators,” Szablewski says. “Having clear communication with the designer ensured that we could translate their creative vision into a physical space without losing any of their details.”

The other key takeaway? When the job is done, making sure you don’t do such a good job that your installers ask if the client is hiring : )

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