Strike It Rich

The creative-services department at Redding, CA’s Win River Casino hired Redding’s Sign-A-Rama franchise to create numerous floor-graphic programs for the entry foyer and “Dollar Alley,” a row of slot machines in a high-traffic area. John Robbins, who owns the Sign-A-Rama franchise, said the casino has become his best floor-graphics customer.

When completing a floor-graphics site survey, Robbins creates a design template that accounts for doors, fixtures, trash cans and other items that will be replaced after the wrap’s completion. His designers and the casino’s creative staff primarily use Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 software, with an emphasis on Photoshop® and Illustrator®.

For graphics applied to concrete or other hard surfaces, the franchise uses MACtac’s StreetRAP™, a 3.4-mil-facestock media with a permanent adhesive, and Permacolor® Permaflex® PF6300, an aggressive topcoat designed to withstand floor traffic (it’s rated for 90 days of floor use, according to MACtac). For smooth-surface or carpet applications, the shop uses 3M’s IJ 40 glossy, white media with an ASTM-certified, non-slip, luster-finish overlaminate.

The Redding franchise uses two printers: a Roland SolJet Pro III XJ-640 64-in.-wide, eco-solvent-ink printer, and, for jobs with large panels to align, the shop implements an HP Designjet L25500 latex-ink printer. Robbins said HP’s Optical Media Advance Sensor, which takes digital images of the microscopic structure of the media’s underside and measures the media’s progress in real time, helps print and align large panels.

To minimize inconveniences for patrons, the shop installed the graphics in the early-morning hours. For the 900-sq.-ft., entryway graphics, Sign-A-Rama’s installers used a torch and a 3M VCAT roller to ease the media into the concrete’s crevices, and 3M Gold squeegees for the smooth surfaces. Squeegees and elbow grease sufficed for the carpet graphics, which encompass approximately 400 sq. ft.