Business - Applications

As well as a refined appearance, Plexiglas also has several unique properties: it is pliable, shatterproof and lightweight, has excellent impact resistance, and has a high level of transparency. These traits combine to make it ideal for use in both indoor and outdoor settings and furnishings. Further confirmation of this is provided by Pixartprinting, its hi-tech printing partner, which offers a wide range of applications online that take advantage of the material's impressive versatility. The leading web-to-print company combines technical expertise in working with the medium with skilled use of the latest technology to give its clients the full extent of the material's benefits.

But what does processing polymethyl methacrylate involve? Skill, accuracy and attention to detail are essential aspects of Pixartprinting's work, guaranteeing excellent results, both in the direct printing and the finish. Available to order directly from the firm's website, in thicknesses ranging from 3 to 5 mm, the printed Plexiglas sheets from Pixartprinting have dimensions of up to 200 x 300 cm. Effects ranging from iridescence to translucence can be achieved, and customers can choose from two options: a transparent version, on which colours can be accentuated by printing a selective or solid layer of white, or a version with an opal background, perfect for backlighting. In addition, the web-to-print leader uses vertical milling machines and special blades to shape the material, producing extremely high quality products. These can be customised by uploading your own artwork through the templates available on the Pixartprinting website.

The applications of Plexiglas leave a lot of room for creativity; the versatility of the material makes it ideal for a wide range of settings and uses. For example, fully customisable plaques with spacers are available to order online, either in a classic or flag version, perfect for providing logistical instructions or simply to display your company's branding, and easy to install on company premises or in public spaces. Plexiglas® is also suitable for creating pictures, panels and decorative plaques, for beautiful displays both indoors and outdoors (guaranteed to last three years) for events, exhibitions and permanent installations.

PressOn, the large format digital printer based in Chatham, Kent, recently worked with its Out of Home media client, Limited Space Media Group, to produce an award winning campaign for Citizen Watches in the Bullring, Birmingham.

At an award ceremony hosted by Shopping Centre Magazine, Limited Space won the SCEPTRE Award for “Commercialisation Innovation of the Year” with its unique “Connected Media” concept. The campaign used traditional static and digital Out Of Home media combined with experiential and Wi-Fi techniques to dominate the Bullring shopping centre for Citizen Watches.

PressOn has worked with Limited Space for over 8 years producing memorable campaigns in shopping centres across the UK. For Limited Space’s award winning concept, PressOn printed and installed an atrium banner, lift graphics and graphics for a large digital media screen incorporating product display stands.  

The atrium banner, was printed on polyester fabric, measuring 16.1m x 7.2m and suspended in the opening in the shopping centre between floors. Featuring Citizen Watches’ brand ambassador, Katherine Jenkins, the banner was visible from above and below in the Bullring. The banner needed a PressOn team of 5 to lift and install it.

The lift graphics and digital screen surround incorporating a display box for the Citizen Watches were printed on removable vinyl on PressOn’s HP LX 3500 and installed overnight in the shopping centre.

PressOn’s MD, Andy Wilson says: “Limited Space is an extremely innovative client to work with, forever developing new concepts that need us to create suitable printed solutions. Their pace of development certainly keeps us on our toes! We are delighted they have been recognised for their ground breaking work with the SCEPTRE Award.”

 

Luxury brand Oris Watches is spearheading the Out of Home launch of its new range with four Giant Posters and one digital screen with blowUP media in London, Birmingham and Manchester.

The campaign, which is boosting brand awareness and credibility among a 25-44 ABC1 male audience, will use blowUP media’s locations at The Stage, Leicester Square, 333 Old Street and 10 Great Eastern Street in London, plus sites at Birmingham Central and Manchester Central.

The blowUP media sites all dominate their respective locations and deliver a high affluent ABC1 audience. With the Giant Posters sizes ranging from 136 sqm for 333 Old Street to 200 sqm for Birmingham Central the total campaign will achieve more than four million impacts across the two week period.

Blue 449 is the media agency for the campaign and Posterscope the Out of Home specialist.

Paul Thurlow, UK Sales and Marketing Manager of Oris, comments: “This is an integral part of a global uplift in our outdoor advertising. We have always used outdoor ads in previous years but not on this scale. This campaign signifies a major change in our whole strategy. We wanted to use these banners to create a bold impact within our key cities of London, Birmingham and Manchester. We’re really excited and can’t wait to see our watches on such a large canvas.”

Simon Russell, Sales Director of blowUP media UK, comments: “This campaign will give Oris standout impact in these cities and enable the brand to engage with a key audience in a really powerful and memorable way.”

 

 

The new range of paper bags by Pixartprinting is now online - a selection of completely new, highly customisable products from the web to print leader. They are available in different formats and finishes, and are an important promotional tool used widely for branding purposes. Available with a custom or neutral design, the bags are suitable for an incredibly wide range of uses. They have been developed specifically with the marketing needs of the retail, industry and events sectors in mind, and range from ready-made shopping bags, also available in small print runs, to more exclusive, refined products, as well as 100% eco-friendly paper bags.

“Our new shopping bags have been perfected by our R&D department on the basis of the input received from the ongoing dialogue we have with our clients. We have been offering fabric and polypropylene bags for some time, and now, to meet the demands of the market, we are adding new paper ranges, including environmentally-friendly solutions" commented Andrea Pizzola, Sales & Marketing Director at Pixartprinting. "They come either ready-made or customised with your own artwork, using the templates available to download from our website, with all the added value the Pixartprinting service provides: quality, speedy production and customer service".

Four ranges have been developed to meet clients' differing requirements: Express, Premium, Wineline and Eco-giftline. They share the common denominator of high quality printing (offset or flexographic), FSC certified paper and the greatest possible level of customisation. Indeed, clients can pick the format, colour, finish and lamination type of their shopping bags, and choose between string or cotton handles.

• Perfect for carrying anything from small accessories to larger items, the Express range allows clients to choose between four different formats and a range of 12 basic colours for last-minute, tailored solutions, including small print runs.
• Stylish, completely adaptable to match clients' image and customisable on all surfaces, the Premium range is recommended for sophisticated, high-end uses. Three different formats are available, three different types of paper, and matt or glossy lamination. The result is a top-of-the-range promotional item.
• Extremely high quality, elegance and a refined finish are also the hallmarks of Wineline, created especially for bottles of wine and made from superior, durable ribbed paper with a reinforced base.
• For those who care about the environment, Eco-giftline is an eco-friendly solution with strengthened handles and a bottle-friendly shape. Made from 100% recycled, environmentally-friendly Biokraft paper created using select, high quality pulp, the result is a fully recyclable, FSC® certified and compostable product.

 

When Worthing and London-based L&S Display was approached to produce a bespoke graphic application to the outer building of renowned auction house Christie’s, the company responded to the challenge by producing a graphic substrate suitable for application even though both the surface and the finish were far from being typical for digital production print. 

L&S Display’s task was to wrap part of the Christie’s King Street Gallery in central London, working from visuals that demanded a specific type of material with high levels of adhesion for direct application onto the stone surface of the walls as well as onto the pavement. Utilising its many years of experience in the wide-format arena and engaging with its highly skilled technicians the company provided Christie’s with the ideal solution. Using Asphalt Art non-slip media, that conforms perfectly to irregular and rough surfaces, the job brief required a product which offered excellent conformability and strength but was easy to remove when required.

The application was printed on L&S Display’s EFI VUTEk GS2000 2m roll-fed and flat-bed wide-format printer which proved to be the ideal solution for generating the vivid green colour required. Each section was cut to size on the company’s Zünd G3 digital cutter, which incorporates advanced material handling and the right tools for even the toughest of substrate types, leaving a clean edge on the finished application. The bold green visual graphic was produced and installed within very tight deadlines, and performed excellently for the period required.

“Because the building is stone, and we had an extremely tight install time, a conventional brick vinyl was not an option for us as the material would have needed to have been heated in,” explains Adam Broomfield, Sign and Display Sales Manager at L&S Display. “We ran some tests on the Asphalt Art material from CMYUK and, because it adhered very well to the stone fascia and the pavement, it was immediately approved by Christie’s.”

The material was printed using UV-curable inks on the VUTEk GS2000 which, again, demonstrated excellent performance characteristics, before being finished on the company’s Zünd G3 in a variety of required sizes. Installation of the Asphalt Art media was also straightforward, and simply required a squeegee for it to adhere satisfactorily to the stone surface of the wall and to the pavement. 

“This job is a typical example of the sort of challenge where CMYUK thrives on providing innovative solutions, from printer to cutter and to the most suitable materials,” comments Michael Crook, Commercial Director – Consumables Division at CMYUK. “Although this was only a six-day project, it was vital that every part of the job was produced to the highest standards, was able to perform as expected, and was easy to remove without leaving a trace of residue.”

Asphalt Art has been developed as a non-slip graphics material that is ideal for applications which need a durability of up to twelve months. It requires no over-lamination and is thin enough to conform to untreated and rough surfaces including stone, brick and paved areas. Simple and quick to apply, it is also easy to remove, making it a popular choice for events, wayfinding, street art and retail graphics.

“L&S was created in 1981 and, since then, we’ve been busy producing the highest quality print products for leading brands, institutions and the creative industries,” continues Broomfield. “We have successfully evolved into a new breed of communications’ provision offering a full service, end to end solution from creative to production, storage and distribution, plus mail and delivery, also providing a build and installation service for all our client partner’s events and exhibitions.

“Our extensive plant list gives us the capability to produce all of our clients marketing and print requirements in-house under one roof. Built on a reputation for hitting the tightest deadlines, we pride ourselves on delivering products on brand, on time, every time,” Broomfield concludes. “Our obsession with service and the quality of products we provide has led to continuous investment in staff, equipment and technologies.”

CMYUK is the UK’s long-term partner of EFI and the VUTEk GS2000 numbers among the portfolio of the company’s wide- and superwide-format printers that covers widths from 1.6m up to 5m in combination and roll-to-roll options. The company also is a key distributor for Zünd digital cutting solutions as well as products from Mimaki and Vortex. Its growing range of materials includes Asphalt Art media along with A Berger textiles, plus complementary framing systems from Spirit-Tex.

[Photo caption: Christie’s King Street Gallery was partly wrapped for a special event by L&S Display using Asphalt Art, an EFI VUTEk GS2000 printer and a Zünd G3 cutter, all supplied by CMYUK]

In the rapidly growing vehicle wrapping sector, customers are demanding ever-more creative solutions to make a real statement. One small family-run business in the West Midlands has now taken the medium to new heights (quite literally) with investment in a Mimaki JV150-160 solvent printer from Mimaki reseller, CMYuK.

Coleshill-based Sign & Graphics Services offers a full range of wide format print services to the retail, exhibition and sign & graphics industries and in the process has established itself as something of a specialist in out-of-the-ordinary vehicle wraps. Owner Mike Bolton takes up the story: “I set up SGS just over three years ago after many years working in the digital print industry. Whilst we may be relatively small, we’ve carved ourselves a nice little niche in large scale vehicle wraps for the mobile exhibition sector. We’ve completed a number of complete double-decker bus wraps for promotional purposes which present some unique challenges.”

As Mike goes on to explain: “Our real skill lies in having the knowledge and experience to turn a designer's dream and vision into reality. It’s a huge undertaking and preparation and adaptation of design concepts is all part of the process. Experience has taught us little tricks such as where to use Contravision media and where not to and how best to format such large scale graphics.”

All this might seem rather daunting for many other vehicle wrappers, but Mike believes it’s all down to meticulous planning. “We reckon that two of us can complete a full double-decker bus wrap in around four days. Good teamwork and detailed preparation has made us pretty good at what we do,” he muses.

Reliable, high quality print is also at the heart of any great vehicle wrap job and SGS has continually invested in the best wide format kit available. As Mike explains: “I’ve spent a lot of time working with Mimaki kit over the years in different companies and always found it to be reliable and capable of delivering spectacular quality and durable results even when under pressure. I was a big fan of the JV33 and when the new JV150 series was launched I just knew it was worth checking out. I’ve known Robin East at CMYuK for many years. Input and advice from both Robin and Sarah Fenna in demonstrating the new Mimaki was invaluable and led to the purchase of a JV150-160. The colour gamut and resolution even in 4-colour mode is simply stunning and a really critical part of any high impact vehicle wrap – especially when it’s as big as a bus!”

Mike and his team at SGS are now doing more specialist work for the trade and marketing promotions industry and have become so adept at these large scale wraps that they’re getting increasingly involved in complete re-fits and builds. “Using specialist tradesmen such as carpenters and auto-electricians we’re now regularly managing the whole project for clients,” comments Mike. “A double-decker bus promo unit for Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey was a particularly challenging project but as the pictures prove, the results were amazing. Equally, the conversion of a flat bed truck for Continental Tyres used as a promotional vehicle in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup, involved adaptation of original designs, fabrication and a well-executed combination of cut vinyl graphics and digital print”

“Tackling these large scale projects just requires a bit more time and thought in the planning and preparation, but experience has taught me that having the right equipment is also crucial to any successful project. Mimaki kit has always delivered for me, I know I can rely on it and the new JV150 just raises the bar even higher.”

... as high as a double-decker bus perhaps?

[Images show (above) completed bus wrap for Tullamore Dew; and (below) the wrapping work in progress]