BBC Store Branding

Signs are one of the most powerful communication tools available. Nothing communicates what’s important to a business more than the effective use of signs. Whether you’re communicating internally to your employees or supporting your current promotion on a showroom floor, signs can improve your results.

With that said, challenges arise with any job or installation and the experience we have at Print New Hampshire helps us overcome those challenges. Please read on to learn how we overcame some specific challenges when installing the signs and exterior wall graphics for the British Beer Company.

EXTERIOR SIGNAGE

Challenge

These signs were incredibly large, some stretching to 16 feet. Almost every substrate only comes in a maximum of 10 feet. In order to overcome this challenge and avoid having glaring seams, we decided to do a vinyl overlay on the .75” PVC backing to create the white border around the signs which made the seams almost completely invisible. Another challenge we had were the letters. The client’s logo is a two toned typography, so each letter needed to go through a two-step process. We used our laminator to actually adhere the gold calendared vinyl for background color onto an entire 8’ sheet of .5” PVC then, cut the letters afterward on our Esko Router, to ensure the entire letter was covered. After each letter was cut, we then had to send the copper metallic calendared vinyl through our Suma cutter and individually mask and apply each accent layer to the cut letters.

Installation Details

As mentioned previously, we had to create these signs out of two boards, with a vinyl overlay to hide the seam, however, we still had to keep them separate for installation purposes. So to solve the seam issue, there was 1” of vinyl overlay at the edge of the board, which after the backing was installed, our installers had to then apply that vinyl overlay onsite over the seam. There were also two instances where letters had to be applied over the seam onsite as well, in which we created cardboard templates over the section that needed the letters adhered with reference letters on each side that fit right over the already adhered letters.

This project created a dramatic sign, however, was incredibly cost effective because we did not use gold leaf or mold injected signage to create a similar effect.

Production Equipment

Summa Contour ProCut Vinyl Cutter
Esko Router Cutter
Epson Surecolor S50670
Seal Laminator

LED ILLUMINATED EXTERIOR OVAL SIGN

Challenge

Taking a two dimensional logo and making it 3D can be a challenge as there are many ways to build an internally illuminated sign. We had to work with our fabricators to come up with a cost effective, but dramatic, sign to showcase the new logo design produced by Print New Hampshire. Our solution was to make the logo itself a translucent vinyl application to an acrylic face and to add dimension, we created a laser cut push through design for the typography. Even the sign bracket itself was designed from scratch and fabricated to match the look the client was trying to achieve.

Installation Details

Most of the leg work happens during fabrication and when it comes to installation, it’s as simple as mounting the sign bracket and hanging the sign. Electrical is prewired to the exterior of the building to give the sign, power to hook into.

Production Equipment

Epson Surecolor S50670
Auxiliary Machine
Laser Cutter
H-Frame Press

EXTERIOR WALL LOGO AND GRAPHIC TREATMENT

Challenge

Textured surfaces were always a challenge in the past as vinyl had not been developed for this type of application. Therefore many companies would move towards painted murals for these types of projects. However, since 3M came out with their Envision IJ480-CV3 printable vinyl, we have developed an application process through consistent heat and using a roller to be able to overcome the challenges of textured surfaces. Now there truly is almost nothing that cannot be wrapped, even a brick wall!

Installation details

By using a heat gun, the material is consistently heated at a controlled temperature and we use a high-density vinyl roller to push the vinyl down into the crevices of the wall to create a painted look.