Designing Trade-Show Displays with Your Images

When you exhibit in a basic 10 x 10 ft. booth at a trade show, you only have about 3 to 5 seconds to grab the attention of each attendee strolling the aisles. That’s why it’s better to use a big, eye-catching visual in your booth graphics than multiple lines of small text.

Because trade-show graphics rely so heavily on high-res, high-quality visuals, they can represent a real opportunity for professional photographers who know how to print big.   

Photographer Clark Marten created these multi-panel and single-panel displays with LexJet’s I-Banner Spring Back Banner Stands and Water-Resistant Satin Cloth (www.clarkmarten.com)

If you already have a wide-format printer in your studio, we can teach you how to use it with LexJet materials and portable banner stands to create free-standing displays for bridal fairs, sports events, seminars, and other gatherings. You can also produce ready-to-go displays and sell them to business clients who hire you to shoot their product images or to seniors, athletes, or executives who want attention-getting ways to display their portraits.  

LexJet knows a lot about trade-show graphics because that’s how we got our start. In 1994, LexJet started selling new combinations of materials that could help exhibit producers fabricate more durable inkjet-printed trade-show graphics and exhibits. We continue to sell dozens of different materials and display systems for producing multiple types and sizes of graphics for trade shows, stores, museums, and events.

Whether you want a low-cost portable system for occasional use or a display rugged enough to endure a multi-stop event tour, we can help you choose the most cost-effective combination of print materials and display systems.

As for designing the graphics themselves, check out this great article entitled 10 Small-Booth Graphic Mistakes on Exhibitor Online.

The article starts out by emphasizing that the graphics “must clearly communicate who you are, what you’re selling, and what benefits your company’s product or services can offer.” Then, the article’s author Linda Armstrong explains how to avoid the 10 most common mistakes people make when creating graphics for 10 x 10 ft. booths. Here are the most common mistakes: 

• Too Many Words
• The Wrong Words
• Competing Colors
• Artsy Fonts
• Tiny Type
• Text Below Eye Level
• Too Many Images
• Poor Image Quality
• Bad Lighting
• Nicks and Dings (Damaged Graphics)

Fine Balance Imaging Studios displays banners stands both in their studio (above) and trade-show booth (below). (www.fbistudios.com)

Exhibit designers quoted in the article recommend using one large main image to fill the display instead of a smattering of small images. And, they say the graphic will be more eye-catching if the image is cropped to eliminate distracting details. 

The experts also advise graphic buyers not to use low-quality images that don’t have sufficient resolution to be enlarged without becoming blurry or grainy.

Many LexJet customers who are converting their images into displays like using  Water-Resistant Satin Cloth with an economical I-Banner spring-back banner stand. The fabric graphics are lightweight, don’t require lamination, and can easily be shipped and stored.  But LexJet offers dozens of options, including a retractable banner stand made of environmentally friendly bamboo and tabletop systems for set-up at smaller shows.

So call a LexJet account specialist at 800-453-9538 whenever you’re ready to get started. We’ll be happy to tell you more about how to convert your images into attractive, portable displays.

Photographers Get Creative with Photo Mural Fabric

Photo mural at Fine Balance Imaging

Last month, we published a post showing the beautiful black-and-white photo murals that Lizza Studios had created on Photo Tex PSA fabric for the Dietrich Theatre in Tunkhannock, PA. Photo Tex is an inkjet-printable fabric backed with a repositionable adhesive that makes it easy to make adjustments if you make a mistake when you are installing the printed panels.

Here are a few other examples of the creative ways other LexJet customers are using the user-friendly display material. 

WALL SIGNAGE: To help welcome visitors to the new studios of Fine Balance Imaging in Whidbey Island, WA, Joe Menth used PhotoTex PSA to create this 5 x 8 ft. wall mural of a photo he had taken of a local musician. The mural has sparked a wave of interest in the printable fabric among consumers and exhibit designers. Fine Balance Imaging has since produced a floor-to-ceiling mural in the newly remodeled kitchen of a local bed-and-breakfast.

TRADE SHOW GRAPHICS:  At a trade show for local businesses, Joe Menth and Nancy MacFarland of Fine Balance Imaging used Photo Tex PSA to create easy-to-install/easy-to-remove graphics for the side wall of their trade show booth. One of the purposes of the booth was to show some of the creative possibilities of printing images on non-traditional materials. The table drape for the booth was printed on LexJet Water-Resistant Satin Cloth and the graphics in the I-Banner stands were printed using Water-Resistant Satin Cloth and Polypropylene. According to Joe, using the banner stands and the PhotoTex PSA Fabric for booth graphics made it quick and easy to take down the booth when the show was over. You can read more about Fine Balance Imaging on this blog, or in the July issue (Vol. 4, No. 7) of LexJet’s In Focus Newsletter.

Trade-show graphics show what Fine Balance Imaging can do.

 

OFFICE DÉCOR: While working on a yearbook to help the J&B Group of Minnesota celebrate its 30^th anniversary, portrait photographer Chris Lommel suggested enlarging one of the company’s historic 8 x 10 prints into a 168 in. x 9 ft. mural the reception area of one of the company’s production facilities. When they agreed to give it a try, Lommel printed the image in four 42 in. x 9 ft. pieces on Photo Tex PSA on the Canon imagePROGRAF iPF8100 he bought from LexJet.  He installed the panels with the help of the graphic designer who had worked with him on the mural. The company has received a lot of nice comments on the mural from visitors as well as employees. You can read more about Chris Lommel Photography and some of the other creative ways he is using LexJet materials in the August issue of LexJet’s In Focus newsletter.

 

  

Chris Lommel's mural-size enlargement decorates the reception area of a facility of the J&B Group.

 

  

Photographer Norman Gilbert printed golf course imagery onto PhotoTex PSA, then used the fabric to decorate his "Buddy Dog." The sheen comes from the automotive clearcoat that was sprayed on all the dogs so they could be displayed outdoors.

PUBLIC ART:  PhotoTex PSA fabric is designed to be applied to non-porous flat surfaces. But photographer Norman Gilbert of Memphis, TN decided to see if the fabric would work for something more complex. 

He used PhotoTex to wrap his 44-in. tall “Buddy Dog” statue in golf-themed imagery for the Dog Daze in Memphis public art project/fundraiser being conducted to commemorate the 75^th anniversary of The Humane Society of Memphis and Shelby County, TN.  

The statue is modeled after Buddy, a three-legged Black Labrador that was rescued during Hurricane Katrina.Gilbert’s dog, named DogLeg, is one of 75 artistically enhanced dogs that are being display throughout the city and will be auctioned off later this month. Gilbert is the official photographer for the Dog Daze in Memphis project. You can read more about Gilbert’s unorthodox use of PhotoTex PSA fabric in the August issue of LexJet’s In Focus newsletter.

Desk-Front Displays for Photo, Art, and Promotional Prints

By Darren Vena

Fine Balance Imaging Studios uses changeable panels in their desks to exhibit their clients' art and promote their own services. (www.fbistudios.com)

At LexJet, we love it when photographers and artists send us pictures that show some of the creative ways they are using some of the inkjet-printable materials we sell.

In two previous posts on this blog (about photographers Leslie D. Bartlett and David DeJonge), we’ve shown you why LexJet’s Water-Resistant Satin Cloth is quickly becoming a popular option for printing photo and art exhibitions. For one thing, the inkjet-receptive coating on this smooth, lustrous, wrinkle-resistant cloth is designed for high-resolution, full-color imaging. And, because prints on Water Resistant Satin Cloth don’t need to be framed or mounted, shipping exhibition prints from one site to another is a breeze.

But here’s one use of Water-Resistant Satin Cloth that we hadn’t seen until now. The clever, desk-front display system shown here was devised by Joe Menth of Fine Balance Imaging on Whidbey Island, Washington, a mecca for artists, photographers, and nature-lovers about 25 miles north of Seattle.

Joe built the desktop display system earlier this year when Fine Balance Imaging moved into a spacious new studio, which was more than twice the size of their original working quarters. He says the desks from the old location simply looked out of place in their new surroundings.

So he customized the desks with fixtures designed to hold changeable graphic panels made from satin-cloth prints attached to recycled door moldings. (The door moldings are used like stretcher bars in canvas gallery wraps.) The panels can be slid in and out of slats in the desk fixtures whenever Fine Balance Imaging wants to feature something new.

“In the desks, the panels looks seamless and permanent because we’ve put trim over the top,” says Menth. “But we simply pull up the trim, pull out the frame, and drop the new prints in.”

The images are printed onto LexJet Water Resistant Satin Cloth using the ImagePrint RIP and the Epson Stylus Pro 9800 printer.

The desktop graphic panels are just one of the ways that Menth shows clients what’s possible with high-resolution inkjet printing and different types of materials. As you can see from Joe’s panoramic shot below, when clients walk into Fine Balance Imaging they see bold splashes of color almost anywhere they look.

Along with promotions for the studio’s services, visitors can see small exhibitions of the work produced by clients such as Michael Foley. His macrophotography series Miracles in Minutiae was printed on LexJet’s Sunset Select Matte Canvas and is displayed for everyone to see.  In the corner of the studio is a print on an aluminum sheet made possible with Golden Digital Grounds for Non-Porous Surfaces.  Hanging above the desk are paintings enlarged to 400% and printed onto Color Textiles Habotai Silk.  Most of the framed photographs were printed on Epson UltraSmooth Fine Art paper.

As for promotional graphics, a front counter sign is printed on LexJet Water-Resistant Polypropylene and the graphics in the I-Banner Stands are printed on either Water-Resistant Polypropylene or Water-Resistant Satin Cloth.

Fine Balance Imaging was founded in 2004, a couple of years after Nancy McFarland and her son Joe Menth had moved to Whidbey Island intending to start a small, family-run art gallery. Nancy and Joe are both photographers and artists at heart, but had worked mostly in technology-related careers that they never were fully passionate about.

At the art gallery, they started making small art prints for a few of their new artist friends. They opened Fine Balance Imaging in direct response to what the artists in the area said they needed. The fine-art business has since expanded to include an extensive array of capture, design, finishing, and marketing-support services for artists, photographers, small businesses, and consumers. These services include: high-end film and flatbed scanning; photography; graphic design; panorama stitching of multiple images; and photo restoration, color correction, and retouching.

But the bulk of the studio’s business revolves around wide-format printing of fine art, photographs, posters, banners, and displays. The studio uses the Epson Stylus Pro 4800, 7600, and 9800 printers with ColorByte Software’s ImagePrint RIP for consistent color from print to print.

For artists who want prints ready to sell at local festivals, Fine Balance will provide shrink-wrapped or polybagged mounted prints. Finishing options include UV-coating, hand deckling, or custom trimming.

As their services have expanded, so has their base of customers. And that’s why they needed to move to a bigger space and chose to do something more creative with their desks.  When more customers see for themselves the type of images that can be produced on Water-Resistant Cloth, Menth says, “More and more clients are using it to create frame-free, ready-to-hang art.” Fine Balance Imaging sells the prints complete with a simple hanging system made from dowels and satin cord.

This type of ingenuity in producing ready-to-hang prints that has made Fine Balance Imaging very popular with their clients. Plus, “Doing work that we truly love motivates us to uphold incredibly high standards,” says Joe.

He adds that, “Our clients don’t care what equipment is used to create their prints. They just care that we spend time with them personally to make sure that they’re happy when they leave, so they will come back to us again and again.”

You can read more about Fine Balance Imaging and how they find ways to help artists succeed in LexJet’s In Focus Newsletter (Vol. 4, No. 7) and in future posts on Studio LexJet. Or visit the Fine Balance Imaging website: www.fbistudios.com

Portrait Project Looks at Homelessness, Hope, and Gratitude

By Rob Finkel

At LexJet, many  customers tell us about how they are using their photography and printing skills to support worthy causes in their communities.  Jim Spelman of Jim Spelman Studios recently told me about the Hope in Focus  project that he is working on to support Carpenter’s Place, an agency that serves the chronically homeless in his hometown of Rockford, IL. 

Between now and November, Spelman will capture at least 1,000 portraits and stories from individuals from throughout the Rockford community. One of the goals is to “shatter stereotypes about the homeless” and inspire us all to feel more grateful for the things we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.  The portraits and stories are being gathered along with videotaped interviews to produce a traveling exhibition that will help raise funds to support Carpenter’s Place.  

The mission of Carpenter’s Place is to provide tools for rebuilding lives. It is a safe daytime, drop-in center that aids chronically homeless people, many of whom suffer from mental illness, substance abuse, or learning and emotional disabilities. Instead of simply providing a meal or a bed for the night then sending the person back to the streets, Carpenter’s Place helps each “guest” develop and implement a comprehensive Life Recovery Plan.  Homeless visitors to  Carpenter’s Place can store their personal belongings, shower, make phone calls, receive, and wash their clothes. When they are ready to move into more stable housing, donated furniture is made available to them.  

Spelman has already shot some images of the people who come to Carpenter’s Place for help. But he is also shooting portraits of any Rockford-area resident who will answer four basic questions:

1.            What does Home mean to you?

2.            What are you grateful for?

3.            What brings you hope?

4.            Have you ever been homeless? If so, how long?

Ultimately, the exhibition will be designed to make people think. It will not only convey some of the hardships of homelessness, but also the deep sense of gratitude people express when they receive everyday items that most of us take for granted (such as a pair of pants or basic toiletries). Executive Director Kay Larrick has observed that “The people who have the least seem to have the most gratitude.”

The Hope in Focus project just got underway a few weeks ago. But Spelman is already finding that people who don’t think they’ve been homeless, actually have been homeless at some point in their lives, even if only for a few days. 

In his photography business, Spelman specializes in shooting highly stylized beauty and fashion images for magazines. He also shoots fantasy/glamour sessions for high-school seniors.

For the Hope in Focus project, Spelman isn’t doing any cosmetic retouching. The portraits are each very detailed and very real. “I think there is such beauty in everyone’s individuality,” says Spelman.  

Although some people are initially startled to see unretouched photos these days, most are intrigued and amazed.

In addition to the shots taken at the Carpenter’s Place facility, Spelman will be shooting portraits in his studio, at the Rock River Valley YMCA, and at various art festivals and events throughout the summer.

 He isn’t the only creative professional working on the project. Brian Anderson of Cain & Company is developing a logo and PR materials. Videographer Andrew Reynolds of uchoosetv.com is shooting videos of several of the interviews and architect Joseph Zimmer is building a special walk-through house in which many of the portraits will be displayed. The Carpenter’s Place also has graphic designs and public-relations people involved.

The exhibition will open with a special event planned Nov. 4 in Jim’s spacious new studios. Representatives of the local news media will be invited, as well as the people featured in the portraits and the extensive network of volunteers and community leaders who support Carpenter’s Place.

Spelman plans to print all of the portraits himself using LexJet Sunset Photo papers and Water-Resistant Satin Cloth on his Epson Stylus Pro 9800. He has only been printing in-house for about six months but feels confident he can handle it.  

“I used to send everything to a lab,” says Spelman. “Labs are great, and they definitely have their place, but I love being able to print my work myself. In addition to having ultimate control over the image quality, the printer gives me the capacity to be more creative.”

Everyone who sits for a portrait and contributes comments to the project will receive a digital copy of the photo. Or, they can order large framed or unframed prints of their portraits, with 25% of the proceeds being donated to Carpenter’s Place.

“Right now there’s a lot of energy behind the Hope in Focus project,” says Spelman. He’s not entirely sure what direction the project will take by the time the exhibition opens in November.  He also plans to use some of the portraits in a book project he’s been working on for several years.

But one thing he does know is that many beneficiaries of the agency’s services are grateful to be participating. As Spelman observes, “They want their voices heard, because for many of them  Carpenter’s Place has helped save their lives.”

Rock-Solid Art Exhibited on Lightweight Fabric

©Leslie D. Bartlett, http://www.followthegleam.com

By Kelly Price

Arrive, to look. An artist’s statement can’t get much simpler than this. And these three little words accurately express the philosophy of Leslie D. Bartlett, the accomplished landscape photographer who now creates painting-like photographs of the beautiful natural stone formations that can be found deep in the historic quarries near Cape Ann in Massachusetts.

The formations are all that remains of the region’s once-thriving granite industry. In the early 1800s, Cape Ann inhabitants started cutting the peninsula’s 450-million-year-old granite into blocks at stone for the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, parts of the Statue of Liberty, and thousands of streets worldwide. 

Now, using the natural light reflecting off the Atlantic Ocean, Bartlett captures the richly textured stone motifs that have been forged by extreme weather, salt air, and the colors bleeding out from the oxidizing granite.

He then prints these images onto Water-Resistant Satin Cloth from LexJet using ImagePrint RIP software with his Epson Stylus Pro inkjet printers. The prints look so dimensional and detailed that many viewers feel as if they can almost reach out and touch the textured surface of the rock. The lightweight, wrinkle-resistant fabric makes it easy and economical for Bartlett to transport the prints from one site to another and hang them in different-sized gallery spaces.

Multiple Exhibitions: After he showed a few of his rockscapes at the Park Ave. Armory in New York, Bartlett was invited to present a four-month solo exhibition at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester, MA. Entitled Chapters on a Quarry Wall, the exhibit shown above contained 40 large images, including the series of five vertical panoramic prints (24-in. wide and 77-in. high) shown below. These prints show how the colors on the surface of a rock face changed in spring, summer, fall and winter.

These five images show the seasonal changes in the rockscapes from one spring to the next. ©Leslie D. Bartlett.

The Chapters on a Quarry Wall images were so extraordinary that Bartlett was invited to show some of them at the Soho/Photo gallery in New York in May, 2009. Now, he is preparing to present an updated, more extensive exhibition at the Vermont State Capitol this summer.

When the Chapters on a Quarry Wall images were shown at the Cape Ann Museum, Bartlett knew that many visitors to the Cape Ann Museum would like them, simply because they had lived near or grown up near the quarries where many of the images were shot. But he wasn’t sure if the images would evoke the same type of quiet contemplation when they were shown in New York. The Soho/Photo gallery in TriBeCa was established by a group of photojournalists from the NY Times and focuses more on extraordinary photography than local landmarks and history.

When visitors to the New York gallery reacted the same as people who saw the images in the Cape Ann museum, Bartlett realized that he had unearthed a real niche for himself as an artist.  Although his photographs aren’t actually paintings, he has since had them critiqued as if they were. This willingness to seek advice from artists has helped him bridge the gulf that sometimes separates those who use paint to create art from those who use cameras.

Bernard Chaet, the artist and well-known art professor at Yale University, wrote about Bartlett’s rockscapes in the show at the Cape Ann Historical Museum. Chaet commented “In the rocks of Cape Ann, he gives us a long extended trip of time and space. He must know that the viewer cannot scan his images; We must see his images slowly. His photographs hold amazing secrets.”

©Leslie D. Bartlett, http://www.followthegleam.com

Rebecca Reynolds, curator of the John and Margaret Manship Sculpture collection, noted that “Bartlett’s stonescapes are a sensitive tribute to the basic elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Demonstrating how careful documentation can become poetry, Bartlett records the world as he finds it, but with a frame of vision that intends to act upon the viewer and shift one’s perception.”

The power of each image comes partly from Bartlett’s willingness to watch and wait for that perfect gleam of light – often immediate light. He visits sites repeatedly to observe how the exposed surfaces of the stone warm and cool as the light shifts and the seasons change.

He meticulously edits each captured image to replicate the light, color, and details exactly as he saw them.  He uses the Nik Sharpener Pro plug-in to Photoshop to adjust how the large prints will appear from a viewing distance of 20 to 25 feet—the same distance from which he photographed the rockscapes.

To render the exquisite shadow and highlight detail when he prints the images, Bartlett uses ImagePrint RIP software with the correct printing profiles for the LexJet Water Resistant Satin Cloth. The images are then output one of the two pro-model inkjet printers he purchased from LexJet:  a 44-in. Epson Stylus Pro 9800 and 17-in. Epson Stylus Pro 3800.

When Bartlett first began specializing in natural stone photography six years ago, he printed exclusively on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper and framed the images behind glass. But framing quickly became impractical after he started shooting vertical panoramas and horizontal prints as large as 40 in. x 13 ft. He prints big because he wants viewers to experience the rockscapes in way that’s very real. The glass used in framing distracted from the dimensionality and distorted the look of his meticulously sharpened prints.

Byobu Folding Screen

Printing on LexJet’s Water-Resistant Satin Cloth now proves to be the perfect solution.  The inkjet-receptive material produces the rich detail his images demand and is ultra-easy to transport and install. Plus, there are no insurance and liability issues related to shipping the prints from one locale to another.

Bartlett is so pleased with the versatility of LexJet’s Water-Resistant Satin Cloth that he is using it to convert his rockscape artwork into a new line of byobu folding screens, and privacy screens for indoor and outdoor use. To learn more how to print superb photographic and art prints, you can contact Leslie Bartlett for a personalized printing consultation.

To learn more about the exceptional versatility of LexJet’s Water-Resistant Satin Cloth, call me or one of my associates at LexJet at 888-873-7553. We can recommend a variety of ways to turn your images into products that can help you expand your photography business.

Easy-to-Ship Photo Exhibition Honors World War I Veterans

An exhibition of extra-large photographs can be a powerful way to tell  important stories. Large, professionally produced photographs have the power to make people stop, look, and think. 

When a photo exhibition is particularly well done, it’s wonderful when people in other cities can also enjoy the experience of viewing it.  But the costs of shipping large, framed prints from city to city can quickly add up, making it impractical for photographers and non-profits or publicly funded groups to produce as many traveling exhibitions as they might like.    

An article entitled Education in Fabric in  Vol. 4,  No. 5 of LexJet’s In Focus newsletter describes how photographer David DeJonge used an inkjet-printable fabric from LexJet to create a lightweight, easy-to-ship photo exhibition that honors veterans of of World War I. The exhibit is scheduled to visit 1,000 school districts and be seen by as many as 2.5 million schoolchildren, teachers, and other viewers.

Photo banner honoring James Russell Coffey

DeJonge, who owns DeJonge Studio in Grand Rapids, Mich., started photographing the remaining veterans from World War I about 14 years ago as part of his Faces of Five Wars series, which depicts veterans from World War I through Desert Storm.  The initial project led to vast amounts of press coverage, an exhibit in the Pentagon, and the drive to build a national WWI monument. 

When the first exhibition was shown at Creekwood Middle School in Humble, Texas, DeJonge’s images were printed and framed. All together, the images weighed around 400 pounds and cost nearly $1,000 to ship round-trip.

The first exhibit was viewed by 3,000 people and raised more than $14,000 for the restoration and expansion of the World War I Memorial on the National Mall. Still, DeJonge realized that packing and shipping the framed prints to multiple sites would not only be expensive but cumbersome.

After DeJonge started researching ways to make it more feasible to present his photo exhibition at multiple sites, he chose LexJet Water Resistant Satin Cloth. He used the fabric to print 14 large banners that showcase the images and life stories of 13 Allied World War I veterans, including 108-year-old Frank W. Buckles who is the last living American veteran of World War I.

DeJonge printed the banners on his 44-in. Epson Stylus Pro 9880 wide-format inkjet printer. Each banner is 42 in. x 6-1/2 ft.  By presenting the photos as fabric banners instead of framed prints, DeJonge eliminated about 330 pounds from the shipping weight of the exhibition.  Plus, the banners can be rolled up for shipping, making it easy to transport the exhibition from school to school within the 1,000 school districts the tour is scheduled to visit.

As for the quality of the image reproduction, DeJonge says he was very pleased with LexJet’s Water Resistant Satin Cloth: “It provides good flesh tones and smooth transitions between the shadow and highlight areas.” He also praised the clarity of the text reproduction on each banner, adding that, “I have never experienced anything like it with a similar printable material.” 

To read the full story in LexJet’s In Focus newsletter, click here.  

To learn more about how to use Water-Resistant Satin Cloth to produce easy-to-hang photo banners, contact a LexJet account specialist at 888-873-7553. 

For other creative ideas for using inkjet-printable materials and pro-model wide-format inkjet printers, subscribe to LexJet’s In Focus newsletter.