Impressive Printed Sandblast Entrance Sign
Please let SignForce know your opinion on how this printed sandblast vinyl entrance looks.
In the very biased opinion of the writer this entrance vinyl for Lamna Financial (https://www.lamna.co.za/lamna-johannesburg/) looks phenomenal. All the colors came out well and the visual elements all line up.
The reality is this end product took multiple – 4 – yes FOUR – iterations to get right, much to the very understandable frustration of the client and the team at SignForce.
You may rightly ask how or why such a simple looking vinyl entrance would take so many iterations to get right. While the answer is simple, it is also multi faceted.
The first iteration had the color of the dark blue coming out as green – this was because the yellow tiny of the sandblast effect vinyl did not get the message to look more like white. Grade 1 art teachers that mixing primary colors of yellow and blue makes green – hence the dark blue printed vinyl looked more green than blue.
The 2nd iteration was to correct the view from the rear – not the primary intended view of the sign but one in which the rear is visible (from the entrance foyer) and where any faults in the sign, the print and the vinyl, are highlighted because of the proximity of the viewer and light to dark ratio.
Unfortunately the vinyl also failed! Technically this is most likely as a result of the sandblast effect vinyl being too saturated with aggressive original Roland inks. The opinion of the writer (without any backup from the manufacturers of either the ink or the vinyl) is that the edges began to curl because of the change in the physical compound of the vinyl which became much softer than normal once saturated with ink – (welcome to the chemistry of signage 001). The vinyl manufacturers were dismissive when approached with a failure claim because you would not guess, the vinyl is not made for printing!!
The 3rd iteration did not get the curves to line up correctly, making any errors scream out and making the entire logo and visual look WRONG.
At this point one could ask why the application of machine cut vinyl to a flat glass window would not line up 100%.
The answer is that life is not that simple! While the GLASS that the vinyl is being applied to is flat, the full windows – including frames (aka mullions) are not. In fact the aluminium ‘mullions’ between the glass panes are each approximately 80 mm wide and 50 mm deep. What this means is that when the vinyl is applied it would have to ‘climb’ the mullion, making it ‘short’ on the next window. This complication is fairly common in signage and is similar to the complication encountered when one has to make an ON PAPER 3D picture into a physical 3D sign.
The 4th iteration meant that each machine cut element needed to be modified so each printed vinyl element could be individually lined up and hand trimmed. This application required a two person team with one person doing the application work up close and the other being the ‘eyes’ behind the sign (from inside) in order to assess and instruct on the lining up in order to make the vinyl visually correct.
While the finished product looks amazing and, for the uninformed surely makes the job look simple, that simplicity could be the secret of a job well done. Going back to complete the work regardless of what is involved, making the client’s sign look great AND making it look simple.
If you are looking for a sign business that is capable of, and not scared to handle, simple and complex jobs, SignForce is the sign business for you.
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