Context is Everything

When we talk to our customers and future customers about print jobs, we tend to ask a lot of questions that sometimes may seem taxing but they all serve a purpose: to recommend the most appropriate substrate for the job.

As you probably know, the substrate is the underlying material, for example, foam core or metal, to be selected based on how a given printed piece will be used and where it will be placed.

So describe the context for us:  Will it be installed on the side of building, on a construction zone fence, on a box truck or in a small conference room, trade show booth or adhered to a jar or bottle? Do you want it to weather Colorado’s four seasons or will be it be used for one short event? Then we can talk about your substrate options.

We will be covering substrates over a couple of blogs; there are so many--and so many uses--we can’t do this topic justice in just one! This first blog will focus on some of the most widely used indoor and outdoor substrates:

Indoor:  Foam Core, ULTRA BOARD, Styrene and PVC

Foam Core (aka foam board) is a very strong, lightweight and easily cut material. It consists of three layers — an inner layer of polystyrene clad with outer facing of either a white clay coated paper or brown Kraft paper.* Available in approx. 1/8” and 3/16” thicknesses, a variety of colors and sizes up to 96" x 48", is it choice material for signage that will be used for a short time only such as periodic meetings, trade shows and special events.

ULTRA BOARD is idea for indoors. ULTRA BOARD is a lightweight structural panel consisting of a rigid polystyrene foam core faced on both sides by a smooth, moisture resistant sheet of solid polystyrene.** Available in a variety of thicknesses from 3/16” to 1”, it can be cut with a standard table saw into any custom shape and is an excellent choice for signage, photo mounting, exhibits, and point-of-purchase displays.

Styrene is plastic and suitable for indoor and outdoor short-term applications. It is sometimes called poster board and is considered one of the best surfaces for large format photography prints. This product is resistant to weather (but not long-term UV exposure), bumps, drops and scratches while being lightweight and flexible. It is delivered in large flat sheets and then custom cut into any shape. Available in a variety of thickness and sizes it can be printed on both sides. 

PVC (PolyVinyl Chloride) is a plastic durable and lightweight material available in a variety of colors, sizes and in rigid and flexible formats. This workhorse material can be shaped from 4’ x 8’ sheets into custom designs and is a good choice for short-term exterior uses. You see it everywhere as directional signage, at retail, in meeting rooms, and in grocery stores as shelf signs.

Outdoor:  Max-metal/Dibond and Coroplast

Max-metal and Dibond are used often for rugged environments (building and road construction sites) and for signs that will stay up and out for years (Don’t Feed the Animals, Joe's Bistro). Max-metal is two paper-thin sheets of aluminum with a black plastic core. Dibond is an aluminum composite material (ACM) of two pre-painted sheets of 0.012” aluminum with a solid polyethylene core. Indoor applications include retail cabinet signs, menu boards and an endless number of posters. You can get metal or aluminum signs printed in full color and in any size and shape you want!

Coroplast is a corrugated plastic similar in structure to corrugated cardboard and available in sheets up to 5’ x 10’. Produced to print on flatbed printers, coroplast is widely used for political signs, real estate signs, sport-themed cutouts, event signs and other shaped signs.





Our next blog will cover materials for walls, windows and floors. Don’t hesitate to contact us anytime with questions about these or other substrates you are considering at denver@speedprodenver.com, 303.426.4199 or www.speedprodenver.net. We also welcome your suggestions for topics and materials to cover.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foamcore

**http://www.ultraboard.com/ultraboard/specs
Coroplast is a registered trademark of Coroplast, LLC
Dibond is a registered trademark of 3A Composites USA

Affordable, Easy Transformations

It’s nearly spring! For some, it’s time to start planning spring gardens and freshening up interiors with lighter, brighter colors. Along those same lines, it might be the right time to start thinking about visual transformations you can make at your workplace. Investments in colorful graphics can pay premiums in increasing brand awareness, reinforcing a brand, or a thoughtful way to introduce a new brand within an existing product or service “family.” You already know that color matters, so do a quick audit of your surroundings to make sure you are using it to your competitive advantage.

Create Drama Using Color!

Using the tried-and-true color wheel to plan your own color scheme is the right place to start any design project. After you decide on your primary color, the additions to your palette will show themselves. Are you promoting chocolate brown coffee? A saturated green is a great complement (sound familiar coffee lovers?). If your setting has a natural wood texture, only saturated colors will do! If your setting is clear, for example, a lobby door, you can add color and even keep it transparent.

If your logo is driving all designs and is a comfortable, familiar blue, consider adding warm colors like red, yellow, orange and beige to supporting graphics. Besides complementing your blue, those color choices will make it pop even more. If your logo is already in the warm color family, then add a splash of a cold color; green, blue or gray.

Pastels work great on eye-level store-front windows or on posters and handouts but when designing for large format print, think saturation. A bright cobalt blue instead a soft light blue makes a significant visual difference—especially on a large scale.

Try reversing out your logo to white or black and put it against a bold, bright background to keep your look fresh.

SpeedPro Imaging of Denver specializes in transformations and would like the opportunity to bid on yours. We turn cars into baseballs, brick walls into announcements to show off blue ribbon awards, and non-descript escalator rides into colorful trips down Bourbon Street.

We’ve worked with hospitals, corporations, golf courses, advertising agencies, telecomm companies, casinos, schools, hotels, real estate agencies, sports teams, lawyers, and shopping centers to visually add interest to retail windows, business lobbies, conference rooms, hallways, elevators (doors and interiors) and escalators, and all types of windows (inside and out).

Then, our clients come back to us to provide great big graphics for internal and external special events and to wrap their fleets! 

Check out our impressive and extensive portfolio then contact us at 303.426.4199, denver@speedprodenver.com or www.speedprodenver.net