Like all of our sister divisions in ARC, we are focusing a great deal on helping our customers create awareness of their services, products and value through the production of outstanding promotions.  If your plans for 2010 include promotion – whether that be a POP display, signage, or other high-impact displays – here are five tips for creating an eye-popping and value-oriented projects.

Tip#1: More dots aren’t always better; it’s the type of dot that counts

Color quality is often assumed to be a factor of resolution – the denser the pixel count, the better. And while that’s a safe bet for computer monitors and television screens, it can be misleading when it comes to printed materials. When you discuss your project with our production staff, make sure to describe what you’re trying to achieve and how the sign or display will be used. Are you looking to impress, capture attention, or simply inform? Will it hang from the ceiling? Adhere to a storefront window? Mount to a frame to be seen from the sidewalk or road?

With a huge variety of output options and substrates (see Tip #2), we can help you determine not only the quality of print you need, but the best output device, as well as the best value for your project. If you can accomplish your goals with a high-end inkjet print and forgo the continuous-tone, photographic-quality print you had in mind, you might be able to reallocate your budget to include some cool mounting alternatives, or a custom cut-out.

Tip #2: What you print it on is just as important as what you print

Toner, like ink, is absorbed into a substrate; how much it’s absorbs often determines how vibrant the color is. Over the years, paper manufacturers have put as much R&D into how papers react to digital printing technologies as they previously did with offset presses, and the differences are huge. Papers with “hard” finishes are typically more expensive, but not always. If you laminate your pieces, any shine you might be looking for from the paper will be overwhelmed by the finishing process, so why pay for it?

Likewise, if you use a “softer” finish paper, too much resolution (see Tip #1) will result in muddy color as the dots bleed and blur as the toner is absorbed in the substrate. A quick talk with our production department can steer you in the right direction.

Tip #3: Cut-outs capture attention

Not every job needs a cut-out of a celebrity in front of it to capture people’s attention, but shaping your display can make a big difference in how it’s perceived. Got a coffee cup that’s prominent in the graphic? Print it separately on a direct-to-substrate printer and have our production department use our high-speed, robotic cutters to slice out everything from the handle to the steam coming out of the cup! Flat displays have their place, but silhouettes and layered graphics add dimensionality that can sometimes draw more attention that the most vibrant color.

Tip #4: Installing your ideas

The graphic that was meant to turn heads can easily be ignored if it’s in the wrong place, lit poorly, or hung upside down (it happens, believe us!). We can’t say it enough: Talk to us about your objectives and the context in which your promotional graphic will be used. We have professionals who can not only fit your print on an arched ceiling, but who can recommend the proper hardware and lighting considerations for all the great work you do.

Tip #5: Choose your supplier carefully (Hint, hint)

Anyone can talk about how good their service is and how talented their people are, but the proof is in the pudding – so make sure to taste the pudding! We’d like to invite you in to see the variety of production options that are open to you. A shop tour can be an eye-opening experience. It can also give you the chance to talk about options, ideas and new techniques or technologies to get you ready for your next big project, before the deadline is bearing down on you. Call us today and schedule an hour in our facilities; we think you’ll walk away impressed and excited about your next promotion.

We’ve got more great information to share with you on how to make your projects work harder. To talk with one of us about your next job, click here.

The venerable Fraunces Tavern Museum in New York collaborated with our Ridgway’s division in Houston, TX last week to come up with supportive signage for its “Foundations of Freedom” exhibit – to be built around display of the Magna Carta and other historic items at the museum Sept. 15 through December 15.

For this rare and historic viewing, Ridgway’s developed specialized signage and printed banners for use in the museum’s exhibit rooms. The job included the creation of four 9’x9’ fabric banners, printed and sewn back to back.

The museum wanted someone who cared about how history was presented and we fit the bill. If you have a similar job and would like to talk with someone about it, Contact Us and we’ll be sure to contact you.

The Tampa, FL treatment facility wanted to brighten its treatment rooms and give patients pastoral scenes to “wander through,” instead of having people look at cold and unexciting ceiling tiles.

These “medical murals,” a growing trend among hospitals and doctor’s offices, were produced recently at our division in Orlando and now grace the ceilings of treatment and diagnostic rooms at the center. We ran them off on our 350GT and made the center – and their patients – “very happy.”

If you have a large office space you would like transformed, Contact Us and we’ll be sure to contact you.

It’s easy if you know how to do it, and we do. Recently, Color Representative Jamie Scott at Imaging Technologies in Greenville, SC handled such a request on behalf of a local telecommunications company. An industry leader in fiber optic products, engineering and integrated telecommunications services, the company had just rolled out its 150,000th kilometer of fiber optic cable and they wanted to call attention to that achievement as the spool made its way across country by flatbed truck.

Not only did the signage need to be highly visible, it had to be weather resistant as it made its way cross-country from manufacturer to client. And that’s what we did. How about you? Do you have a product milestone you’d like to celebrate in a unique way? Contact us now to learn more.

One of our crack installers is Dmitri Smirnoff. With an engineer’s mind and an artist’s touch, Dmitri can work graphics into the smallest corners, across the largest ceiling, and everything in between. Based in Canada, he helps a number of ARC shops make their most high-profile jobs into minor works of art.

Together with wingman Eugene Volhovitski, Dmitri has recently completed visual makeovers for retail locations in San Francisco, Chicago, Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver.

“He was amazing,” says an admiring client who met Dmitri during a hurry-up install at a mall in the San Francisco Bay Area. “He came down from a job in Canada and saved our bacon! He worked day and night… overcoming overzealous security guards, huffing a ton of rented scaffolding, and got it all done before the mall opened the next morning. He’s a magician.”

Printing your graphics is what we do best, but we know how important installation can be to an effective presentation. Contact us today and ask for installation ideas to make your work stand up and stand out!

We showed the owner’s architect a specially designed application for brick and other textured wall surfaces that lends graphics a comfortably broken in, Old World feel. As the product can be safely removed without damaging the walls at a later date – an option the architect wanted to keep open – it was just the thing our client was looking for.

First to go up was a venerable beer logo, printed to give it the weathered look of a painted wall sign. The client loved it, and three more logos went up at the Cleveland location – with the client ordering additional signage for more than 10 other restaurants.

Got that “everything old is new again” kind of challenge? Contact us today and let our production and installation specialists find new ways to capture that “Old World” ambience.