The Big Picture - April 2014 - (Page 10)

upfront Finding Ways To Exploit White Ink Feeding Biker Frenzy WrapMeUp in Pune, India, created the graphics for 10 wrapped motorcycles - including this one - for India Bike Week (indiabikeweek.in), which took place in January of this year, in Goa, India. Built around bikes, bikers, and music, Indian Bike Week drew more than 7000 motorcycle enthusiasts to its second annual event. WrapMeUp (wrapmeup.in) used its HP LP25500 printer with HP Latex inks for output, and also executed the install work on all 10 bikes. WrapMeUp is part of Shree Chintamani Enterprises, a digital-print company based in Pune. Image courtesy of team-bhp.com. "If you look under the hood of successful companies, you'll find that they are made up of people working together in an atmosphere that is conducive to civility and good cheer. There's no way to institutionalize or 'corporatize' niceness..." - Peter Shankman, from his book, Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management is Over - and Collaboration is In (Palgrave/ Macmillan). He is co-founder of Shankman | Honig, (shankmanhonig. com) a global consultancy that helps companies better utilize their customer service to increase revenues and decrease marketing costs. 10 THE BIG PICTURE April 2014 Woody Molinaro, owner of Invisible Light Manufacturing (ilmfg.com) in Elk Grove, Illinois, considers Mutoh's ValueJet 1617H an investment helping broaden his horizons, both commercially and creatively. He's not using its white ink option every day - not yet anyway - but he is continually exploring and finding new ways to exploit it. "White ink is something I first ran across when there was a print project I couldn't do," because he lacked that capability, he says. Already an owner of Mutoh's ValueJet 1617, Molinaro upgraded to the newer hybrid flatbed/ rollfed printer and its white-ink capabilities last year. "It gives me more flexibility in what I do for my customers and the products I can offer," he says. Photographers were among the early adopters of Invisible Light's new capabilities, tapping this option for reverse printing of color photos on clear acrylic. Backed with 100-percent white, these panels are then cut to size for use as photo album covers. "Each measures about 12 x 12 inches and we typically produce anywhere from 12 to 16 to as many as 30 at a time," he says. This low-volume work can command a premium price, he notes. For another client, white proved critical for a more limited run of prototype packaging for distribution to its clients. "They wanted to give their customer samples which look exactly like the final packaging," he explains. The client provided the rolled film which he spot printed with white, then over printed in specified colors. Molinaro has also used white in floor graphics for trade shows, reverse printing colors on textured 5 x 10foot panels of 75-mil clear floor vinyl. The color graphics were backed with 100-percent white, then a foam board backing applied before panels were installed. "The combination of the white, backed with the foam board really punched the colors nicely," he notes. In a similar way, he's printed white along the back edges of black PVC panels for a unique effect, or laid down a layer of white on the front before printing in color for point-of-purchase. "White allows you to do some unique things," he observes. "It's given me a lot of options I haven't even explored yet." Confident as he is in its future, there are challenges: "Speed is still the number one problem - it's definitely a lot slower than printing CMYK." Still, that's not too much of an issue, considering all it allows him to achieve. "It really comes down to what the application is, and what the customer wants in that final image," he says. "A lot of what we've been doing is printing photo-quality where it may not have been possible without white ink." - Mike Antoniak http://www.ilmfg.com http://www.indiabikeweek.in http://www.wrapmeup.in http://www.team-bhp.com http://www.shankmanhonig.com http://www.shankmanhonig.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Big Picture - April 2014

The Big Picture - April 2014
Contents
InSight
Wide Angle
Up Front
Graphics on the Go
Dynamic Signage
Go Big or Go Home
RIP Chord: Creating a Harmonious Workflow
Weighing in on the RIP
The Ups and Downs of an Escalator Wrap
R+D
Explorer

The Big Picture - April 2014