Every once in a while we run into a customer that wishes their vehicle or trailer was a different color so they could simply put some large decals on it. For instance, their trailer is white, but they wish it were black in order to have a dark background to apply large decals to. There are actually two ways to handle this issue if you want to go ahead and change the background color of your vehicle in addition to having lettering or graphics installed. One way is to wrap the trailer first with your desired solid color (or paint it – see our previous post on that), and then apply cut graphics on top of that.

Another way, which may turn out being more cost effective while giving you the same look, is to design all of your elements into the trailer wrap instead. This way it cuts the process down to a one-step application process (application of a wrap incorporating both the background color and designs/lettering) rather than a two-step process (first applying the color change wrap, then applying cut graphics on top of that). The same look can be achieved either way for your vehicle wrap, so the option is yours!

Give Sign Innovations a call at (704) 439-4700 today so we can show you how.

Deanna Duke
Sign Innovations
704-439-4700

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If you’re just starting to explore the option of a vehicle wrap, you may be wondering, “Why should I wrap my car instead of paint it?” If you compare “apples to apples” and consider a top quality paint job (we’re not talking about the bargain brand paint jobs you see TV ads for), you can be looking at a price tag that is as much as a decent used car. If done right, the car must be sanded, primed, and then painted, a process which can take up to two weeks. If you skip any of those steps, it results in a much lower price, but you also get a much lower quality paint job which will look awful in a relatively short amount of time. The fact is, just like with vehicle wrap providers, if you’re looking for good quality, the price tag will reflect it.

In comparison, a high quality vehicle wrap will end up costing you less overall while also giving you a ton of options in design, material, and textures that paint simply can’t provide. Here are some other thoughts to consider:

• A wrap is removable. If you ever change your mind, you can simply have the wrap removed.
• A wrap won’t hurt your vehicle’s finish – in fact, it will actually help to preserve and shield it from the effects of weather and paint chips. If you have a new car, your car’s finish will still look new once the wrap is removed. Basically, whatever your car looks like when the wrap is installed is what it will look like when it’s removed. Preserving your vehicle’s original finish may even help with the resale value of your car (especially if you’re thinking about a color like neon lime green).
• A wrap gives you countless finish and design options. Whether it’s a color change with a different textured finish you’re after (for instance, white alligator, gray carbon fiber, brushed aluminum in blue, matte pink, or even chrome), or you want to add digital imagery or other graphic design tricks, the sky’s the limit! Whether you have an exotic sports car or a work truck, we can formulate the custom design that’s right for you – and change it out to a new one as frequently as you’d like.
• Wraps can generally be professionally installed in two days but will last for years with the proper care and maintenance.

Give Sign Innovations a call now at (704) 439-4700 to find out more about how to give your vehicle a breathtaking, professionally wrapped finish all your own for years to come!

Deanna Duke
Sign Innovations
704-439-4700

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If you’ve ever spent hours pouring over volumes of wallpaper books just to find that nobody seems to be offering exactly what you’re looking for, custom wallpaper may be the solution for you.

So why would you want to use a custom-printed wallpaper, and how is it alike or different from wall mural material? Just like adhesive vinyl used for wall murals, custom wallpaper can be printed with any design or image that your heart desires, offering huge flexibility in what you display. But unlike a wall mural, custom wallpaper gives you much greater flexibility to choose how you display those images by also incorporating texture. We can print your custom design on wallpapers that look and feel like sandpaper, brick, alligator, leather, linen or even plaster. Instead of having to actually construct a brick wall, we can print a wall that looks a lot like brick but at a fraction of the cost. If you have ever consulted with an interior designer on creating a stucco-look within the interior of a room through custom plaster application, you might want to also consider custom printed wallpaper. It can produce the same look and feel but at a much lower cost, and it may also be easier to remove. Similarly, if you’ve been considering a custom painted wall mural but don’t like the price of hiring an artist or perhaps the smoothness of a vinyl wall mural, we can print the scene that you envision on wallpaper that looks like an oil canvas and is much more cost effective. Depending on the type, some custom printed wallpapers can be applied like adhesive vinyl used for wall murals (using an adhesive backing), and some are applied exactly the way you would apply any other wallpaper.

Custom wallpaper can be used for residential, retail, restaurant, office interior, and hotel guest room applications to name a few. Added to this, our wallpaper is produced from 20% post-consumer recycled content and meets builder LEED qualifications and requirements. Call Sign Innovations today at (704) 439-4700 to see all of the wallpaper options available to you.

Deanna Duke
Sign Innovations
704-439-4700

Tags: custom designed wall murals Charlotte NC, custom designed wallpaper, custom printed wallpaper Charlotte NC, custom wallpaper, interior wall murals, textured interior wall murals, vinyl wall display, vinyl wall mural, Wall Graphics, wall graphics Huntersville NC, wall graphics installation, wall mural, wall mural installation, wall murals Charlotte NC, wall wrap

The cost of any sign depends on many factors. One of the first things that we will ask you is “What is your budget?” This is an extremely important first step, as it can steer us towards some options and away from others, but we will only be able to know which options to suggest once we know what your budget will allow. Many people have an idea of what type of sign they like, but they haven’t always thought much about the investment behind it. A prominent sign such as an exterior building sign or an interior lobby sign is meant to be a part of your business for a very long while. Your initial investment will impact your business for a number of years, and it can be one of the best values your advertising dollars will bring you. When compared to television, radio, newspapers, billboards, or direct mail, studies have shown that signs are the most cost effective form of advertising. And for something like a vehicle wrap, which turns your vehicle into a mobile advertising platform, this can result in over a million views per year in a market such as our own Charlotte, NC market. Think about it – your sign will be on the job advertising for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year!

Sign Innovations can advise you on the many choices you have which may affect the cost of your sign. But just to give you some things to think about beforehand, consider the following:

• What message are you trying to convey? Take an introspective look at your own brand. Are you a value brand or a luxury brand? Who are your customers? The approach you take to your signage also should convey what you and your company stand for. Are you an attorney’s office? Retail outlet? Fitness facility? Each of these businesses conjure up different thoughts and expectations in our mind. Choice of font style, letter thickness, colors or even materials all come into play.
• How will your sign be viewed? Do you need a very large sign that needs to not only be visible directly in front of your building, but also from a highway or other vantage point? What are your business hours, and will your sign need to be visible at night? In this case, you may want to consider a sign that can be illuminated during evening hours or in inclement weather.
• Do you have any size or code restrictions? You may not be familiar with all of your city’s codes, and we can of course help in that regard. However, you probably are familiar with the amount of space you have to work with. Whether an exterior or interior sign, the size of the space can also determine the scale of the sign. For example, if you have an enormous lobby space that is 30 feet wide, you probably wouldn’t want to design a sign that is only two feet wide. It must be the right fit for the space and also fit within any city requirements or building restrictions.

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Vehicle graphics and wraps are simply a smart company investment. Today’s rules of advertising are changing rapidly, and traditional “push” methods such as print advertising or even television ads are declining. The results are hit or miss at best, so the investment may not have a clear return. In our increasingly mobile society, the methods that are successful at reaching our customer base today are geared towards taking advantage of the short amounts of time that you actually have a customer’s attention, and vehicle advertising fits very nicely into that position.

Vehicle graphics and wraps in particular are attention grabbers, and can produce high impact without a high cost. In our Charlotte, North Carolina metro area, these mobile billboards can produce thousands of visual impressions a day, and if you have a fleet of vehicles traveling the metro area, multiply that effect by each vehicle. Conversely, if you don’t have vehicle graphics on your company vehicles, think of all of the missed opportunities you have as your trucks wait at a stoplight or on the freeway next to dozens of other drivers. One positive to our increasing traffic problems? Your vehicle advertising becomes even more effective as people have more time to observe the vehicles around them! Studies have shown that vehicle advertising offers the greatest return on your investment when compared to television, magazine, newspaper, prime time TV, radio and outdoor advertising. Millions of vehicle impressions per year and an investment of just cents on the dollar result in a smart choice for any company with precious few dollars to spend on advertising. There is a reason that just about every large corporation utilizes vehicle advertising of some kind.

Sign Innovations can design vehicle graphics for any budget. Whether you have money to spare or have to closely guard every penny, we can devise the vehicle advertising plan that works for you. If you want a cost effective solution, we can devise a tailored plan for your business that can encompass cut vinyl graphics, lettering, or window graphics. If you are interested in vehicle wraps, whether you want a partial design or a full wrap, we can help you to personalize your vehicle or fleet with full color graphics and imaging to meet your unique messaging needs. Did you know that a wrap actually helps to preserve your vehicle’s finish? The durable wrap material actually acts as a shield to protect the finish from road chips and the elements.

No matter what your style, budget or messaging needs, vehicle graphics are a smart and effective option for today’s advertising. Call Sign Innovations today at (704) 439-4700 for a tailored solution that best fits your needs.

Deanna Duke
Sign Innovations
704-439-4700

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Banners have evolved tremendously with advances in technology over the years. Advances in material, inks and digital manufacturing equipment and processes make banners even more durable and long-lasting, while also providing high visibility with full color graphics. Placed in a high traffic area, you will find that they are an extremely cost effective solution to promote your business, product, event, sale or even a special message to your employees. Some companies even choose to utilize a number of banners in their production areas to tout a record they are proud of (# of days without a reportable injury), an award winner (employee of the month), or an upcoming town hall meeting. They aren’t just for trade shows, sporting events or grand openings!

But speaking of trade shows, let’s take a look at a number of different uses for banners as an example of their versatility. First of all, you can have several banners placed at strategic locations directing people to the show or to your specific booth. Ever spent too much time looking for that very small booth number in the show guide? Well, banners can remedy that. They can be placed at hotels, where people depart bus transport, or even inside the convention center or meeting space. If you are having a special event or training course onsite, you can have specially made banners to direct people to these other locations or to welcome your guests. If your training room happens to move at the last minute, banners are lightweight and easily moved to the next designated room. And of course, you can use banners to advertise your new product rollouts at the booth itself. Have a special company dinner event in conjunction with your show? Banners are ultra-easy to take down and install again, so take them along as another opportunity to spread your message. At the end of the show, just properly roll your banners in a PVC or thick cardboard tube, and they are ready to use for the next event.

Today’s banner options are many, including options for size, color and materials. You might want to have your brand message communicated on both sides, and the banner can be made of traditional vinyl or fabric choices. Banners can have grommets for hanging or they can be standing teardrop, flag or other shapes.

Traditional banners are generally used for temporary uses such as a special sporting event, promotion or business opening, but with limited use and proper care and maintenance, even exterior banners can be used time and again. Using high quality materials, your banners will be able to withstand all types of weather, from the harshest sun to wind and rain, while still maintaining bold full-color graphics.

Banners can provide an effective and eye-catching messaging solution without breaking your budget. Call Sign Innovations today at (704) 439-4700 to find out about the multitude of banner options available to you.

Deanna Duke
Sign Innovations
704-439-4700

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Trade show displays come in all shapes and sizes. It’s a good idea to know what is available to you and also how these resources can fit into your overall event and marketing plan. Let’s start with banner stands. They are easily transportable and can of course carry any images or messaging that you desire. They also have a wide range of prices depending on their construction and durability, so consider your purpose and frequency of use carefully. Some are pop-up style made to be used with one image for the life of the stand, and some come with more sophisticated retracting mechanisms and can withstand frequent change-out of your graphics. As in many cases, a higher investment in the short term for a banner stand may pay off in the long run with a much longer life and versatility of use.

Another highly portable option is a tabletop display. These can come in more modern, curved options, or can even be folded for the ultimate in portability. If you have a larger space to fill, you can opt for a full back wall display. Again, the options here are numerous, as a wall can be straight or curved, or even form a wave design. Walls can hold any number of choices for your graphics and messaging and can also be made of different materials. Height can also be adjusted according to the ceiling height of the space you will be displaying in.

One of the more popular systems to use for trade show displays is a truss system. Whether you have a smaller 10′ x 10′ space or a much larger space to cover, there are endless configuration options. Oftentimes, a system can be configured in a modular way so that it has extreme versatility. This allows you to modify the system for use according to the size of your space, and also stretches your trade show dollars. If you attend numerous shows throughout the year with differing booth sizes, this may be something to consider.

Lastly, don’t forget the many selections in flags or floor pop-up displays. These also come in different shape, size and height options and can be added as supplemental pieces to liven up your overall booth design or emphasize different areas or products in an economical way.

Whether you will be attending a conference and will only need a single retractable banner stand, or whether you will need a much more extensive truss system for a 20′ x 20′ trade show space, we can help to devise the system that works for you, your objectives, and your budget. Call Sign Innovations today at (704) 439-4700 for a free trade show consult.

Deanna Duke
Sign Innovations
704-439-4700

Tags: banner stand, exhibit display, exhibit displays Charlotte NC, exhibit displays Huntersville NC, fabric trade show display, pop up banners, pop-up trade show wall, portable trade show displays, retractable banner, retractable banner and stand, roll-up banner, Signs Charlotte, trade show booth, trade show booth Charlotte NC, trade show booth graphics, trade show display, trade show displays Charlotte, trade show displays Charlotte NC, trade show displays Huntersville NC, trade show wall

With today’s digital printing technologies and printable materials, the options for wall murals are almost limitless – and this is true whether we’re talking about a commercial or residential environment.  These days, if you can dream it up, you can decorate your walls with it!

How? One way to do this is by using stock imagery from an image library.  Another way is to engage the help of a talented graphic artist or professional photographer to create your own high-resolution personalized artwork, or you can use a combination of these methods to create a unique, integrated look all your own.  Our talented professional graphic designers at Sign Innovations can step you through the entire process and determine which direction is right for you.

The ways in which you can use wall art vary just as much, and they can range from very simple to complex.  Here are some examples:

• Showcasing an image of your child’s favorite sports figure in their room or your favorite sports figure in a den or “man cave” (or even an image of your child)
• Creating a setting that totally immerses someone in a completely different environment.  This is done by fully covering the walls in a room (for example, our break room walls and floor depict a Japanese tea garden)
• Using a simple repeated pattern of your choice to break up a single paint color along hallways
• Telling a story – whether it be a story of the history, product offerings, or evolution of your company – on a prominent wall in your commercial facility
• Adding visual interest with graphic patterns to office walls
• Providing privacy in glass wall office settings by putting an etched or frosted look on the windows

At a high level, there are basically three choices for materials:  1) vinyl, 2) fabric, or 3) wallpaper.  So how do you choose?  All of these materials have different uses and properties, and of course we’re talking about special materials specifically made for digital printing.  Adhesive-backed vinyl is by far the most common material used today.  Once printed, a liner backing is removed, allowing the vinyl to be adhered to the wall by a professional installer.  Fabric can also work the same way, however, some fabrics offer another option for installation similar to traditional wallpaper application methods.  Some wallpapers these days also offer an adhesive backing for ease of installation, but most are still applied by the traditional method after printing.

There are many considerations to take into account when choosing a material, including the look you’re trying to achieve as well as the level of durability needed. Fabric will have its inherent characteristics, and vinyl will have a smooth appearance.  The look is obviously personal preference; they will both be good, just different. Durability and ease of cleaning are other considerations, taking into account how much “traffic” is expected in your chosen location and how the space is used. A commercial setting where you don’t anticipate soiling or scuffing of the walls will have different options than say, a nursery wall for preschoolers.  A laminated vinyl will be much more forgiving in the latter setting.  Another consideration is how long you want the wall mural to be in place.  If you anticipate a short duration – months rather than years, both vinyl and fabric have options that offer easier removability.

Cost is frequently a factor in the decision process as well. In general, vinyl will be somewhat lower in cost than fabric, but there may be some exceptions to this rule depending on the particular choice. Bear in mind that other factors than material cost can affect the overall expense. Installation cost must also be factored in, along with potential wall preparation. In the case of vinyl, generally to guarantee proper adhesion, if the wall is painted sheetrock, it should be painted with semi-gloss paint, which may be an extra added expense that has to be included in the overall project cost.

As you can see, the options for wall art and graphics are many!  Let the professionals at Sign Innovations guide you in the right direction for your next project to transform your space.  Give us a call at (704) 439-4700 where we can step you through the process, present you with some ideas and even show you some samples.

Deanna Duke
Sign Innovations
704-439-4700

Tags: interior wall murals, Signs Charlotte, Wall Graphics, wall murals Charlotte NC

Whether you’re just starting a business and own one pickup truck, or you have a thriving business with a fleet of box trucks, you need graphics to advertise your brand message!  Have you ever stopped at a traffic light and wondered what business the truck next to you is involved in?  It’s just stark white – but to us, it’s a blank canvas that should be taken full advantage of!

A wrap will turn your truck into a moving billboard and let people know who you are and what you do, 24/7.  It will expand your customer base and also build your brand awareness and your professional appearance to potential customers.  Everyone is on the go these days – why not use the time that you’re on the road to further build your business?  According to 3M, even a single intra-city truck can generate up to 16 million visual impressions in one year!  In study after study, fleet and vehicle graphics rank as both the most cost effective and the most influential form of advertising media.  And if you really want to get creative, you can even optimize your graphics and messaging according to your truck routes, creating specific messages targeted at different areas.  This gives you even more control over the cost effectiveness of your advertising.

Ready to put your blank canvas to work for you?  You’ll first work with our consultants and graphic designers so we can determine the best wrap or graphics to meet your individual needs and objectives.  Whether a temporary promotional campaign or a long-term solution to strengthen your fleet’s brand message, we’ll transform your vision into reality.  We’ll only go to print when you’ve approved the design. And because we do all design, print and installation in-house in our climate-controlled facility, you can be assured of having the very best wrap specifically created and optimized for your vehicle, from the first step to the last.

Give the expert vehicle wrappers at Sign Innovations a call today and get ready to start turning heads and turning profits!

Deanna Duke
Sign Innovations
704-439-4700

Tags: Signs Charlotte, Truck Graphics Charlotte, Truck Wraps Charlotte, Vehicle Wraps Charlotte

Just like any other organization, churches use signage as a form of advertising, outreach and information. An increasingly popular type of sign used for church entrances and lawns is a digital monument sign.  This usually consists of a base and “frame” constructed of real stone or brick, or it can be formed from a resin mold of faux stone.

A large electronic screen is then fitted to the interior of the “frame”.  Through an integrated system, any message can be changed effortlessly from a computer inside the church office, making it one of the most convenient, practical and versatile types of signage for the money. Virtually any message can be programmed and displayed using digital church signs, from encouraging holiday messages or announcements about upcoming events.  Because we only use energy efficient LED displays at Sign Innovations, this also results in a very long-lived and cost effective electronic message board despite its potentially large size.

Regardless of the size or type of signage a church may require, we can help!  From design to installation, Sign Innovations has the experience and will be there every step of the way.

Deanna Duke
Sign Innovations
704-439-4700

Tags: Charlotte Signs, Church Signs Charlotte, Electronic Signs Charlotte, LED Church Signs, Monument Signs Huntersville