Clear print v Static cling. views and opinions on a solution please?

[Phill Fenton]

I tend to agree with you. A cling vinyl will look cheap and nasty compered to vinyl lettering direct to the glass. A second problem is that unless you have a spot colour printer the colours will look very weak if printed using a cmyk printer onto a clear film. I think that despite the owners reservations, the best option would be cut vinyl lettering direct to the glass and a kick up the backside for any little darling that tries to pick it off 😉

[Robert Lambie]

typical customer wanting a fail safe solution for all possible outcomes!

Is her big window unbreakable?
does it help block sun from melting her ice cream and the glare getting in your eyes?
does it stay clean and not show up the hands marks from her little school kid customers?
the list goes on…

I am with Phill on this, sell her cut vinyl lettering. if they pick letters off, its repeat business for you!
if you want to help prevent them being picked, cover the area they "might" pick with optically clear film.
should she need the letters under the clear changed, you gain further sales of the letters and the clear film.
bottom line is, she will be cheaper long run and get whats shes after with the cut vinyl text.

at the end of the day, you are in business to make money and this is the most cost effective option for her.
oh, and when you buy food from her cafe, say… "i will buy this bag of chips, but in a few hours i will be hungry again. i don’t want to be hungry, so please sell me chips that will stop this happening?" 😉

[Shawn Bentley]

I deal with loads of cafes and tend to agree with the others here, clear is not a great idea nor static cling as kids will peal that anyway, if my clients want the menu to be viewed outside I advise a separate menu printed outside ( onto perspex etc) then I do prices so they can change. I always advise clients to put larger bullet points to windows or something like ice cream with larger clear printed pictures so can be seen further away as they really want to use this large area to attract people from further away to draw them in not to come up to window and start reading a menu that will block someone’s view while they are eating etc. Hope this helps good luck.

[David Wilde]

quote Robert Lambie:

typical customer wanting a fail safe solution for all possible outcomes!

Is her big window unbreakable?
does it help block sun from melting her ice cream and the glare getting in your eyes?
does it stay clean and not show up the hands marks from her little school kid customers?
the list goes on…

I am with Phill on this, sell her cut vinyl lettering. if they pick letters off, its repeat business for you!
if you want to help prevent them being picked, cover the area they “might” pick with optically clear film.
should she need the letters under the clear changed, you gain further sales of the letters and the clear film.
bottom line is, she will be cheaper long run and get whats shes after with the cut vinyl text.

at the end of the day, you are in business to make money and this is the most cost effective option for her.
oh, and when you buy food from her cafe, say… “i will buy this bag of chips, but in a few hours i will be hungry again. i don’t want to be hungry, so please sell me chips that will stop this happening?” 😉

Fully agree.

We all try to be as helpful as possible but spending excess time and effort trying to reduce the cost for the customer is counter productive.

I always explain to my customers that we guarantee that quality of the materials and workmanship, but cant offer insurance against people chosing to damage it.

Also, you don’t want to end up in a position where somebody damages your vinyl and it becomes ‘your fault’ because you bent over backwards trying to avoid exactly that in the first place.

[Kevin Mahoney]

I would offer her a clear acrylic panel hung on wires. Leave a white square or rectangle in for prices, she can do them with a dry wipe pen whenever she wants

[Martin Manley]

Thanks for clarifying that guys. I’ve never used static cling in large sheets before but I imagined it would look rubbish. As David says; we do our best to please ’em but these things do have a habit of coming back and biting you on the rear – and costing you money of course!
Vinyl or nothing Madam…

Thanks again