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window graphics: tanning studio
Hi all,
Did my first shop window today, it’s the biggest job I’ve attempted up to now! It’s my friends sisters Tanning Studio. They sketched me a design, and I drew it in Flexi. It took be about 2 hours to put together, about 10 hours for them to decide if they liked it and all day today to fit with my brother. We did it wet and had difficulty as the app paper didn’t like leaving the vinyl behind! How do you guys do it dry? I mean lining up was a pain wet, must be worse dry!
Can anyone give me any pointers on how much you’d charge to do this? It’ll have to be a "materate" anyway. But what if it wasn’t? The window is 111 inches long by 79 inches high. Don’t worry about the cost to fit the copper window film, we fit that every day anyway. Oh and I used Grafityp 222 (Sky Blue), 227 (Grass Green), 221 (Black), 213 (Sunflower Yellow), 212 (Dark Beige), 331 (Signal Red) and 211 (Light Beige).
I did some fitting too, but also took the photos.
Hope it meets good standards! Any pointers or tips would be great!
Adam
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23 Replies
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Nice job!
When i first started i tried wet, and hated it! i could never get the paper off, the vinyl would always come away, even when left for hours (and who has time for that!).
So i do everything dry, i find it much essayer.
good work!
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Hi Adam
Nice window. I started with wet but then read loads on this site and decided to just do dry all the time. Once the nerves stopped, it all started to fall into place. Remember, the vinyl is fairly forgiving if treated with respect. Also, don’t panic!! I would panic at the smallest bubble or crease. They can be removed most of the time. The key is preparation. Clean and dry. You can actually apply dry easily if you are patient and work in an orderly way. I do 90% dry now and would not go back. There are loads of demos on the site so get searching and look at them all 😉Dry rules!!!! 😀
Peter -
Hi, thanks for the opinions! I will have to pay up to see the demos I think. I’m always worried about stretching the vinyl if it sticks in the wrong place! It doesn’t half cling! All I need to do now is dream up a price. It can’t really be very high, John and family do me favours all the time!
Adam
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Adam if it’s a friend and you swap favours charge for materials used and a bit of time, you gained experiance spect lot’s of tea coffee etc. just make sure they don’t tell any one else what you charged,
I suppose you should work out a realistic price for non friend, then your friend can say cost xxx which would have been your real price hope that makes sense. 🙄meant to say nice job
Lynn
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I understand entirely. My biggest problem is that I had to buy in 10 meters of the each colour except black and red. I can probably use the blue and yellow, possibly the green, but not sure about the beige. I already had the light beige anyway. So I have a fair amount left over.
I screwed up the first time I cut the blue, I forgot to cut the mirror image! The next time I cut it, it ran off the pinch rollers (610 vinyl and cutter, 583 artwork! Cutting it very close!). So I have 6 meters of waste! Mind you, I have to do some smaller logos one for each sunbed so I can probably use most of it. I need to re design the logo a little to just include a thin wave under the sun and Tanning Studio in Blue beneath that. Otherwise I could end up covering the whole sunbed trying to find a place for the blue to stop!
Thanks once again for the feedback!
Adam
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Adam not sure what your main line of work is but if you do vehicle graphics next time you have a dark coloured van in you say to the man " I think this will look stunning in beige it’s not as harsh as white or garish as yellow/red etc. on that coloured van" beige gone if you have vinyl you can sell it 😎
Lynn
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Smart thinking Lynn! I obviously have lot’s to learn! I do try to pick colours that go well together for any particlular job, as can be seen from the colours we picked for the shop. The Copper Window Film was to make it look a bit like a sunset. Especially with the sun setting opposite the shop, you get all the colours reflected in the film. Silver would have done the job better, as it would show a blue sky on a clear day, and clouds on a bad day, but the sunset was the owners preference, so I used copper.
I’m slowly building up a stock of vinyl, but storage at home is becoming a problem. I need to order some more reallyusefulbox ‘s 😀 I store it all flat in two layers on thin foam in 50litre boxes that are just long enough for a 610 roll! Just I have a lot more vinyl now! I need to start making money to pay for everything!
Adam
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Sorry Lynn, forgot to say…. I don’t really have a main line of work at the moment, as I’ve not had much. The day job gets in the way! It’s all evening and weekend work. I’ve done several hundred sunstrips for another mates company though. Well not quite sunstrips….It’s all text but goes at the top of the windscreen 😮
Adam
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nice job adam….great you posted your first one 😉
dont worrie about doing it wet….it will go, with practise, as folk have said, dry is the way to go…but confidence is the biggest issue…..you’ll get there 😀 the word sunsations…is a bit on the over to the right too much…but read the boards and you will see how it can be remedied…. 😀
good luck….. 😉
nik
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Adam you really need to store vinyl standing up or a post in the core and hanging if you see what I mean never flat.
Lynn
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Good job mate.
Doing it dry on a window is the only option. Glass of any type.
You’ll find the hinge method on a shop front the easiest option, if your doing it dry for the first time. Nothing wrong with hingeing it everytime actually.
The best part about a window is the light shines thru the backing so you can line it up on the multicolour graphic. Easy Peasy if you have heaps of little stuff to do. You can also use the registration method for some jobs.
You will get the odd bubble doing it dry, but as peter says, nothing that will not come out with the help of a pin, or over time with the heat of the day.
Keep up the good work mate, you’ll look back at this in a few months and wish you had done it dry in the first place.
That job would take me about 3 hours dry, and not rushing. Wet would have been a nightmare…..
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Thanks for the help!
Nicola, I don’t quite get what you mean by over to the right, so far as I remember, we found the centre of the sun and the centre of the text, marked the app paper and window, lined them up and fitted them. Although I didn’t fit that part, and the other thing is, the roller shutter is wonky.
Lynn, I store it flat because when I go to my mates shop the last weekend of the month, I need to transport it with minimum fuss. 4 flights of stairs from where I keep it and across the living room then outside into our van. I used to store it on it’s end in a box, but quickly found the bottom of the box fell out when I tried to move for about the 5th time, even when taped up loads with brown tape. I have very limited room for a rack or hanging space! Any ideas appreciated!
Shane, that job took 3 of us 7 hours! Mainly because we waited quite a while between parts, the other two went to the chippy to get us lunch, and customers coming in and out all the time! One of the pictures shows how close the sunbeds are to the door! I know it’s not very fast, in fact it’s rather slow, but I’m proud of it! Just need to design a logo now and maybe a website! I’ll have to find some money to join up properly and search about that hinged method! Sounds promising! I know what you mean about windows being easiest to line up using the light through the backing paper…
You’re all really helpful! Thanks!
Adam -
Adam I’m not a technical person, but I think if you store flat you are impacting the adhesive on the part of the roll that is laying flat . I’m sure someone with more technical knowledge could explain better.
Lynn
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Hi Adam,
Let me tell you mate, the cost to be a full member of this group will pay you back the first demo you read/watch. It is the best money I have spent since joining this business. Everyone here is ultra friendly and helpful and you will learn lots. I would suggest looking at alternative suppliers for vinyl. When I started I was buying in minimum 5m lengths which is much better than 10!!
There are a number of suppliers affiliated with UKSB who can help I am sure. The cost of membership is worth it just to access these people.
Cheers Peter -
To start with first class work mate and I feel that when you get a job that you can finish no matter how you got there and it looks as good as yours, wet or dry is not the main factor the end result and the experience gained are worth there weight in gold, thanks for posting really good to see.
Russ
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quote Peter Mindham:Hi Adam,
I would suggest looking at alternative suppliers for vinyl. When I started I was buying in minimum 5m lengths which is much better than 10!!
There are a number of suppliers affiliated with UKSB who can help I am sure. The cost of membership is worth it just to access these people.
Cheers PeterJust to put everyone in the picture, we do sell vinyl in 5mtr lengths if you order via our sales office, send an email or fax your order through.
The 10mtr lengths are from our online shop and the price per metre is less when purchased online.
Nigel
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Hi again,
Just to set the record straight so I don’t upset anyone, I am aware that I could order 5 meters of vinyl by phoning or faxing, but I ordered 10 in case we screwed up! Which we did on the sky blue twice due to forgetting to mirror the image before cutting, and then the vinyl running off to one side, coming out of the feed rollers! I had to get 583mm out of a 610 roll. Very close!
I’m really grateful for all the positive comments…It really gives me confidence!
Adam
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quote Nigel Pugh – Grafityp:quote Peter Mindham:Hi Adam,
I would suggest looking at alternative suppliers for vinyl. When I started I was buying in minimum 5m lengths which is much better than 10!!
There are a number of suppliers affiliated with UKSB who can help I am sure. The cost of membership is worth it just to access these people.
Cheers PeterJust to put everyone in the picture, we do sell vinyl in 5mtr lengths if you order via our sales office, send an email or fax your order through.
The 10mtr lengths are from our online shop and the price per metre is less when purchased online.
Nigel
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Nigel,
I didn’t know who the supplier was and certainly wasn’t putting them down, I am just aware that when you are starting out, 10 metres can seem a big hit of vinyl. Hope you didn’t take it the wrong way or does it mean no free samples for me at Sign UK? 😉
Peter -
quote Peter Mindham:does it mean no free samples for me at Sign UK? 😉
never mind the free samples peter…ask nigel for the free beer :lol1: 😉
nik
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free beer where 🙄 sorry to hi- jack it’s the thought of free beer
Lynn
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quote Lynn:free beer where 🙄 sorry to hi- jack it’s the thought of free beer
Lynn
Lynn I think it will be a long queue for that freebee! 😮
Peter -
quote :Just to put everyone in the picture, we do sell vinyl in 5mtr lengths if you order via our sales office, send an email or fax your order through.The 10mtr lengths are from our online shop and the price per metre is less when purchased online.
Nigel
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Hi Nigel,
Do you supply the Republic of Ireland?
Sorry to hi-jack the thread, Adam -
Peter no worries, like I said it was to put "people in the picture" and I certainly didn’t take offence at all 😀
Harry we do supply into the Republic but carriage costs can be restrictive, as an example, upto 10kgs would cost about £27 to send and about 80p per extra kilo.
If you need specific prices then please just get in touch with our sales office or myself.
Nigel
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