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Elevator wraps are fast becoming an effective medium that many corporations are using as an advertising vehicle for their messages. They can't be turned off or discarded and are read over and over again. Messages are the first and last thing people see as they wait for and leave the elevator. Research conducted by the marketing departments of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto and Capilano College in Vancouver showed that elevator advertising achieved the highest unaided medium awareness with 84 percent and elevator advertising was tops in media recall with 96 percent.
One shop that is adding this growing niche to its graphics repertoire is CSI/Infinite located in Falls Church, VA. "We've completed about a half dozen of them in the last year alone. It's a cool application that provides an effective medium for a company to get their message out to the public," says Rob Harris, an owner at CSI/Infinite. "Think about it. If you are waiting for an elevator, the ad is right in front of you so you can't miss it," he adds.
CSI/Infinite has produced several projects for the Verizon Center in DC, where the Washington Wizards and Capitals play. "We do lot graphics throughout the sports complex. A company called Washington Sports and Entertainment sells the space and we work with their clients on the graphics. They originally came to us with an idea for producing some elevator wraps."
Harris says the process is a pretty "open and shut job" so to speak. "The artist will send us the artwork and they we just have adjust for the sizing the door specs. We want to achieve is visual line-up when people are looking straight at the doors. We print the jobs on our Gandinnovations Jeti 3300 and Durst Rho 160 and run it in tiles with a slight overlap. That way we have some extra space to play with because we need to wrap into the seams. For a four panel elevator and we just print onto MACtac vinyl. I like to use JT5828P because it's more tacky and adheres nicely. We then laminate it on our AGL 6400 laminator."
CSI/Infinite installer Eric Bean talks us through the install procedure: "Applying vinyl panels to an elevator is fairly straight-forward. This procedure is best done wet. We laminate the vinyl panels are printed on our Jeti 3300 solvent-ink printer or our Rho 160 UV-ink printer on MACtac Imagin JT5828P adhesive vinyl. They are then laminated with a MACtac lustre overlam. The operators produce the panels with a minimum of one-inch overlap left to right (stepped-doors require more). Once the panels have been checked for overlap, the exterior doors are sprayed with a commercially-available application solution. The vinyl release liner is also removed and the vinyl's adhesive is sprayed.
"The wet panel is then put onto the door. The more solution you have on the vinyl and the door, the fewer bubbles and wrinkles you will encounter. If the elevator has stepped doors (i.e. not even across the surface), a liberal application of spray is essential. A wet application allows you to step back, check alignment, and adjust the panels as many times as necessary before squeegee-ing them down. It is also important to trim the panels a little bit long so that the final product can be tucked-in around the doors. The end result will be clean and neat."
CSI/Infinite (www.csi2.com) is made up of two separate graphics powerhouses that merged late last year. In business for over forty-five years, Infinite Photo & Imaging was a leader in the photo imaging world as become known for its high-quality products and services along with its commitment to rapidly changing technology and client needs. "CSI began as type setting shop on the 70s and then when to prepress in early 90s. We added large-format printing in 90s and then merged with Infinite Photo in December of 2005. We merged because we saw they were doing museum and exhibit work and we were doing a lot of retail and pop signage so it was a good marriage for both firms," says Harris.
"As we combined both our synergies we've been able to come up with new products like these elevator wraps. They look like harder projects to produce and install than they actually are. And, they can offer wide-format providers a new revenue stream," Harris concludes.
author: BILL SCHIFFNER