Making A Splash

Signs by Tomorrow’s Rockville, MD location created stair graphics for Marriott’s Bethesda, MD corporate headquarters. Marriott wanted to tout its TakeCare initiative, which encourages employees to make healthy lifestyle choices. The client furnished the graphics as a PDF file, which the shop fine-tuned using Photoshop, Illustrator and SA Intl.’s FlexiSign 8.5.

The project differed from most of the shop’s floor-graphic applications. Scott Goehrung, the shop’s computer-graphics engineer, said most such projects entail dance-floor graphics produced for event planners and short-term, POP graphics for shopping malls. Rarely do their lifespans exceed 90 days. In this case, Marriott’s decisionmakers required only 30 days.

Goehrung said, “We had to measure the stairs and tweak the graphic so no text was cut in half. Because the stairs were smooth granite, we just wiped down the surface.”

Signs by Tomorrow printed the project on its HP L25500 latex-ink printer using Avery’s MPI 3061 Quick Mark, a promotional-grade, calendered film designed for swift installation and removal. To make the graphic message flow seamlessly across the risers, Goehrung tiled the pattern using FlexiSign.

“It’s still a challenge to install over a dirty floor or concrete, but films designed for floor graphics have become thinner, less expensive and more flexible, which makes these types of jobs more attractive,” Goehrung said. “Because we used thick vinyl, one installer simply held the vinyl taut while the other installed with a standard, soft squeegee.”

He said Marriott officials liked the idea, and followed suit with another internal, promotional campaign immediately after this job’s removal.
 

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