One of my loves in this business is finding new products so clients can promote their messages in new and innovative ways. Oftentimes I have clients who need graphics for attaching to their walls, windows and doors. In the past we would simply print paper posters, foam core display boards, static cling posters or some sort of special vinyl bumper sticker like material. While these are all nice solutions they each have limitations when it comes to attaching to a backdrop of some sort.
This is where it gets interesting. There is a new product called PhotoTex that is just short of amazing. Let me share with you a story of why I said that. I once drove from St. Louis to Lake of the Ozarks with what was called a low tac adhesive vinyl graphic to help a client wrap a circular event cooler (the kind you see in the lobby of most convenience stores with sodas sitting in ice begging for you take them home). Well, on this particular day I was not very smart. In my anxiousness to show the customer how wonderful this was going to work, I remove the liner from this 5’x2 graphic and then had an oops moment with the sticky side stuck to itself and rendered the graphic worthless because when I tried to pull it back apart, it stretched and kinked beyond repair. I have since learned first hand why they say to never remove the entire liner on a graphic (but that is not the pointof this story). After that embarrassing moment I vowed to believe their must be a better way. After searching and combing through trade publications and trade shows that I found this terrific new fabric based adhesive, PhotoTex.
Now you actually can remove the liner on an entire graphic, have it touch itself and still recover and not ruin the whole thing. This material works indoors and outdoors. I know it works outdoors because I took a file with the Hardees logo & juicy Thick Burger and put it on the fender of my car. My family and soccer taxi comrads all wondered what was up…why is this guy driving around with a picture of a burger and Hardees logo on the fender of his car. Well, I wanted to take the leap of faith by putting it on my car to see if it would hold up during the winter and not damage the paint of my 1 year old jeep when removed. Yep, it held up like a champ.
Don’t get me wrong, I love our professional installers for many large graphic projects that have to install onto very large surfaces. It used to be I had to use them for every project of that type. Now, with this new material and a little do it your self bravado, nearly anyone can give it a try with a high probability of success.
This is really a game changer because you can cut the costs of a project in half if you do not have to hire a person or crew to go on site for installing every large project.
There are also some terrific examples shown at here. If you want to see a a lot of additional creative uses for this new material, see the videos presented below.
