Soft Retail Banners (Adobe PDF, 110K)

Keeps Customers Hanging Around for More

In the furniture retail business, the large store environment can be daunting when it comes to creating an inviting and intimate atmosphere for customers.

To overcome the challenge of being more than just a “nice traditional furniture store,” one retailer branched out from standard poster signage to softer applications that maximized the appeal of hanging banners.

Kincaid Furniture Co. Inc., a La-Z-Boy Inc. company, and its design firm, Zip Design, wanted a graphic solution that would divide room sets and departments in its furniture stores, while being semi-opaque, easy to install and economical to ship.

A large-format graphics company suggested various-sized banner displays, using both sheer and poplin dye-sublimated material combined with standard poplin that would give the hanging banners the desired effect Kincaid wanted.

With hanging banners, there were several material factors Kincaid had to wade through when deciding the look and feel of the banner display:

• Opaque versus translucent look
• Viewable single- or double-sided
• Indoor or outdoor usage
• Color needs versus the material gamut available

Once the idea was finalized, the graphics company, an SGIA member, processed the images for Kincaid. This included a preflight for potential problems, such as resolution, proportion and content, as well as color management in the files for optimal results in the end product. The graphics company also prepared the files for subsequent finishing operations such as trimming.

The graphics company then put together a prep file and started proofing. The proofs were printed on the same substrate that would be used for the project, in this case sheer and poplin fabrics as well as vinyl. One of the challenges for the company was matching colors on different materials.

For Kincaid, the graphics company ended up producing an array of banners for each store:

• An average of 12 dye-sublimated sheer panels that were 91-cm-by-198-cm (36-inch-by-78-inch) in size.
• An average of four double-sided, dye-sublimated poplin logo panels, with a blackout liner, that were 61-cm-by-137-cm (24-inch-by-54-inch) in size.
• An average of eight 91-cm-by-91-cm (36-inch-by-36-inch), single-sided poplin lifestyle images that were dye sublimated.
• Approximately six floor vinyl banners — 61-cm-by-183-cm (24-inch-by-72-inch) in size —- were printed on an aqueous inkjet printer.

For finishing, the graphics company applied a heat trim for the fabric banners and a straight trim for all of the vinyl. While the display method eliminated the need for sewing, each panel required sign holders on the top and bottom along with two pieces of 122-cm (48-inch) long coated cable, two ceiling grid clips and two Spider rings to hang from a grid ceiling.

The banner display’s flexibility allowed Kincaid to customize the look at each store and change out the graphics at a minimal cost. Additionally, the soft signage was less expensive to ship than traditional rigid graphics because fabric banners can be rolled up and sent in smaller packages.

Currently, there is tremendous demand for soft banners in retail markets including apparel, food, furniture and electronics.

SGIA member Meisel (Carrollton, Texas) produced the hanging banner displays for Kincaid. To learn more about the large-format digital graphics company, visit Meisel’s Web site at www.meisel.com.