Our previous blog focused on the new building sign we made for Western Tool & Supply Co. and the different ways that we can make acrylic dimensional letters for both indoor and outdoor signs. Aside from the building sign, they were also interested in door graphics. They have a glass door for the main entrance and a regular door in the rear. On the main door, they wanted their logo, hours, and phone number. Front door graphics are a great opportunity to help customers find the entrance, but to also give information for those who are at the location when you’re closed. On the rear door, they also wanted to display the logo for deliveries. Although the graphics serve similar purposes, have similar information, and both are for wayfinding, the graphics were a little different.
For window graphics, we will generally use cut white vinyl unless having a specific color is very important to the customer. White vinyl will stand out best on a window and we definitely avoid black window graphics. Black vinyl is very hard to see against the glass because they are both reflective. The client didn’t need the logo on the door to have the gold gradient so we cut the logo, hours, and phone number from white vinyl.
For the rear door, we were just putting the logo so deliveries would know where to go. The door was just a regular, solid painted door. Since we didn’t need to worry about the reflection against the window, we asked him if he’d want to digitally print the logo color for the vinyl or just use black. The reason we offered black first is that vinyl already comes in black, and it would stand out better against the gray door than white vinyl would. In the first proof, we showed the rear door graphic as a digital print. With the rendering, it’s a lot easier to get an idea of how it would actually look. After seeing the rendering, the client asked to see how it would look just all black. He liked this option better, and that’s what we ended up making. Proofing window graphics is also a good opportunity for the client to make sure that the information like the hours and phone number are correct since it’s going to be made exactly as it looks in the proof.
Another difference between window graphics and door graphics is that we use a higher quality material for door and wall graphics. Regular vinyl doesn’t stay as well as it does on smooth glass, so we like to use car wrap material. Car wrap material is specifically made to stick to contoured surfaces and made to stay on even while in a moving car so it works great for painted walls and doors.