made these the perfect products for our client’s needs. Polar Grip also has excellent printing properties on our printer; the vivid ink colours are amazing and make the rainbow shades look just incredible. “The customer was amazed by the vibrant look and feel of the branding; it was better than anything they had imagined!” Keeping with the outdoor and overseas theme, French print service provider H2O teamed up with HP to produce a range of applications for use at this year’s edition of the world-famous Cannes Film Festival. HP served as an official partner and exclusive print technology provider, with H2O taking on the task of producing materials for the event. H2O used its HP Latex R2000 and Latex 3100 to create all of the signage and displays including rigid panels, outdoor signage, barriers, banners, and posters – with more than 1,500sq m of material produced in total. Where the project really stands out is its sustainable edge. The water-based ink technology on HP Latex printers is much kinder to the environment than other ink types such as solvent, eco-solvent, and UV, meaning the materials produced for the job had less impact on the world. Add in that HP’s new carton-based cartridges, which are made mainly from cardboard and reduce plastic usage by 80% and carbon emissions by 60%, and the project not only looked the part, but won praise for its sustainability – something that is a core focus of the festival itself, as well as H2O and HP. Sylvain Vivier, director of H20, comments: “In an increasingly digital world, the power of printed graphic arts remains as strong as ever. We set out to deliver imagery through technical and creative excellence, as well as expertise that aligns Station selected Kavalan Gecko 320 GB, a greyback wallcovering material, for the interiors. This was the first time the team had used Kavalan banners. Print Station used a JETRIX flatbed LED printer to print onto the Kavalan material. What’s more, the opening of the restaurant resulted in another project for Print Station when a guest, on learning about the process and material used, decided she wanted her daughter’s bedroom wallpapered with Kavalan. “It's going to open a lot of doors for us, because now we can approach tenders in a different way and say, we want to introduce you to this product,” Chonkaria says, adding: “That way it's beneficial for us and it's going to be beneficial for the customer as well.” The Great Outdoors From interior décor to outdoor opportunities now and over in South Africa, sign manufacturer and installation company Prestige Signage created a set of floor graphics to help a customer celebrate this year’s Pride month. The annual Pride event celebrates the LGBTQ+ community and Prestige’s client was keen to get in on the festivities, instructing Prestige to produce rainbow-themed floor graphics that led the way from the pavement outside its building to the front doors of the site. Prestige selected Polar Grip white polymeric self-adhesive vinyl for the rainbow graphics and used Protac Floortex 200 PVC over-laminating film to protect the graphics from footfall up and down the stairs outside the building, which houses a busy call centre. The company used its HP Latex 800W machine to print all graphics in-house. “With the product being installed on stairs that have high traffic throughout the day, we needed a tough, consistent product that could take the stress while also being safe to walk on,” Prestige chief executive, Belinda Lotter, says. “The slip rating of the Floortex laminate and the aggressive adhesive of Polar Grip 50 www.signlink.co.uk Issue 250 - December 2023 / January 2024 The customer was amazed by the vibrant look and feel of the branding; it was better than anything they had imagined ▲ Stylographics worked with Marc Jacobs to create these bold window graphics for a UK store IKEA opened its first store in Sweden in 1958 but did not expand into the UK until 1987 Factoid WIDE-FORMAT PRINT APPLICATIONS Print Station used Kavalan PVC-free banner to deck out a vegan restaurant in Windsor ▼
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