I am David Lile, with David B Design, (www.davidbdesign.com) in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.  I created two each, custom designed, 25' X 12.5' montage murals, through Adobe Photoshop, for The Just Company, in Indianapolis, Indiana. One mural concept was based on Ellis island.  The other mural was based on the Signing of the Declaration of Independence.  The Just Company was nearing completion of their new 9,800 square foot financial planning building and we were ready to finally have the produced murals printed on vinyl wall covering.

I researched the Akron area first, because if possible, I wanted a local company to help fulfill my production needs, with my two montage murals.

I easily found DCI after doing a Google search on wide format printing and vinyl wall covering.

DCI Account Executive Mary Gelsomino, was extremely helpful and asked if I would like to come in and see DCI's facility before making a decision.  Upon entering, I was impressed by the order and beauty of the building; all the way from the front office to the cleanliness of the wide format printing room.  It was very impressive!

Mary worked with me in calculating the size and accompanying resolution needs of each mural.  Being the production person between the Indianapolis contractor and DCI, I had to call her several times, during the pre-production process before the wide format printing occurred.  Each time that I called, she answered every question.  Mary was always friendly, businesslike and knowledgeable.

During the production process, DCI printed a one-fifth size version, of the wall murals, so I could check the color and resolution.  The sample sizes were extremely helpful, in the final assessment of the two murals and allowed me to see just a few final needed corrections to fully finish the murals.  My client also had the opportunity to view the samples and he was very impressed with the texture, color and quality of the vinyl wall covering.

Printing was very timely and the product was immediately shipped via UPS to Indianapolis and received within two days, by my client.

Both murals now stand fifteen feet, above the foyer area of their brand new building, so clients who come in, first see the murals, above them, on either side when entering the main foyer.  Many clients have mentioned to their office staff, how moved they are, by viewing the murals.  It has been a very personal touch, that creates a memorable emotional tie for the client, to The Just Company, and DCI played a key role in the generation of those emotional ties.

I can't say enough about DCI, from their help and expertise, on a personal level to production of the final product to The Just Company. As I continue to grow my design services, any wall covering montage murals that I produce and design, in the future, will continue to be done only through DCI.  I deeply appreciate our business relationship.

This project was a total success, thanks to DCI.

Recently, Quaker Steak & Lube held a contest in conjunction with the Cleveland Cavaliers to "Win Dinner at The Lube® with Anderson Varejao". To promote the special event, a life-size figurine of Varejao (who stands 6’-11”) was created and displayed to generate customer response. QS&L provided photos of Varejao and DCI created an electronic path allowing the iCut Router to perform a razor-sharp, print-to-cut registration outline of the Cavalier. Printed on corrugated cardboard and propped with a floor easel-back, the display was tall and striking as customers entered the store.

As written by Bon Mentrek: Guests were able to register every time they enjoyed any wing or wing combo at the Valley View or Sheffield Quaker Steak & Lube. Two finalists were chosen over a live broadcast on ESPN 850 on January 29, 2010. Two finalists then competed in an on court competition at The "Q" on February 4th. The winner, Vincent Cicchi, enjoyed dinner with Anderson Varejao at the Quaker Steak & Lube® in Valley View on February 10th with nine of his friends.

Thanks Quaker Steak & Lube for allowing DCI to fill "tall" order.

By Michael Gorfido with permission by Bob Mentrek, Sr. VP, Marketing and Events, Quaker Steak & Lube

Founded in 1993, Digital Color Imaging (DCI, dcimage.com) in Akron, Ohio, started out as an electronic prepress company, CEO Dave Welner says. It has branched out into new areas over the years, and DCI now comprises three business units: commercial offset, short-run and variable-data digital printing, and wide-format printing. The company has about 50 employees.

"We got into wide-format printing a few years ago kind of as an aside'" Welner recalls. "We were printing a lot of juried art-show catalogs, and some of the artists began asking if we could do limited-edition prints for them. So we began producing giclee prints on two Roland Hi-Fi Jets."

That business took off for DCI, and soon its commercial clients began asking for wide-format work as well. As a result, the company acquired additional printers to handle the work–a couple of ColorSpan printers, a Mutoh Falcon II, and, the latest, an EFI Vutek QS3200 126-inch flatbed.

DCI recently used the QS3200's white-printing capabilities on a job for the Cleveland Browns football team's new training facility in Berea, Ohio. "It's a really gorgeous facility with a lot of nice interior design," Welner says.

"The Browns called me and said they wanted something that would be an appealing finish on one wall of a long, curved corridor," Welner continues, "They were thinking of something like wall decals or vinyl wallpaper. But when I went up and looked at it, and saw this 30-foot curved wall, I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if we could put some Plexiglas panels on that?"

The Brown's organization already had a theme in mind, based around inspirational quotations from Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Welner took a team-supplied photo of a group of players, combined it with quotes, and did a mockup in Adobe Photoshop to show what the corridor could look like with a row of Plexiglas panels. The team quickly approved the concept.

Several reduced sample panels were created at first to test the amount of ghosting needed for the white background image. These were done in 10-percent increments for the Browns to approve.

Welner describes the final output: "Each panel measures 4-feet wide x 7-feet tall. We printed the photo as a ghosted silhouette at about 10 or15 percent. Then we added the Sun Tzu quotes in foot-high letters in solid white. The photo and text were printed together in the first pass, and then we printed a second pass on the letters to get a super opaque white."

According to Welner, the trick to getting white to print properly is all in the file preparation. "It has to be set as spot color and labeled as white ink so that the RIP understands that it is a white layer. In addition, the RIP'd file has to be set up as a multi-layer file. This step also enables you to determine the printing sequence, such as whether the white layer will print on the top or the bottom of the other colors."

DCI also executed the install (as it does for all its work). "There were eight holes per panel that had to be very precisely drilled; these were all done using our MGE/EskoArtwork iCut System," says Welner. "Each panel was intended to mount on eight machined-aluminum posts (stand-offs). Because the posts were mounted to the wall first, there was very little room for error with the line up of the panel's holes and the posts. One side of the post mounts to the wall with an aluminum anchor, and the other end has a treaded hole for an attachment bolt that holds the panel."

Welner cautions other shops that might be planning to move into white printing to pay close attention to their pricing. "When we first got this system, a lot of our sales guys thought you could just add the white in, like it's a four-color job," he says. "But it really adds a dimension of cost–there is more set up and prepress effort and, of course, it's actually a fifth color, so if you have some spoilage it's more difficult to absorb."