SGIA Member Decal ?Shimmers? With Collaboration

Each year, your company proudly attaches your SGIA member decal to a prominent location in your shop, and year after year, it defines you as a member of an elite network of printers, suppliers, distributors and manufacturers of high-quality imaging equipment. It symbolizes the Association’s commitment to collaboration, shared resources and community development. While some members can trace their decals back to the ‘70s and others have just received their first, one thing is certain: The 2016 decal is unlike any other before it. This year, SGIA teamed up with Modernistic* and FLEXcon* to create a unique product that would really “shine.” Modernistic has been involved with the creation of SGIA decals since 2011, and reached out to SGIA to begin the design. “I asked the printer to keep an eye out for fun, different capabilities that we could use, and their team contacted me with the idea to incorporate a glitter effect,” said Maggie Brescia, Vice President of Marketing Communications at SGIA. “Though glitter effects are often eye-catching, they are usually printed on one-sided media. Since the SGIA decal is a two-sided window product, it presented a challenge.” [[{"fid":"4544","view_mode":"medium","fields":{"format":"medium","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"SGIA Decal","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"alt":"SGIA Decal","height":354,"width":354,"style":"height:354px; width:354px","class":"file-medium media-element"}}]] “SGIA loved the idea of a glitter option, but our first mission was to think of a way to accomplish it,” said DeAnn Strenke, Marketing Manager at Modernistic. “We needed to create a design that would work on an adhesive material that was also double-sided, so I suggested FLEXcon SHIMMERcal™.” SHIMMERcal is a line of self-adhesive glitter films from FLEXcon, suited for novelty stickers and decals, promotional graphics and point-of-purchase displays. For this use, FLEXcon put their custom coating and laminating capabilities to work for Modernistic creating a 22 mil, multi-layered SHIMMERcal construction that provided the opacity required for two-sided printing and the dimensional stability and layflat required for sheet form converting. They also contributed the high-quality unique material to Modernistic at a fraction of the cost. “We wanted to figure out a plan to make this happen, a plan that worked. It was really about making sure that [the decal] showed the creativity, and we were grateful that Modernistic chose us and our product for this project,” said Jodi Sawyer, Market Development Specialist at FLEXcon. SGIA, Modernistic and FLEXcon got to work, exchanging ideas and sample pieces to create a design that would not only stand out amongst past decals, but also would highlight the products and capabilities of each company involved. “We wanted to use a three-color design, but Modernistic suggested letting the SHIMMERcal stand alone as its own color to really make it more impactful,” said Brescia. “It was a great idea, and it worked really well.” A lot more went into the design than just color swatches — Modernistic put their knowledge and capabilities to the test in order to produce the intended design. “I know everyone is moving to digital, but screen printing can do things that digital can’t,” said Strenke. “Screen printing can do spot colors really well, and it can use translucent inks, which is what we did on the decal to make that glitter material really pop. Without that effect, the design would have been really muddy. By suggesting a different method, we were able to get the result SGIA wanted.” “Modernistic didn’t just say yes to everything we asked. They listened, digested and then suggested the best way to achieve the look we were going for,” Brescia explained. By combining SGIA’s customer demand, Modernistic’s printing and design capabilities, and FLEXcon’s unique product, the 2016 SGIA decal came to fruition. “The collaboration really shows what SGIA brings to the table for its members — the opportunities to learn, collaborate, find resources and network with each other,” said Sawyer. “Modernistic has always been at the forefront of what’s new for clients, and the fact that they can work with a manufacturer to transform a typical application into something so different speaks to how the industry itself is pushing the limits of what can be done for our clients.” “We all had the same goal: To produce a dynamic decal to show off what the imaging community can do,” said Brescia. “Each one of us maximized our strengths, and we succeeded.”