Thanks Insignia!

[iSign]

I was researching Static Cling decals last week. I had printed a few on my Mimaki, spoke to my supplier on various media prices, & also checked some big wholesale decal company I'd dealt with before.

I was trying to get a quote ready for an important client, who also happened to have pretty tight deadlines. I think she needed them tomorrow, but to me, that meant if I subbed them out, I felt like I needed a guaranteed delivery of Thursday, so I had an extra day of buffer for minor delivery delays.

Well, I ruled out printing my own this time because I had to buy too much material, wait too long for it to arrive, & have too little time remaining to print, cure & cut. The quote needed to go out because my client needed to time get approval from other parties. The vendor offered an expedited production option at a price, so I bid the job...

...then I saw a post about static clings here & decided to chime in with some questions, since it seemed like a good time to educate myself about the do's and don't of cling printing etc... That was when I first noticed insignia was a merchant member here. Since I do my own printing, the digital printing merchants haven't really come up on my radar much, but after Mike's posts clued me into his experience with clings, I decided to contact him about his turn around times.

Well, Mike promised to meet my deadline with time to spare & gave me a better price then the other vendor, not even counting their expedited surcharge, so when I got the go-ahead, I ordered the job & sure enough, they arrived ahead of schedule, printed & cut beautifully, and when the client saw them, she said "these are so much better then our last ones!"

Contrary to some opinions, Mike knew his prints would stick to the window print side down, or print side up, so by printing on white, I saved money & the client appreciated the option to have the decals go outside or inside a window.

Thanks again Insignia!! that is the kind of merchant service that will certainly have me asking for quotes again!

(and don't tell Mike... but since I had already bid the job on the other quote... I made more money then I normally would have felt fair asking for )

 

[Neil]

For sure, I've found Mike's (Insignia's) posts here to be among the most helpful and knowledgeable. No surprise you found him to be the same as a supplier.
I'd have no hesitation using his expertise too if I was on the same continent (even though you're not!).

 

[skyhigh]

Contrary to some opinions, Mike knew his prints would stick to the window print side down, or print side up

Yep, that is contradictory to what Ive been told by my supplier. Do they stick (print side down) because its not a full coverage of ink, or is the ink a "natural" static cling kinda stuff?

 

[Letterbox Mike]

(and don't tell Mike... but since I had already bid the job on the other quote... I made more money then I normally would have felt fair asking for )

I'll keep that in mind for next time Doug! :ROFLMAO:

Thanks for the kind words, I greatly appreciate it.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Yep, that is contradictory to what Ive been told by my supplier. Do they stick (print side down) because its not a full coverage of ink, or is the ink a "natural" static cling kinda stuff?

Skyhigh, in the other thread Doug referenced, I said of the thousands of statics we've printed we've never had a problem attributable to heavy coverage ink. I've heard (although not from suppliers) about the concerns of printing full-coverage on statics but again have never experienced any issues first hand. The only issue we've ever had with static was when a customer left them applied inside a window in direct sun with a film tint for a long time. It seemed like either the sun or the ink caused them to weld themselves to the window tint itself, but these were not heavy coverage, and even the white material stuck to the tint so I think they were just up in the sun way too long. So I always try to caution customers about window tint, but otherwise we've had good success with applications like this.

 

[iSign]

Yep, that is contradictory to what Ive been told by my supplier. Do they stick (print side down) because its not a full coverage of ink, or is the ink a "natural" static cling kinda stuff?

I was told that the risk of bad adhesion print side down would mostly apply to heavy coverage. Mine were medium coverage, and mostly lighter colors, and no ink at all bleeding off edges... and pretty empty corners too.. so between Mike's personal experiences, and this particular job not falling in the high risk category from my suppliers warnings... it felt like a good time to go with the forward prints on white.

 

[signage]

I have a question/concern about placing the printed side against the window. Wouldn't the image transfer from the cling to the window and possibly stain/etch the glass?

 

[Shovelhead]

Mike's been an extraordinary resource.
:signs101:

 

[Letterbox Mike]

I have a question/concern about placing the printed side against the window. Wouldn't the image transfer from the cling to the window and possibly stain/etch the glass?

I've heard this can happen but I've never personally seen it or experienced it. Anything is possible of course, but in our experience it's not happened, again except for that one time where the static bonded itself to the tint. For the record, I don't claim to be the end-all authority on static clings, I'm far from it and can only speak from our own experience using the material for 4-5 years.

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Mike's been an extraordinary resource.
:signs101:

Thanks Shovel! Your order should ship tomorrow FYI!