Most of our East Coast and Midwest customers are used to there cards taking a couple days longer than what our West Coast customers see.  That is because our main print shop is in California.  However some of you may have already noticed that your getting your print even faster.  Thats because we now have 2 locations for printing.  Your cards will come from the one closer to you and our second print shop is in Ohio.  so we have basically split the US.  Nothing has changed on the quality the print quality will remain perfect as well as the thick paper that others can not match and our pricing will remain the same. 

 This should speed up print orders by a couple days for some of you Midwest/South/East guys.  Just another way we are commited to being the fastest and best printer in this Industry.

Since we’re on the vinyl subject, here’s a quick tour of the vinyl side of our shop. 

Our plotter is a Roland CAMM-1 CX-24.  It can cut 12″, 15″, and 24″ vinyl.  We use only Oracal brand vinyl which has an outdoor life of 3-5 years.  We stock most of our colors in 15″ and the most popular (silver, white, black, blue, and red) in 24″.  In order as shown in the photo below: Maroon, Orange, Cream/Tan, Yellow, Forest Green, Lime Green, Mint Green, Baby Blue, Hot Pink, Blue, Red, Black, White, Soft Pink, Purple, Copper, Gold, Charcoal.  As far as transfer tape, we use only R-Tape brand, not the cheap stuff, in order to prevent ‘edge curling’, or other problems.  The “paper tape” is used for single color decals, and the clear tape is used for multi-color decals.  We use various sizes from 2″ to 16″ wide depending on the size of the decal.  The plotter is connected to it’s own PC–PC #3 technically.  And contrary to popular belief and the stock photo below, plotted decals do not just “print out, done” like shown below.  The plotter only ’scores’ the lines of the decal, the rest of the work is up to you and army of exact-o knives to peel away the excess and pick out the inside of letters like “o, a, p, q, d, b….”  Hope you enjoyed your look at the vinyl shop!

From time to time I hope to document the process from start to finish of making something.  I only remembered half way thru this project so I’m only going to document how I assemble the actual banner.   I pick up after …
1) Designing the file in photoshop.
2) Converting the banner to cuttable file.
3) Seperating the file into 3 colors. 
4) Cutting each color of vinyl.
5) “Weeding” each decal (pulling away the ’scrap’ vinyl to show the actual design)
6) Applying transfer tape to all pieces.
7) Measured to find center Horiz/Vert and have sprayed the banner with a soap/water mixture to allow for moving the vinyl around.
8) I’ve applied the first color (black) to the banner. Centered it up and squeegied out the water mixture. After a couple minutes I pull away the transfer tape.
9) After curing for a couple minutes, I apply more soapy water to apply the next color–Blue in this case.  I center up the blue, squeegie out and peel away the tape.  I have split up the blue into more managable sizes rather than a 6 foot section.
10) Next comes the Red, done the same way as the blue.  Water/Squeegie/Peel.
11) After complete, I go over the banner once more with a squeegie and clean off any soapy residue. 
12) Banners are shipped rolled up on a cardboard tube, inside a plastic bag (for you to store it in), inside a box to prevent any damage in transit.
8  9 10  11

Hope you enjoyed a look at the process involved!  I hope to post more how to’s soon so check back often!

We got tired hauling around our Cannon 40d just for random pictures so we picked up us a new point and shoot camera so we can keep the 40D at home and only bring it out when we need those super nice pictures. We got a DSC-W55 7.2mp Sony. Its not the greatest camerea in the world but it takes a decent image just enough for less important pictures.

So its been here a couple weeks now and I have had time to install it and see it running daily.  This thing is awesome.  On a nightly basis it goes out and backs up all the PC’s.  It keeps a data base of backups for as long as you ask it to and you can restore files from any of those days, or do a complete restore back to that day.  I have ours configured with 1 x 500gb and 3 x 750gb Sata drives.  Total space after formating was 2.5tb or 2,500gb for those not geeky.  I also installed a new 750gb data drive into each of mine and Shellys PC’s to bring us both to around 1.3tb or 1,300gbs on our personal PCs.  So now the odds of us losing any data are slim and none and thats great.  This thing also has a webshare function so we can now trade photo albums on the web with friends and family, it even allows them to save and upload there own images.  Another great feature is that we can now remote desktop to any PC in the house via any web browser and work or get files like we are sitting at it.  Its pretty slick. While I was at it I also upgraded the home network to all gigabit switches so data can now travel 10x faster on our network.

Here is a quick shot of it with my cell phone and a bottle of advil to give you some idea on size. It is less then 10inches tall.

Our hat sale has been extended–we’re now honoring the price through the 14th.  Buy 30 or more flexfit hats, for $10/ea, complete with your logo embroidered!  Includes FREE UPS Shipping, and FREE Digitizing.  Contact Shelly for more information.  shelly@graphicdisorder.com

Hope everyone had a great Holiday and New Year!

New addition to my camera equipment–Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM. This is a rediculously wide lens. I look forward to using it with my 40D for some great shots!

We have been running low on drive space for some time now. It was time for a drastic solution. So we ordered up a HP Media Smart Server and we are filling it with 1 x 500gb and 3 x 750 gig hard drives, we are also putting 750gb drives in each of our design computers in addition to there main drives now. This should bring us to around 6.6tb of drive space on the network after we get everything settled. Redundant as well. This just another way we are commited to our business and our customers and the work we do for them.

Stay tuned I will post up some pictures as we recieve the items and get them up and running.

Here’s some of the work I completed today, and Monday’s shipment.  Also be sure to visit the “Work Portfolio” link on the right to view some updated samples of our work.

I recently ordered some Wallflowers (air freshener) from Bath & Body Works. I got my usual scents, but also picked up one called “Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream”. I was expecting just a random, gross, mint smell. Well, the UPS man dropped them off today; I opened the box, and HOLY COW! It’s like the guys down at B&BW and the Girl Scouts got together, and learned how to harness the smell of a Thin Mint and turned it into liquid fragarance. It’s rediculicious, and I recommend it to anyone who needs that smell of GSC’s (Girl Scout Cookies) in their house all year long. Go ahead and pick up a box at your local mall, or online: Bath & Body Works Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Wallflowers