By Melissa Donovan
With today’s consumers familiar with retail pop-ups and rotating spaces, it’s no surprise they have come to expect refreshes in décor. Digitally printed graphics of all types are great for just this. But for wallcoverings in particular, the digitally printed aspect as well as advancements in today’s materials make it easy to install for a day or a year without concern for fading or becoming ripped or dirty.
Above: PF Chang’s Houston Galleria location underwent a design refresh in November 2021. Materials from DreamScape—Silver Odyssey and a custom color—were printed using a Canon Colorado 1630 and trimmed with a Zünd router.
Background on a Broker
Print service providers (PSPs) recognize how advantageous digitally printed wallcoverings are and not only work directly with clients to create these applications, but partner with brokers. Print Tech Group (PTG), based out of AZ, began in 2006 as a side hustle, working with political candidates on mailers for their campaigns. As the client base grew, so did business, enabling Marin D. Hamel, president, PTG, to go full time in 2009.
Beyond political campaigns, Hamel now also works with restaurants, casinos, builders, general contractors, design/architect firms, and advertising agencies. In additional to small format printing, wide format is part of the game and with the help of its 15 to 20 contractors, it prints, ships, and installs nationally.
Close to 65 percent of PTG’s work involves digitally printed wallcoverings. The company partners with two PSPs—one in AZ and another in Chicago, IL—for its wallcovering work. Typical clients in this space are restaurants and casinos.
Hamel is complementary towards digital printing and its influence on wallcoverings. “Digital printing opened up the market for wallcoverings. It makes it affordable for the one-off client and allows the larger clients to have flexibility with design in the multi-location space.”
Between the two locations printing PTG’s clients’ wallcoverings, several printers are used including a Colorado 1630 from Canon Solutions America, an HP Inc. Latex 3600, and a Mimaki USA, Inc. UCJV300. Panels are trimmed with a router from Zund America.
Digital Advantages
When discussing wallcovering media for digital printing, Hamel says DreamScape Artist Canvas and Silver Odyssey are primarily utilized, but additional products in the media manufacturer’s portfolio like Suede and Terralon are also chosen regularly and DreamScape provides PTG with a custom color wallpaper.
PF Chang’s Refresh
PTG works with national restaurant chain PF Chang’s, which looked to refresh its brand five years ago. Conversations, testing, trial and error, and design occurred over four years and within the last 12 months, the restaurant chain settled on a final concept to move forward with the refresh.
One location, PF Chang’s Houston Galleria in Houston, TX, was completed in November 2021 with the new look. 4,375 square feet of graphics were printed using a Canon Colorado 1630 and trimmed with a Zünd router.
Turning to DreamScape, PTG chose Silver Odyssey for murals. “This site was special in that it was the first time we used Silver Odyssey for murals. We wanted to test and see what the overall impact would be on the design,” explains Hamel. Additionally, other walls displayed a simplistic black pattern created with the custom color wallcovering DreamScape supplies PTG.
The Houston Galleria PF Chang’s received the graphics and installed over five days.
Hamel says the client was thrilled with the final outcome and based on the success, started to roll out the Silver Odyssey murals in all of its locations.
Application Success
One test site, and now the entire PF Chang’s chain is leveraging the beauty and quality of digitally printed wallcoverings. PTG and its partners find great success with this application.
Jun2022, Digital Output
