When Kimberly Degenhardt and her husband/business partner, Stewart Schmidt, bought a Kwik Kopy franchise outside of Sydney, they immediately began transitioning the previous owners’ offerings from small offset and digital printing to wide-format products, specialty finishes, and even graphic and web design. Applications such as decals, cut vinyl lettering, and vinyl prints for outdoor signs took off, but this year they felt ready to branch out, looking to wallpaper and floor graphics as two promising markets.
Degenhardt says they’ve learned techniques and troubleshooting strategies from their suppliers along the way, but one of their biggest challenges so far was a tradeshow graphic. The client, a Sydney artist named Lisa Brummer, suggested a floor graphic “to entice people,” and wanted it to be as large as possible. The 5 x 10-foot result pushed Kwik Kopy’s capabilities to their limit, with the width at the maximum possible for their Roland VS-640 printer and the length equally taxing in their small production space.
Degenhardt says “Lisa would have liked something larger, but this meant producing two separate pieces and lining them up at installation” – ordinarily an easy feat, but Brummer would be doing the installation. The graphic was printed on McSign OPCR Floor Base with McSign FG Floor Laminate from Australian Visual Solutions; they used a Royal Sovereign cold laminator.
Pushing the limits of their tiny shop turned out to be a risk worth taking: “Installation couldn’t have been easier,” Brummer says, adding that the vinyl easily withstood the foot traffic created by the tradeshow’s 12,000 attendees. She even says she’ll be able to reuse it.
The graphic “quite quickly became a talking point,” Brummer continues. “It also became quite interactive with potential clients as people used their feet to point out images they loved.” A visitor even placed an order for a reprint of the same graphic on wall canvas.
As for Kwik Kopy’s future in floor graphics, they’re hoping to revise their shop layout and bring in larger work tables. Degenhardt also sees floor graphics becoming more common, “as it’s getting easier to produce them.”
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