Green Printing for Green Living

With more consumers joining the green movement, health retailer The Vitamin Shoppe opened The Eco Shoppe—a new concept store offering various sustainable living products for home, garden, pets, and more—in Austin, Texas.

The retailer expected the store to achieve Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification. This included using construction materials such as bamboo composites, low-VOC glues and adhesives, and, of course, eco-friendly graphics. For its graphics, The Eco Shoppe turned to Vomela (www.vomela.com)  the print provider for all The Vitamin Shoppe locations.

Production
Retail design firm Kiku Obata and Company created the graphics and provided print-ready images. No adjustments were needed until proofs were output. “We had to do proofs for color approval and did have to tweak colors from the original output,” Vomela account manager Michelle Malkan says. Vomela supplied hard proofs using the same machines and media that would be used for final output.

In keeping with the client’s green expectations, two “green” media were selected for the project: Designtex Duraprene, a vinyl alternative made from fused and pressurized cellulose fibers from renewable-resource trees and paper-mill byproducts, then bonded with natural latex; and Xanita Mondi Xtreme, a recyclable and repulpable rigid media produced from 92-percent recycled material.

Vomela turned to its EFI Vutek QS2000 printer with Colorburst RIP for 15 different Eco Shoppe departmental wallscapes, posters, and wall displays, ranging in size from 24 x 22 to 92 x 129 inches, outputting onto the Duraprene with 3M Series 2800 UV inks. The Mondi Xtreme, meanwhile, came into play for eight countertop pedestal displays, each 12¼ x 185⁄8-inches; here, Vomela employed its Inca Columbia Turbo with Wasatch RIP, printing with Fujifilm Sericol Uvijet EK Series inks.

All graphics were manually trimmed, requiring no further finishing or lamination, the company reports. Total project time took two weeks, and San Antonio-based Merchco Services handled the install.

“More and more of our suppliers are promoting eco-friendly materials and the range of products is expanding more rapidly all the time. We’re also seeing more inquiries and demand from customers, especially retailers,” says Malkan. 

The Client: Eco Shoppe, Austin, Texas
The Players: Vomela (vomela.com)
Tools & Supplies:  EFI Vutek QS2000, Inca Columbia Turbo, 3M Series 2800 and Fujifilm Sericol Uvijet EK Series inks, Xanita Mondi Xtreme, Designtex Duraprene, Colorburst and Wasatch RIPs