Cool prints in Santa Barbara

“Our customers range from dog-walking companies to new car dealerships,” says Fred Barbaria, Santa Barbara Signs & Graphics, Santa Barbara, California. “We’re a one-stop shop for signs and graphics.”

Established 14 years ago, the growing shop’s staff of four operates from a 2000-sq. ft. storefront location. The shop offers everything from trade show displays to window and vehicle graphics, but Fred is quick to point out that they specialize in large-format digital printing.

“We do a lot of wraps and partial wraps. This is a fairly conservative community, so we don’t find many customers wanting dragon skin or carbon fiber wraps. But a digital print is perfect for anyone who wants to advertise their products or services in a unique way. You can get a lot of impact with it.”

The digital output devices at Santa Barbara Signs & Graphics include an Epson GS6000, which handles all of the shop’s solvent printing. Fred says it makes it easy to match colors while delivering a quality, durable print.

“The color is very vivid, and the machine—across the board—fills the bill rather admirably. It’s turned out to be everything we hoped it would. Since the Epson uses orange and green inks, you get colors that look almost fluorescent without being fluorescent. And that surprises people.

Since not every vehicle graphics customer is looking for a wrap or partial wrap, Fred also does quite a few door and rear window decals. A digitally-printed decal gives a designer the opportunity to use effects that simply aren’t possible with cut vinyl lettering.

“A properly-designed digitally-printed decal gets around the ‘just-stuck-on-there’ look,” says Fred. “It lets us include effects such as soft drop shadows and other fades. Our goal with a door decal is to integrate it into the look of vehicle.

“Digital printing is an exciting segment of the industry, and we’re fortunate to be in an area that is receptive to the type of work we like to do best. We’ve developed good relationships with several of the graphic designers in the community, and do a lot of output work for them. We also provide all of the print graphics for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival each year.”

See more at www.sbsigns.com, and watch for the upcoming feature article on Santa Barbara Signs & Graphics in a future issue of SignCraft magazine.

Source: SignCraft.com