Photo of the week

Winter Solstice 1

©Davin Brandt

Are you cracking up?

Are you cracking up?  More accurately speaking, is your image cracking up?

From time to time we see window lettering, vehicle graphics, and business signs looking tattered and just plan worn-out past it's prime.  This cracking is the result if years of element and sun exposure to the material - vinyl films.

A bit on vinyl films.  There are several different manufactures of both cast and calendared pressure sensitive vinyl films, all of which bond to surfaces with a thin adhesive film right on the material.  The cast films will give you much longer life than the calendared films.  Don't be fooled, they look and feel identical, except in price.  If you want longevity always seek out cast, or high performance films.  They will crack overtime but hopefully a lot less than what you are witnessing here.

Photo of the week

A sea of color

©Davin Brandt

Interior signs

We just installed a recently completed, custom 4 layer, colored acrylic sign for a twin cites media company. Take a look, this creative project really turned out nice!

What really makes a sign like this pop out from other acrylic sign options is all the colored layers.  The sign started out with a custom shaped white acrylic base. from there it grew in elevation with 1/4" blue acrylic for the main name.  On top of that was a raised, two tier "peacock", the iconic symbol for NBC.

Getting everything to line up perfectly involved precision laser cutting each of the shapes and a steady hand with both liquid adhesive and acrylic placement. To finish this project off we decided to hang the sign using a stand-off puck hanging system. The raised puck mount hanging system not only creates interesting shadows on the wall which helps draw attention to the sign, but the puck fasteners add a nice touch of elegance too.

To quote the late Charles Mingus: "Making the simple awesomely simple, that is creativity."

Cold weather banners - from chilly St. Paul, MN

Not all banner materials are the same.  There is so much to chose from these days: vinyl, polyester, satin, canvas, nylon, the list goes on.  The graphic application processes are also numerous with vinyl films, screen printing, and direct digital printing taking the lead.

Big Idea is located in St. Paul, MN.  If you have been paying attention to the weather this winter, especially if you live in Minnesota, the temperatures sure have kept people from talking about global warming.  We have had numerous below zero days this year already.  This picture was taken on a windy -7°f day.  If you pay attention to wind chill it had a "feels like" -20°f.

Back to banners.  The banner pictured here is made of a tough polyester material.  It is lightweight and serves the purpose of a sail flag banner very well.  It can be folded for storage yet still displays nice, the lightweight material allows it to flutter and move freely while on display, and the graphics take on a rich vibrant tone.  The added value for us cold weather folks is that the material holds up in the coldest of temperatures. The ever popular vinyl banner materials on the other hand, if not mounted tight and flat to a stationary surface, will crack and break down in the extreme cold. Trust us on this, we have seen the destruction first hand. 

"I had a call years ago from someone in Grand Marais.  They had a 20' x 3', 18oz. vinyl banner with pressure-sensitive vinyl graphics displayed over a dog sledding trail.  The temperature was -20°f  and the wind was gusting at 25mph. That is a "feels like" -50°f! The extreme cold along with the wind is no match for vinyl banners.  Their banner was literally frozen while being snapped in the wind.  Needless to say, it made it for 2 hours before it fell apart.  It literally cracked and pealed into hundreds of pieces."

Our experience says stick with fabric based materials if you plan to display a banner in below freezing conditions. It works today as well as it worked for Will Steger and team years ago on a trek to the North Pole.  Yes, our owner was behind this project as well!

You also should pay close attention to the graphic application, making sure it has some sort of UV inhibiting characteristic.  Investing in a banner should not end short because a  "banner guy" took a short cut on printing.

Music is a wonderful thing

Conference room art gallery

Conference room art, how refreshing!

Sitting in a conference room waiting for attendees to show up often finds one playing with their mobile device these days or staring out a picture window.  

That is not the case in this meeting room.  One can't help but walk through the room and view the creative photos displayed as if the conference room was an exhibit gallery.  Not only are the photos refreshing to look at, they add color to an otherwise drab environment, as well as great conversation topics.

Hum,  a conference room gallery?  Now that is a Big Idea!

Event Photography

Event Photography is not just about weddings, even businesses should document their "big event" to showcase in a photo album. 

Documenting your corporate / non-profit event or party is a sure-fire way to not only market your business, raise awareness for annual events, and showcase your latest achievements, it is a great source for relationship building interaction between you and your past, present and future clients.


The image pictured here is one of over 36 finalist images submitted for a clients event portfolio.  The event was a wine | beer | mocktail tasting fundraiser.  Shooting the attendees having fun is a no brainer and should fill a good chunk of a completed portfolio, but it is equally important to document the actual event details. These details will vary from event to event, but a good photographer should be able to see the little things that will help show that your event was unique.

When your photographer submits a final event portfolio it should include enough pictures that would take an absentee event guest to a virtual event from start to finish. If by the end of a portfolio viewing one is left without a clear understanding of the event, it purpose, and the mood that was present, then it is time to hire a new photographer.

Consider hiring a photographer for your next event and start building a database of powerful marketing and relationship building pictures.

Legal | Evidence Photography

When you think about photographer's, what type come to mind?  For most it is a wedding photographer, Paparazzi and that awesome guy/gal in National Geographic.  Oh, can't forget the sports photographers too.

There is another area that probable is not to familiar to most, unless you watch a lot of CS shows.  It is what we term Legal Evidence Photography and no, it is not as glamorous as Hollywood makes it to be. It is often photographing  products/equipment, roadways and intersections, home structural damage and the likes. Take the image pictured here.  a simple shot of a ladder, or is it?

This picture may appear as a simple shot of a ladder but that view far from the truth.  There are several elements here both seen and unseen, first what is seen.  Notice the focal length (depth-of-field).  The background is purposely taken out of focus by the photographer not only to avoid potential background distractions but to help draw attention to the ladder.  The focus has also been directed specifically to the instructional area of this image.  With the areas of almost perfect white and black, exposure of the low contrast stamped text was extremely important to capture correctly - on camera.  Altered and photoshopping images for exhibits are a no-no.

Great lead into the unseen portion of this picture - file data.  Did you know that when you take a picture, even with your smartphone, your camera records all sorts of information from the capture? Depending on the camera, it can document the date, time, aperture, shutter speed, lens used, ISO, and even the focal length you used and GPS location.  This captured information is commonly referred to as the meta data.

So why is metadata important?  In legal work it is critical in providing specific facts from specific captures. But can't that be altered?  Sure it can.  But if you are like us, we use built in image authentication for this type of photography.  This enables the authentication of each photo shot by a specific camera, then with the use of special software you can verify if the image has been altered since the time it was captured.

Okay, so why can't someone hack that authentication software?  They sure could, nothing is fool proof.  Heck look at our national security issues.  What we do as photographers is provide all the "firewalls" we can to ensure original authentic images.  Speaking only for the Big Idea Photographers, we follow our personal moral values, not the feelings some follow from the heart but the guidelines given to us long ago by a guy with a staff wearing sandal's and donning what most movember guys dream of. 




Big Idea |  the photography side

Large format wall murals

The digital world keep growing and growing.  The printers are improving performance and output quality.  New printable materials hit the market every year expanding display possibilities.  And, overall material and print longevity continue to amaze us.

The image pictured here was installed this past week at a recruiting location.  It covered 208" x 80" of wall space  The material used on this project was new for us.  It is an adhesive-backed,  fabric-based material that really has superb image quality.  The manufacture states that "it can be mounted to any surface and repositioned countless times while retaining its adhesion without leaving a residue."  After installing, we are not entirely convinced that it is repositional countless of times.  Nevertheless, it performed very well during installation. 

One great aspect of this material is that it has a natural matte finish.  Notice that there are no noticeable reflections from the ceiling-mounted fluorescent lights on the mural. Another key aspect is that the material removes well without leaving residue.  This is a huge value as it allows a business changeable large format marketing opportunities without the need of a frame system, or the hassle of repair/patching/painting the wall each time your marketing program is updated.

Sizing on this and other interior materials does not need to be this large either.  There is a max dimension on one side, the other dimension has yards and yards and yards available. With the ease of installation and promotional effectiveness, the smaller 22" x 28" & 24" x 36" "wall posters" are becoming a popular option. 

photo of the week

 

"The start of the end"

©Big Idea

 

 



Photo of the week

 

Reflections at Hazeltine

©Davin Brandt & Big Idea

Photo of the week

 

An image from a series entitled:

Look-up

White Bear decal giveaway

Want a Free decal?

Many of the folks in our local stomping grounds take great pride in their community.  Some so much so that they just can't help but share their sentiment by displaying the great white bear window decal on their vehicles.

This week we are helping out with that pride promotion by giving away several of the decals for FREE!.  The image displayed here shows the cool looking outline of the white vinyl decal, the black area illustrates the surface color you put the decal on.  So, the catch.  Yup, there is one, you must visit our facebook page and give us a "page like".   You can also like the post, but it is the "page like" that will get you in the drawing for a free decal.  We are giving 7 of these away this month

Here is the link, give us a like today!