I am trying to put a full-legnth graphic on the bottom of a kiteboard I am building.
I purchased a rice-paper laminate from Victim Board Art but am unhappy with the results.
The problems with the lam they sent me are as follows:
The colors are way to dark and don't "pop"
The color saturation is poor and the laminate is very transparent
There are alternating dark and light "lines" on the laminate that seem to be some kind of problem with the printer they used.
I've tried to contact the company either to get a refund or to have the graphic re-done but it seems now they do not answer their telephone or respond to e-mail.
Who can make me a good laminte and give me reasonable customer service? The graphic I am using is an extemely high quality scan for making archival prints of the artwork so I know that image quality is not the problem.
I want the laminate to be totally opaque or at least mostly opaque so that the corecell foam and inserts I am using do not show through.
Is there any good reason I can't just have the graphic printed on regular paper and just use that? I think I could have it printed at kinkos for under $20.
Any advice or reccomendations would be appreciated,
Hey Trent...problem is the graphic was probably printed with an inkjet printer. The only way to get a completely opaque laminate on rice paper is to have it silk screened. With an inkjet printer, even "photo-quality" models, black looks pretty opaque but most other colors look faded or semi-transparent. If you have a large graphic that you want reproduced on a board, take it to one of the skilled airbrush guys after hot-coating.. Pete St. Pierre at Moonlight Glassing is arguably the best, but there are others. Get with your local glassers for a reference.
Check some pics in my profile. I’m currently working on a board with a full deck design. It’s printed on some kind of light nylon that you can laminate.
I payed 50 € for the print in Germany (shortboard). Longboardsizes are more expensive. They ship worldwide. Not sure if I’m allowed to put the name of the company here so send me a PM if you’re interested.
The design I delivered to them was an vector high res Adobe Illustrator .eps file, but they can handle .jpg or probably any other photoshop file too. There are numerous design examples on their site.
I purchased a graphic, actually 2, from victim to cover a repair and I am pretty happy with the results. Covered repair well. Darin owner of DC surfboards in Titusville, Fl built the board and repaired it and applied the graphic to cover up the repair, looks alot better than we thought it would.
The lines you mentioned are called “banding”. Depending on the type of printer they’re using (either aqueous or solvent inkjet) there are steps they can take to get rid of them. Any professional printer that hands over a finished piece with banding in it has very low standards or for some reason felt the image was “good enough”. Regardless, if you’re paying for it, it should be done right.
I’d ask them to re-do the graphic. Their web site mentions the option of using an adhesive vinyl. If you’re looking for opacity I’d go this route.
I wouldn’t go to Kinko’s. Their knowledge/quality control of wide format color is among the worst in the industry.
I sell wide format media for a living so I’m familiar with what you’re talking about here.
Trent, I use www.dystrakted.com, they use a white cloth instead of rice paper and the colors come out close to opaque, I’ve used victim before and was not happy, This board in the pic i did was for a restaurant with their logo on it. Victim wanted almost $200.00 to do it and I never heard back from them when I gave them the go ahead, I guess cause it was for one board. I contacted Dystrakted, sent them the file, they blew it up to fit the board and had it done in a week for $75.00. I’m very happy with their work.
I don’t know anything about getting rice paper logos printed, but with the embedded photos in your post, change them from “thumbnail” to “preview” before you hit the insert button.
This is Victim Board Art, I’m sorry but we did not recieve any emails or calls from you. We would have definately helped you with this problem and resolved the problem. We have 3 different materials and our White 2oz fabric woiuld work much better and look brighter and more vibrant. Rice Paper works well with graphics with darker richer colors. Regardless, your graphic will not look the same as on the computer screen as with any print media.
We take pride in providing high quality work and work with some of our top FL shapers like Brian Tudor, Orion, Pele Surfboards, Josh Miller, Canibal, Ricky Carrol to top CA shapers like Proctor, Rusty, Infinity, XTR, Hobie, FireWire
Trent please email me victimboardart@gmail.com and I’ll print you your art on our BriteLite poly fabric which will come out better than on rice paper because its a briter white and more translucent. Our staff should have chosen our BriteLite Fabric for your lam.
As a private businessman that deals with customer service issues on a daily basis, you guys are the real deal! I have been watching this thread to see what would happen...I am pleased.
Not to deride Trent in anyway...this is what happens in customer service...people will tell everyone who will listen when you make a mistake...silent when things go perfectly. This is just our nature I guess.
Trent please let us know how things work out, seriously, if these guys step up, they deserve the credit for doing so.
By the way killer artwork, please post pics of the finished board!!!
Trent, I use