When the W Scottsdale approached us about adding some visual interest to the front of their hotel at Scottsdale and Camelback, we jumped at the idea of giving a little life to an otherwise dull arrival experience. Their dramatic 2nd floor WET® pool, which can be seen from the street below, had an empty acrylic box just begging for some attention. The W wanted us to embellish this box with imagery that resembled water, movement and the sexy style they are so well known for.

Working with the existing 3-dimensional red W that, strangely enough, seems to be the only red W anywhere in the hotel. We created an illustrative graphic element that captures the essence of the hotel’s water features and wraps all five sides of the acrylic box. Visitors to the W are now welcomed by a serene splash of purple and blue, accented by a pop of red! You can see the dramatic transformation in the before and after pictures above and below.

As I write this brief post, I can’t believe it’s been over a month since my last entry…What can I say, time flies when you’re having a good time.

In case you missed the June issue of Sign and Digital Graphics Magazine, Splinter took down the Vendor’s Choice Award from Mimaki in the 2009 Auto Art Contest. We submitted two sets of vehicle wraps to the auto art contest, one commercial vehicle and one set of team racing graphics. While the Cruz Tequila vehicle wrap made the publication as a vendor’s choice winner, the set of Mini Cooper Racing Graphics for RSR Motorsports took home an honorable mention and is featured in the slide show here (slides 40 and 46).

A great honor to take home the Vendor’s Choice Award, it marks the second time Splinter Creative has been recognized for its outstanding vehicle wraps in the trade publication (the Scion won Best Graphics in the December 2008 issue (page 28)). We’re certainly ready for the next competition, and figured until then, we’ll lay on the shameless self promotion pretty thick

Let me know your thoughts on the vehicle designs in the comments below…  Think they rock? Could have done better? You would’ve liked to see…

Every time I hear the word guarantee, or someone is giving me the hard sell on a product reaffirming their guarantee, I can’t help but think of Chris Farley’s spiel in the movie Tommy Boy…

Tommy: Let’s think about this for a sec, Ted, why would somebody put a guarantee on a box? Hmmm, very interesting.
Ted Nelson, Customer: Go on, I’m listening.
Tommy: Here’s the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee on a box ’cause he wants you to feel all warm and toasty inside.
Ted Nelson, Customer: Yeah, makes a man feel good.
Tommy: ‘Course it does. Why shouldn’t it? Ya figure you put that little box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter, am I right, Ted?
[chuckles until he sees that Ted is not laughing too]
Ted Nelson, Customer: [impatiently] What’s your point?
Tommy: The point is, how do you know the fairy isn’t a crazy glue sniffer? “Building model airplanes” says the little fairy; well, we’re not buying it. He sneaks into your house once, that’s all it takes. The next thing you know, there’s money missing off the dresser, and your daughter’s knocked up. I seen it a hundred times.
Ted Nelson, Customer: But why do they put a guarantee on the box? 
Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That’s all it is, isn’t it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer’s sake, for your daughter’s sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me. 
Ted Nelson, Customer: [pause] Okay, I’ll buy from you.

As this may be the case with some companies (guaranteeing a poor product simply to make the consumer feel all warm and fuzzy) it is most certainly not the case with 3M. In case you didn’t know, 3M is THE fabricator of the finest over laminates and adhesive vinyls in all the land. I refer to them as THE fabricator of such materials because they aren’t just slapping a guarantee on a box. They warranty their products to the fullest extent to make sure each and every client is completely satisfied with their materials.

For example, about 9 months back we wrapped 2 SUV’s for a local client. The wrap designs turned out absolutely killer, the quality of printing was phenomenal and the installation was flawless. Needless to say, a few months went by and the client began to see a few issues with the vehicle graphics peeling up in various crevices on both vehicles. As both sets of vehicle graphics were printed from the same roll of material, it wasn’t hard to believe that they were experiencing the same issue.

The crazy part… In the over 400 vehicles Splinter has wrapped, we’ve never seen material from 3M act this way. Luckily, our local 3M rep took the time to come down and examine the vehicles to see what was happening. The determination was made the material was faulty (when you’re producing millions of square feet of vinyl, this is going to happen once or twice) and our 3M rep gladly supplied us with a new roll of material to print on and re-wrap the vehicles. His level of service was second to none, and it saved us a few thousand dollars by not having to reproduce the graphics on our dime.

The moral of the story? You get what you pay for when it comes to a guarantee. The extra few bucks spent on 3M materials were well worth it just knowing the 3M crew has got your back. Adam, if you’re reading this, thanks for making our lives that much easier and standing by your quality products.

Too often, when we bring up the term environmental graphics, clients look at us with the old ‘what the hell are you talking about’ expression. Well strap on your seat belts, we’re about to take a wild ride on the large format graphics train.

Wikipedia refers to Environmental Graphic Design as, “the profession embracing many design disciplines including graphic design, architecture, industrial design and landscape architecture. Practitioners in this field are concerned with the visual aspects of wayfinding, communicating identity and brands, information design, and shaping a sense of place.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself, but of course I’ve got a few things to add using layman’s terms. Environmental graphics have the ability of transforming any setting into an informative, mind-blowing advertisement… or at least they can depending on how risqué the client wants to get. Whether you’re looking to advertise on your store front, or take an outdoor branding campaign to new heights with building size graphics, the array of materials available today gives you endless possibilities.

We recently completed a set of window graphics and building banners for the City of Tempe’s new parking garage. The new structure not only offers some much needed parking to the Mill Ave. area, it boasts 12,000 square feet of office and retail space. Our job was to create a campaign that not only met city code for exterior signage, but presented information in a clean and highly visible manner. Needless to say, we nailed it.

And window graphics are just the tip of the iceberg. Environmental graphics most commonly show their face in windows, on buildings or a variety of other outdoor applications, but most don’t realize their extensive capabilities indoor as well.

Currently the hottest trends in environmental graphics, digitally printed wall murals and floor graphics can be applied to any flat, non porous surface. Looking to cover a portion of the floor, or an entire hallway? No problem. 3M adhesive vinyls make any project feasible no matter the scope.

Probably the coolest thing about printed wall murals, besides their ability to be fully customizable, is their flexibility allowing the graphic to take on the texture of the surface to which it’s being applied. Take a look at an example we did for the City of Scottsdale (that’s not paint people).

So whether you’re looking for a new way to communicate your brand’s message, direct customers through your store, or just make a wall look absolutely killer… give environmental graphics a shot. I assure you, they won’t disappoint.

Splinter Creative is down with planet earth. We live on it and it’s pretty good to us (except of course when it is 110+ degrees in the summer). While many companies out there are neglecting the big spinning rock, we decided to take a different approach to help out Mother Nature.

While “green printing” is a popular term these days, a great majority are missing out on the even bigger picture of disposal. We’re still going to offer you the option of a natural canvas banner or heavy recycled paper, but when it comes down to it, delivering a message outdoors usually requires a heavy-duty vinyl banner.

And that ladies and gentleman is where we come in to play. Although you can’t always print green for your outdoor project, you can help reduce the carbon footprint by disposing of your media properly.

For example, say you have a large format media project that has run its course and you don’t know what to do with it. Rather than just stuffing it in the trash can, give your friendly sales rep over at Splinter Creative a call and we’ll be happy to take it off your hands.

That’s it. Seriously. All you have to do is give us a call or drop your banner by the office, and we’ll take care of the rest by bringing the materials to a processor that can dispose of them in an eco friendly manner.

So next time you’re getting ready for a large format media project, give us a buzz and we’ll put our greenest foot forward to help-you-help-us-help-the-environment.

Were you there?  Did you follow the protocol – Tweet, Meet and Give?  If you didn’t, you missed out on a great tweetup and the support of an even better cause.  Over 100 tweeps and 40 companies from across the valley joined forces with the goal of raising enough money to fund one well for Charity Water.

Now some of you may be thinking… Only one well?  That’s it?  Well little do you know, it cost a cool $4,000 to fund one of these puppies, which in our economic state, is no easy task.  Luckily, the folks of  @twestivalphx put their best foot forward, and although they’re still waiting for the final numbers, early estimates put #phx over its goal raising at least $,4600+ when tallying event ticket sales, raffle tickets, silent auction items and more!

In the words of @chrislee, “Awesome Job Phoenix!”

The folks here at Splinter Creative were happy to help, and chipped in by designing the Twestival Phoenix logo (pictured above), printing some oversize posters, and making a few contributions (both donations and purchases) to the silent auction.

All in all, it was awesome to see everyone come together to tweet, meet and give… And it was great to finally meet a lot of the cool tweeps in person that I’m following on Twitter.  Needless to say, I can’t wait for the next Tweetup… Guess Ignite Phoenix on February 25th in Tempe will have to hold me over in the meantime   Hope to see everyone there!

And if you’re not already, hit me up on Twitter @BlairHatz

Image above courtesy of @templestark