Printer provides quality needed to produce richly coloured wraps
With over 30 years’ experience in vehicle graphic design, Mark Chamberlain of graphics company Funkeefish started out without the convenience of today’s printer/cutters. Along with friend Jon Dawson, Mark learned his craft by designing and cutting graphics by hand.
“I bought a VersaCAMM SP-540i from printMAX when I started out and it really let me push the boundaries, which is really what Funkeefish is all about”, says Mark.
The SP-540i soon had a chance to prove its worth. Mark secured a contract to wrap 100 vans for a UK firm but when that order changed to 1000 vans in the space of a few weeks, Mark got the chance to test the limits of the SP-540i.
“I’m not really from a technical background so I had to figure out how to get the most from the machine on the job,” explains Mark. “The printer was running literally 24 hours a day and it just took everything I threw at it. I loved that machine – it was an absolute soldier, I wish I’d never got rid of it.”
With Funkeefish’s growing success, something faster, more advanced and with a greater colour gamut was needed. It was then that Mark, somewhat reluctantly, returned to printMAX and traded in the faithful workhorse for a new SOLJET Pro 4 XR-640, four years ago. When Mark saw the quality of the print, he knew he’d made the right choice.
“The SP-540i never let me down so my next printer had to be a Roland. The SOLJET is absolutely brilliant. It’s a lot faster, the colours are richer and the blacks are outstanding. We do a lot of carbon fibre at Funkeefish and the blacks need to be perfect. We designed the wrap for a Porsche 911 for Avery Dennison’s stand at FESPA last year and people couldn’t believe that the green came off a printer – they all thought it was aerosol paint.”
Three years ago, Jon joined Funkeefish to help strengthen the design side of the business, which is now clearly apparent in their latest work. His flair and skill are second to none and nowhere can this artistic talent be seen better than at Avery Dennison’s training facility in Milton Keynes.
“The wrap on Avery's walls in the foyer shows a very ordinary London scene but as you climb the stairs towards the classroom on the upper level you turn a corner and notice some very odd-looking aircraft, then...POW!!! You are confronted with a barrage of spaceships, spacemen,exploding stars and moons, enticing you up the stairs into the exciting world of colour and possibilities, the core of the Avery Dennison brand.”
