Before I got into the vinyl graphics business, I wasn’t quite sure how to apply die cut decals. How did they get the phone number so directly on the truck? Or, how did that intricate logo die-cut logo apply to the wall to allow the wall color to shine through?
Now, having been in the industry for over 16 years and knowing the process, I forget that our consumers don’t always understand how their custom wall stickers are made. I thought I’d try to explain how and why they are so easy to apply.
So, let’s take a look at the Nike logo. Mainly letters and swishes, right? Well, what if I want the wall color to show where there are no letters?
Some may think we’ll print decals on clear vinyl. Would that make sense? The color of the walls will show through and it is easy to apply.
But honestly, do you think this looks professional? Under certain lighting conditions, you know you’ll be able to see where the scotch tape ends and it will look, um… tacky.
So the only option is to die cut each letter right?
It wouldn’t be too difficult for our sign, especially if the wall decals are very large – for halls or meeting rooms.
But what if the font is smaller? Or what if we wanted to include the smaller text “Stay Your Style” in the decal? The text is script, smaller and thinner than the letters in our logo.
This is where the three-layer mask comes in. Here’s how it works.
Production
So vinyl is either printed and cut or die cut from solid color vinyl. It came off the machine and was still held together by the backing because the blade was set to only cut through the vinyl and not through the paper backing.
Then it’s time to “weed” the vinyl. Weeding is when someone uses tweezers or a pointed tool to pull out every piece that isn’t needed. So in our logo example, we need to clear everything around the logo, including the inside of the “e”.
Then, the only part left on the back of the paper is the logo.
So how do we stick the logo from the backing paper to our wall? This is where the third layer comes in.
Next, we used clear transfer tape and applied it to the entire decal. (It’s important to know what the decal will be applied to in order to use the correct transfer tape.)
In our case, we now ship custom wall stickers to our clients.
application
All our customers need to do to attach the decal to the wall is to simply peel off the paper backing.
Once the backing paper is removed, the sticky side of the decal is exposed. The logo or decal is held together by clear transfer tape and can be easily applied like a decal.
After scraping the decal onto the wall, the customer simply grabs one corner of the transfer tape and slowly pulls it to a 90-degree angle. Like magic, the decals stayed on the wall and the clear transfer paper became garbage.
There you have it – a three-layer mask.