Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1451379
5 6 G R A P H I C S P R O A U G U S T 2 0 2 2 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M Worktable Workhorses FUNCTIONS AND FEATURES OF TODAY'S SIGN SHOP STAPLE B Y P A U L A A V E N G L A D Y C H Dawn Bent and brother Mike Ziccardi started their franchise in 1988 in a 1,100-square-foot vinyl shop that has since expanded into a 24,000-square-foot building that offers full manufacturing of electrical and architectural signs, sign products, channel letters and vehicle graphics. (Image courtesy Signarama Huntington Station) W orktables have evolved so much in the past few years that it is rare to enter a print or graphics shop and see a table that acts as just a table. More modern versions of this print shop staple function as light tables, a place to cut, laminate and mount graphics. e devices help shops streamline their workflow by allow- ing one person to handle jobs that used to take more than one person to do. EFFICIENCY & PRODUCTIVITY Dawn Bent, co-owner of a Signarama fran- chise in Huntington Station, New York, pur- chased a ROLL-X Multipurpose Applicator table from ROLLSROLLER a year ago. "After 33 years of traditional hand applica- tion or using a laminator, I broke down after trying it out at a trade show and knew it would be a game changer," she says. "And it has been." e learning curve was steep at first with "a lot of failure and recurring and reprinting of vinyl materials," Bent says. But once her employees got the hang of it, she says the amount of waste produced in the shop has gone down tenfold. "From that point of view right there, the thing pays for itself as far as I'm concerned. I don't have to yell at anyone when I see things in the garbage," she says with a laugh. Dawn and her brother Mike Ziccardi started the franchise in 1988 as a 1,100-square-foot vinyl shop that has since expanded into a 24,000-square-foot building that offers full manufacturing of electrical and architectural signs, sign products, channel letters and vehi- cle graphics. Before buying the ROLL-X worktable, Bent and Ziccardi insisted their staff "should know how to do this the old-fashioned way," she says, "and then we gave up." Signarama's employees use the table to mount masked vinyl and digital prints onto various substrates. S I G N A G E & P R I N T I N G