A mini photo shoot for the new advertising we've added to a Volvo! Really hot this afternoon today, didn't get a lot of pictures done.
You can spot this Volvo bumbling around Ottawa, if you do, ask us and we may have free stickers to give away!
Posted by: Eli
In it's simplest terms, the silkscreen printing process can also be refereed to as stenciling or serigraphy. Stenciling dates back thousands of years ago, some of the earliest examples can be found in the caves of France and Spain. Later on it was perfected to use silk for various designs in Japan and China. More recently it's been used to make Hawaiian shirts, and even playing cars in USA!
The first patent for a screen printing process was awarded to Samuel Simon of England, in 1907. Later, John Pilsworth of San Francisco perfect the multicolored screen printing. Throughout WWII, screen printing was used to make the famous "Uncle Sam" posters, and "U.S. Army Property" on soldiers' shirts. Marilyn Diptych (1962) by Andy Warhol, is arguably one of the most famous silkscreen paintings.
Digital printing is basically done by any laser or an inkjet printer. It's a quick way to get your design made, whereas silkscreen printing takes longer because it uses actual buckets of paint to apply it to screens. Digitally printed stickers are not considered to be outdoor proof.
Lamination can also be added to digitally printed materials, this is meant to prolong the longevity. However, even so, the longevity of laminated digital stickers may only be measured in months.
Silkscreen printing process is the best way to make high grade, best possible quality stickers.
| Digital Print |
Laminated Digital Print |
Silkscreen |
|
| Resolution | High | High | Moderate |
| Setup time | Quick | Quick | Slow |
| Finish | Thin print | Thin print | Thick ink print |
| Outdoor life | Weeks | Months | 5+ years |
| Rain Resistance | Very Poor | Good | Best |
| UV Resistance | Poor | Poor | Best |
|
Tailribbons use |
 |
|
 |
|
You start with a blank piece of a white vinyl with a sticky backing. By the way, you can also silkscreen print on fabrics like a t-shirt, glass, plastics, ceramics, even metal, wood, and of course paper.
|
|
A screen is a piece of fabric (traditionally silk, but now polyester is used) with thousands of tiny holes (polyester mesh). The idea is to get ink through the holes and unto the vinyl, but only in such a way that it creates your design. In other words, we don't need to utilize all of the thousands of tiny holes of the fabric (otherwise we end up with a red rectangle), but only the ones that make up our design. This can be done in several ways: |
|
Get a small bucket of red paint, and apply a layer of red ink by hand (with a squeegee) on the screen. |
|
This creates the red half of the circle. |
|
Force blue ink through the mesh of the screen "B", remove the screen, and so this creates the other blue half. |
|
In terms of quality, there's no comparison between digitally printed stickers and silkscreen printed ones. Always insist on silkscreen printing. |
Which are the most patriotic nations on earth? In 1995/96, and 2003/04 research was conducted by the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) in 33 countries. It looked into national pride, or the positive affect that people feel towards their countries, closely related to patriotism and nationalism (1). The results varied considerably across different nations. From that data, here are the first 25 most patriotic countries:
| Country | Rank | Tailribbon | |
 |
United States | 1 (tie) | Flag of USA car sticker |
 |
Venezuela | 1 (tie) | |
 |
Australia | 3 | |
 |
Austria | 4 | |
 |
South Africa | 5 | Flag of South Africa car sticker |
 |
Canada | 6 |
Canada Maple Leaf car sticker Flag of Canada car sticker Fleur de lis heritage car sticker |
 |
Chile | 7 | |
 |
New Zealand | 8 | |
 |
The Philippines | 9 | |
 |
Israel | 10 | |
 |
Denmark | 11 (tie) | |
 |
Hungary | 11 (tie) | |
 |
Ireland | 11 (tie) | Flag of Ireland car sticker |
 |
Uruguay | 14 | |
 |
Portugal | 15 | |
 |
Finland | 16 | |
 |
Spain | 17 | |
 |
Japan | 18 | |
 |
Great Britain | 19 | Union Jack car sticker |
 |
Slovenia | 20 | |
 |
Russia | 21 | Flag of Russia car sticker |
 |
Norway | 22 | |
 |
South Korea | 24 (tie) | |
 |
Czech Republic | 24 (tie) | |
 |
Switzerland | 24 (tie) |
Some interesting facts:
More interesting facts:
References
Posted by: Eli
Which sticker do you think looks better?
Daytime, clean.
Frost, some dirt build up.
A lot of frost, dirt!
Wet dirt buildup.
What's the difference anyway?
Notice that most other car stickers have a small border around them, it can be white, transparent, or another color. This is done because modern cutting machines cannot trim with enough precision around a particular design. Some "slack space" is left around the intended design to give the cutting machine room for error.
I'm not happy about this "slack space", because:
I've asked a number of different manufacturers if they can trim only around the artwork, they all said no. It's hard and extremely tedious to do.
I was not satisfied with that, it meant compromising on our goal of making the perfect car sticker. So we trim tailribbons by hand, this makes tailribbons truly unique car stickers, that are completely border-less, nothing but the artwork.
Posted by: Eli
Bitcoins are now accepted at checkout! That is all. Short, but sweet, blog post yet.
Another freezing day in Ottawa! A perfect time for more winter testing, so let's THERMAL SHOCK some car stickers!
Thermal shock occurs when the temperature of an object is changed quickly. Most materials shrink in the cold and expand in the heat. For example, it's possible for a bathroom window (assume just normal glass) to experience thermal shock. When you take a really hot shower, and it's -40°C outside, the glass might experience a temperature gradient. The inside surface will expand slightly due to heat from the hot shower. The outside surface is not expanding at the same rate because it's freezing cold outside, this causes stresses to build up in the entire glass, and the whole piece might crack.
What might happen when thermal shocking a tailribbon:The hot water will make the top surface of a tailribbon sticker instantly warmed up, mostly likely causing the vinyl material to expand by a small rate. The bottom side that is attached to the car is really cold, and doesn't really want to expand at any rate. This difference between expansion rates creates unwanted strains (ε). Strain is related to stress (σ) by a formula, σ = Eε, where E is a constant depending on the material used. Stress (σ) is defined as force over an area, and this force is what might cause thermal cracks!
Let's see what happens:
What was observed in our test:
In the end we haven't observed any cracks on any of the 2 tailribbons. It's possible that the strains and stresses created by the temperature gradient were not high enough to generate a force necessary to cause a crack. More likely though, is that the heat from the hot water propagated through the tailribbon fast enough to not cause any difference between expansion rates of the top and bottom surfaces.
Another example of common thermal shock: why does ice crack in a glass of water?
To make iced coffee, you need some ice cubes from the freezer. Let's say your freezer is at -20°C. When you put them into your hot coffee, the outer surface of the ice cube warms up really quickly compared to the inside. Lets say, for a split second, that it's -2°C on the outside and -20°C on the inside of the cube. This creates an extreme temperature gradient. Since the the outside is warmer, it contracts (water expands when freezing, contracts on thawing). This puts pressure all around the cube, causing it to crack!
Posted by: Eli
A deep freeze is blanketing North America's east coast!! You can read more about it at these great links: BBC News, and here.
This past weekend morning, here in Ottawa, my car's thermometer registered a chilling -25C!
So how do tailribbons stand up to the test of cold?
Just fine, have a look at the photo taken that morning:
My two tailribbons are completely covered in frost, and a bit of dirt! Aside from that, they look good!
Posted by: Eli
Apparently the new "smart" Samsung Bluray players come with an "internet browser" app!
It's pretty sweet to browse the web from you couch, but a bit frustrating to use the mouse though.
To move the mouse you have to press 'up/down/left/right' buttons on your TV remote :O what?
Our old bluray player wouldn't play half of our blurays, and also sounded like it needed an oil change!
More blog posts coming soon!
Will write about winter testing tailribbons, and comparing bordered stickers vs. borderless tailribbons!
Happy Holidays, and Happy 2014!
Posted by: Eli
It's a 2012 Jeep Liberty, and with so many horizontal lines, it's a perfect car for tailribbons!
It was a bit cold, cloudy day, but I think the pictures turned out great!
My hands were absolutely freezing though holding the camera! Winter is coming.
Posted by: Eli
This is what uncut tailribbons look like.
Afterwards the white border around the flags is cut and trimmed by hand, but why?
Because modern cutting machines cannot trim with enough precision around a certain design. A border ("safety") is left around the design to give the cutting machine room for error. This border is not part of original tailribbon design. We here at TailRibbons hate it, so it must be removed, leaving nothing but the true artwork.
Posted by: Eli
Say for example you want to make a white tailribbon car sticker with a circle on it, and let's say this circle is half red, half blue.
"Screens" are then created for each color in the sticker. Let's make a screen for the red color.
Place this screen "A" we made in the step above onto the blank white vinyl.
The ink is squeezed through the tiny holes in the screen and unto the vinyl.
Repeat likewise for the blue color, but with a different screen, "B".
What you end up with is thick, quality raised ink (you can literally feel it) on your sticker.