Sign Making Suppliers UK

The Concept of Vinyl Signmaking is believed to have started about seventy years ago, but commercially manufactured plasticised materials were far too brittle to stay attached to railway and Road Vehicles, so the PVC decals and graphics in the format that we would recognise today really became mainstream in the 1980’s with the cutting edge screen printers from Lichfield and Lowestoft producing eye catching graphics for Rowntrees of York – with the “YORKIE”

the lorry that was supported by television advertising and the TESCO fleet of lorries were leading the Vinyl Signage charge and the VINYL SIGN market embraced the concept of reducing downtime and vastly improved finished results, these were swiftly taken onboard by Raleigh, Pork Farms and Boots – Where the Nottingham transport managers of the larger lorry fleets were very receptive to the upside of using Self Adhesive Vinyl Graphics rather than painting the liveries as had been undertaken previously.

 WHERE DID THE SIGN MAKING SUPPLIES COME FROM?

In the 1980’s there were not many VINYL TRADE SUPPLIERS in the UK and much of the self-adhesive vinyl was CAST VINYL that was imported from the United States and the relatively unsophisticated monomeric vinyl was imported from Italy, but had major shrinkage issues, So most of the Larger and WIDE FORMAT PRINTERS who were screen printers used Fasson 400 Superscreen for shorter-term Vinyl Signs and ARLON or 3M SIGN MATERIALS for the more durable Railway and VEHICLE GRAPHICS .The 1980’s saw a proliferation of smaller Vinyl Cutting machines, GERBER Industries were the pioneers in this field and The Vinyl Corporation invested in their first GERBER SPRINT and later the Super Sprint in the mid 1980’s the materials supplied for this Signmaking Equipment was steadily improving and POLYMERIC VINYL was developed and then the Digital Revolution took hold and VINYL PLOTTERS were manufactured wider and became more affordable, leading to the Digital Printing Machines, these were Thermal Transfer ribbon printers and later the INKJET PRINTER.The SIGN and DIGITAL PRINT MEDIA for SIGNMAKING were improving alongside the Digital Print Machines.

DIGITAL PRINT – SIGN MAKING VINYL

The Vinyl that professional Signwriters and Sign Makers use today are from a vast Portfolio of Monomeric, Polymeric, Cast and WRAPPING VINYL alongside the massively improved REFLECTIVE and FLUORESCENT VINYL, Etched Glass Vinyl and Holographic, Prismatic and Speciality VINYLS. There are many quality manufacturers of SELF ADHESIVE VINYL, a far reach from the STICKY BACK PLASTIC, FABLON that was previously available.Now The SIGN TRADE can acquire the Very Best SIGN MAKING VINYL SUPPLIES from brands such as ORACAL, AVERY DENNISON, LG, MACTAC, RITRAMA  these leading Vinyl Brands can all be sourced from The Vinyl Corporation and if any speciality product is required or specified by Architects or GRAPHIC DESIGNERS then please call the HELPDESK on 0115 930 1133