One of six facilities across the U.S., Color Reflections Las Vegas is the largest of them all, fully equipping itself to handle the digital printing needs of a major tradeshow destination.
While facilities in Orlando; Hollywood, Fla.; Houston; Atlanta and Philadelphia offer similar equipment and printing services, Color Reflections Las Vegas is the only one expanding by 6,500 square feet this March to continue handling 75 to 100 tradeshows a year in Las Vegas. This usually means one or two tradeshows a week for the company during busy seasons.
Because tradeshows constitute 40 percent of its local work, Color Reflections Las Vegas operates nearly 24 hours, in most departments, seven days a week and utilizes several printers; eight of these printers can simultaneously run 12 rolls of material an hour at high square footages.
“We’re full service. Because we’re in Las Vegas, we have a nightshift. Our business is more local [at 60 percent], but we ship every day out of state. FedEx or UPS is here every day,” said Joseph J. Castellano, president, Color Reflections Las Vegas. “For jobs back East, we use our Philly office. We also send jobs to our other locations because they have similar equipment.”
Many clients request Ready-to-Apply (RTA) vinyl, which can be used on doors and vehicles as an attractive and less expensive option, according to Shannon Martin, director of business development at Color Reflections Las Vegas, but for tradeshows, custom fabric is still the top favorite.
“Companies are going to fabric because it’s much lighter. A 20 x 20 booth can carry custom fabric on all of its walls. It’s less drayage with a beautiful quality and different look,” said Castellano. “Also, a banner hanging, kind of like a flag, with the AC blowing looks luxurious.”
Included in the company’s arsenal is the Vutek TX3250r, a custom fabric printer, which is complemented by a Klieverik heat press that makes fabrics colorfast. Also aiding the custom fabrication process are in-house seamstresses who are creating 4,000 golf flags for the Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational, a golf tournament taking place at the Aria Resort and Casino in April. In addition, these seamstresses have projects in the works for Carnival Cruise Lines and other clients.
In the wake of Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority announcing 70 new conventions and major tradeshows coming to Las Vegas this year, Color Reflections Las Vegas seems to have chosen the perfect time to expand its 15,000 square-foot facility.
“We’re looking forward to [the expansion]; we’re running out of room,” said Martin. “We’re taking out some of the walls by our storage area and plan to finish construction by April.”
Considered its biggest asset, according to Martin, the storage space at Color Reflections Las Vegas comprises 95 percent of what clients need in bulk.
“In cases where we might not have exactly what they want, we have something they can work with,” added Castellano.
Regularly buying new equipment at competitive prices every four to six months also helps Color Reflections Las Vegas accommodate clients’ requests as well as stay on the cutting edge. Its newest VUTEk GS5000r simultaneously prints different graphics on three separate rolls of material at 3,200 square feet an hour.
Recycling materials and purchasing an odorless, eco-friendly HP Latex 3000 that prints multiple rolls at 1,500 square feet an hour all at once allowed the company to stay green.
“We are the first to have the latest in the [HP Latex] series. It’s a 10-foot machine that uses water-based ink. It’s like pouring water into a landfill rather than gasoline,” explained Castellano.
The company also led its industry by bringing to Nevada the first photographic printer, Durst Lambda, which is used for 50” x 100” large-format graphic printing at 400 square feet an hour.
Due to client requests, the company also keeps a variety of back-up inkjet printers that produce 600 square feet of graphics an hour. These inkjet printers generated the historical look required for 900 graphics at The Mob Museum, a national museum of organized crime and law enforcement in downtown Las Vegas.
Operating since 1995 as a purely digital visual communications company, Color Reflections Las Vegas has handled tradeshows as large as International CES and other events. It holds tradeshow and gaming accounts with clients ranging from Station Casinos, a local favorite among Las Vegans, to MGM Resorts International, a world renowned resort chain.
For more information about Color Reflections Las Vegas, visit crvegas.com.
