When we were contacted by the Boy's & Girl's Club of Milwaukee to upgrade their signage at one of their camps in Oconomowoc, we were in for a surprise.  It seems that the banners were just replaced 9 months ago.  These banners spend most of their time outside, and they showed it with the current banners completely disintegrated to the point of being able to see right though the banner.  We were given the challenge to design a banner that was attractive and able to weather the elements while staying inside a budget. We started by checking over the existing banners to see why they fell apart in just 9 months.  Optimum Signs premium banner line will withstand 36 months of Wisconsin weather and look as good on day 1095 as it did on day one.  We noticed two main reasons for the failure.  First, the banner material looked like it was of the imported variety.  We noticed almost a 40% reduction in the thickness of the vinyl from one side of the banner to the other. We opened the seam to measure the thickness so we didn't have the impact of the environment.  We also noticed that despite the invoice stating that the banner was "laminated with optically clear poly laminate" there was no sign of any laminate. So how did we correct this? We started with an environmentally friendly banner material that is consistent within .001 thickness. across 165'.  Add to it an ink platform designed to not be affected by the weather and you have the start to a battleship of a banner. But we don't stop there. We add 3M's 8518 laminate so that neither rain nor sun nor freezing rain can get to the surface of the banner.  Now you have the perfect 3 year external banner. If you have a need for external banners that can weather the Wisconsin elements looking  like new a long time from now, give Optimum Signs a call at 262.289.9481 or email at info@optimumsignswi.com.