Most of our projects start with a conversation about the goals, designs, and timeline for the project which then helps set expectations. When you remove the ability to discuss these topics as the owners speak very little English, it makes the challenges that much more difficult. That is what we had with our friends at O Chi. The owners are Mandarin Chinese and speak almost no English.
I will be honest, the language barrier was substantial and caused a few issues. When we met for the first time it was evident that we were going to have to find a new way to communicate the ideas and expectations. One of the great things about our industry is that most of it is visual. By using the internet, we were able to pull up images that would be applicable to their industry, then they would indicate whether the images met their needs. We spent better than 4 hours looking for pictures that encompassed their needs. We went back to the studio to begin putting the images into place and sourcing the photos. For two of the photos, we had to look to a professional photographer for help with the images. All of this is part of the service that Optimum Signs offers our customers. When we went back to our customer with the exact images, they were very happy and approved the project.
The window images are printed on 60″ wide, high density, matte finish, vinyl. This will ensure that the edges will never curl and the prints will never fade. We placed two prints, back-to-back to make sure that no light would show through the images. We can also change out the images as often as the customer wants. The images are suspended on a channel and hook system that holds the images off the window. This system allows our customer to use their windows as a billboard and it complies with municipal codes because it isn’t installed on the windows.
This was a very interesting project and really tested our ability to communicate with our customer. So if your sign company isn’t communicating with you or you have a project involving window graphics, please give us a call. We can be reached at 262.289.9481 or info@optimumsignswi.com.
