Diversified printing and signage business Trophy and Sign Center of Danville, Virginia recently created and installed a stunning Alice in Wonderland-themed wall mural for a nearby full-service hair salon. The new wall graphics are stationed in the waiting area and help transport clientele to a magical destination while biding their time.
The salon was moving into a brand-new construction, and since its name played off the Wonderland motif, the owner wanted her new interior to also capture this feeling. Wondering “which way she should go,” she contacted Trophy and Sign Center requesting a striking wall graphics themed on the classic children’s book.
First a little backstory: Founded in 1986, Trophy and Sign Center began life as a provider of trophies, signs, and plaques. The business has evolved over the years to expand into a range of other markets, and now offers everything from digital and screen printing to banners and wraps.
Curiouser and curiouser, the shop listened to the salon owner’s request. After all, how could anyone pay attention to a wall with no graphics on it?
“My design team collaborated with the owner to develop her ideas,” says Trophy and Sign Center Owner Eddie Hundley. “We couldn’t use any of the Disney characters because of copyright, so we collaborated with her five or six times until we arrived at artwork with which she was satisfied.”
Hundley’s design team used a mixture of Illustrator and Photoshop to come up with all the high-quality design imagery for the fantastical mural—interpretive elements such as giant mushrooms, the March Hare’s tree home, the Queen of Heart’s castle, etc.
The Alice in Wonderland mural covers two walls—one part measuring 92 inches tall-by-192 inches wide and the other 92 inches tall-by-108 inches wide.
A chance meeting with his regular vendor Lindemeyr Munroe and a Drytac specialist led Hundley to select ReTac Textures for this imaginative project.
“This was the first time we had ever used this vinyl,” he explains. “[They] happened to be in the neighborhood one day, and the next thing we knew, we were printing onto this material.”
Trophy and Sign Center opted to use the sand finish from the ReTac Textures range for this project. “They have five or six different options, with most of them having a wood pattern or similar-type look,” says Hundley. “I figured Sand Finish would be ideal for the walls in this environment.”
The company printed the eye-catching design using its HP Latex 365 printer. “We printed fifty-inch-wide panels with a half-inch overlap,” explains Hundley, noting they printed everything bigger than the wall.
Trophy and Sign Center installers squeegeed the material down onto the wall then trimmed it off along the top and bottom (“Off with the extra!”).
“The construction crews were still busy inside the area building the walls,” says Hundley. “They were hanging the sheetrock and sanding it. Then we would just wipe it down and start sticking the material.”
Hundley enjoyed the tack of the ReTac Texture material and liked being able to pull it back without encountering any issues. “The print is awesome,” he states, “and the installation went great.”
Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll wrote, “Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t,” and that’s a sentiment apropos for this unique wall transformation, as the project most assuredly drew high praise from the salon owner and her customers.
“They love the finished product, and [many of them have] praised us all over social media,” says Hundley.
