Roti Modern Mediterranean, a Chicago-based restaurant chain serving “Food That Loves You Back™,” has experienced considerable success and now serves wholesome meals to customers across twenty-five locations in New York, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and the Chicagoland area.
When Roti decided to roll out a rebrand across every one of their locations, however, their geographic reach suddenly posed a challenge.
Roti wanted to create eye-catching, durable murals that reflected their “Food That Loves You Back” brand tagline across all of their locations and on a variety of unusual surfaces—brick, stone, slate, concrete, wood, painted soffit, and more.
Could cohesive, long-lasting graphics be successfully installed across a wide variety of substrates in twenty-four stores located throughout several states—and within the company’s one-month rollout timeline?
To accomplish this tall order, Roti teamed up with a partner they’ve worked with since the restaurant’s inception: Graphic Alliance, Inc., full-service marketing firm in Arlington Heights, Illinois that specializes in printing, graphic design, Web design, and vehicle wraps.
“We have partnered with Roti since they opened their first store roughly nine years ago,” says Eric Grossman, CEO of Graphic Alliance. “The timelines are often tight, but the scale and diversity of substrates involved in this project made
it unique.”
Graphic Alliance started by working with Roti to determine what needed to be installed where.
“Roti sent us spreadsheets outlining the size of each location where graphics would be placed and whether it was brick, stone, tile, cement, drywall, or windows,” says Grossman. “They also helped us with the coordination of scheduling.”
Graphic Alliance turned to Mactac for this project and used ten of their products to install the wall murals, window graphics, countertop graphics, and backlit displays across the twenty-four locations.
The products used included: REBEL High Tack, B•free GRUV™, B•free Window Frosted, ROODLE, and RoughRAP.
“With so many surfaces, locations, and minimal production time, we had to feel confident that the materials we used could accommodate every substrate we came across,” says Grossman.
Roti supplied the artwork to Graphic Alliance, which was designed by Make & Co. The artwork was sent as vector files to ensure a scalable printing process.
The graphics were printed and cut out from Graphic Alliance’s Roland SOLJET PRO4 640-XR large format printer using eco-solvent inks.
Each installation varied depending on the particular graphic, the placement, and the surface where it was being applied. In general, the weeding process took about six hours per print, and then each installation ranged from five to ten hours.
Throughout the process, Mactac was available to assist Graphic Alliance with anything they needed on the material side of the job.
“We had a Mactac rep not only on call to answer our questions any time, but who also flew out to see us and personally ensured delivery of correct part numbers and samples for our customer,” says Grossman.
In the end, every one of Roti’s rebranded locations looked fabulous. Compliments came pouring in from employees, patrons, and senior executives.
“The project may have been uniquely challenging, but the strong results achieved were exactly what we have come to expect from working with Mactac products,” says Grossman. “I am proud to say our team was able to complete a project, which has, thus far, been the highlight of my twenty-one-year career.”
By Ashley Bray
Photos: Mactac.
