Vinyl Signs Decals & murals
At our shop in Shoreditch, we’re surrounded with floor-to-ceiling rolls of glistening vinyl film in glorious technicolour - destined to become murals for that fun feature wall, or take the more functional form of decal graphics, logos and lettering to signpost or brand different areas of your business.
How do you produce vinyl signs for walls?
An undeniably versatile material, there are a multitude of different ways to make your statement with vinyl:
Vinyl comes in a huge spectrum of readily available tones, translucencies and surface finishes - the perfect starting point for decals big or small, just pick one from our shelves and we’ll cut out graphics, logos and lettering for you.
Thanks to large format digital printers, we can blow up block designs or intricate vector patterns to mural size - churning out exact colour matches on white, translucent or transparent vinyl to create true replicas.
Last but not least, these two techniques can be combined for things that need to be colour matched and contoured, such as freeform illustrations or layered insignias - we’ll print onto vinyl with your design or in the specific shade of your branding, and then use a computerised blade to style it into texts or graphics.
The limitless possibilities for creativity, along with its cost effectiveness at scale, mean vinyl is the go-to choice for business signage. Scroll down for wall decals or wall murals, or for glass displays and glass manifestation hop over to window signs.
From creating a visual brand language for your business to implementing navigational or informational signs for practical purposes - cut vinyl graphics, logos and lettering have miscellaneous uses and that’s what makes this humble material popular. Durable and flexible, vinyl lends itself to being cut into all sorts of shapes and typefaces of any fashion.
It works brilliantly in high traffic areas thanks to being easy to look after and cost-effective at the baseline - getting increasingly more so as you scale up to larger spaces or multi-space projects. Whether you’re looking for paragraphs of text to put on your exhibition walls, arrows as part of a wayfinding scheme, or an emblem for your entrance - we’ll reproduce your designs into custom decals of any size and in the quantities that your signage system requires.
Vinyl can be applied directly to your surface for a flat look, placed onto a backplate to create a plaque, or raised up by acrylic that’s been contoured into the same shape. Regardless of the finish, decals work best with single tone stock vinyl. At our shop in Shoreditch, we have everything from opaques, translucents and transparents to speciality vinyl such as mirror metallics, dichroics, patterns and textures - pop in or give us a ring, we’ll help you find the aesthetics you’re after.
Vinyl is self-adhesive, sticks to almost any smooth surface and can be fitted around curves and corners – making it a very easy material for transforming walls into large canvases.
Practically speaking, there are two ways in which we develop bespoke and on-brand murals: we can rescale your artwork and produce sheets of custom printed vinyl to provide full coverage of a surface, or we can cut graphics, logos or lettering into decals and arrange them into repeat patterns to give the impression of a wallpaper.
Just supply us with an image or we’ll work with you on conceptualising a design to deliver that coveted visual focal point. Our in-house production team will fabricate a true colour vinyl including any gradients, and with precise execution from our installation team, we’ll level up your interior into a high-impact space.
Vinyl is a plastic film with a self-adhesive backing. It comes in a roll, like wallpaper, that is normally 1220mm or 610mm wide and 30 metres long and very thin, like a lick of paint. Vinyl comes in a fantastic range of colours and finishes: gloss, matt, transparent, metallic and so on. You can use it to add graphics, words and colour to virtually any smooth surface you like, indoors and outdoors: from walls, windows, cupboard doors and shop fronts to the exteriors of cars and trains.
We can create rolls of custom printed vinyl for your walls, allowing you to cover entire surfaces in a mural. We can also use cut graphics and lettering to repeat patterns, creating the impression of a wallpaper.
We also do decals, which are individual bits of cut vinyl - great as informational signage or direction signs, e.g lettering for paragraphs of text in an exhibition or arrows as part of a wayfinding scheme.
There are two main ways. Firstly, we can print your graphics onto vinyl using an inkjet printing machine. We’ll tend to use white or clear film as a base to allow your print to pop. Your design is not confined to single colours - you can have as many as you like with as many gradients/light areas/shadows as you like - as long as your image is sharp, the print quality and colours will be first rate. The inks we use for this are latex-based, very eco-friendly and designed for long life.
Secondly, we can cut your shapes out of vinyl using a tiny blade on a computer-based plotting machine. We’ll use this technique if your print has intricate details that need cutting in, or to create lettering and logos from single tone vinyl (vinyl that is the same colour on the front and reverse).
Cut vinyl is essentially made by cutting your design out of a thin, self-adhesive material that’s one colour all the way through (also known as ‘self coloured’ vinyl). You pick the colour you’re after from the stock rolls at Glyphics, and we’ll load it into our computerised vinyl cutter to make the shape you need. A readily available solution, cut vinyl signs are cost-effective and ideal for simple, single tone products, such as wall decals. You can pick from vibrant opaques, coloured transparents, or semi-see-through translucent films. We even have some speciality vinyl, including mirror metallics, dichroics, patterns and textures, so come and chat with us – we’ll be happy to find what you’re looking for.
Printed vinyl comes into its own when you need a colour that’s not readily available. We’ll match and reproduce the colour you’re after using the CMYK process, printing it onto a white vinyl to get your exact tone – either as a block design, or an intricate vector pattern which can then be cut. Printed Vinyl is also pretty neat for when you need to blow up an image that features shadows and shading. Thanks to large format digital printers, we can churn out colour gradients onto white, transparent, or high-end optically clear vinyl to varying effects. This technique is perfect for products such as photo ads or eye catching, full length window displays that emulate that stained glass look. All printed vinyl comes with a protective, clear over-laminate in either matt, satin or gloss finish. It’s totally up to you.
Lastly, there’s printed and contour cut vinyl – perfect for designs that are both colour specific and modular, i.e made up of layered elements like logos, for example. Using our inkjet printers, we’ll produce vinyl in the exact shade of your organisation’s branding, and then precision cut it into the texts or graphics that make up your insignia, providing you with maximum versatility.
In general we’d say minimum 10mm high but there are some exceptions. It’s on a case by case basis and it depends on the font - a serif font is a lot harder to go small with because of the intricacy.
We generally add lamination to all the vinyl we produce to give them extra protection - our laminate is a clear film with a matt, satin or gloss finish. It works to keep the colours of your vinyl fresh, protect your sign against fading, and provide a layer for dust, dirt or cleaning products to easily slide off of.
If we’re cutting out vinyl lettering or logos for you, we ideally need an Adobe Illustrator EPS file from you, with all fonts and strokes converted to outline, making sure that no paths cross each other.
If we’re printing graphics, photos or words onto vinyl, please send us an EPS file with inked CMYK images saved at 150 DPI, or a TIFF file. And if you want your printed graphics, photos or words cut out as well, then we’ll also need a ‘cutting file’ on a separate layer. Remember to include any essential ‘bleeds’ on your image too.
We will archive your file for at least 3 years from the date of your order, but sometimes for longer, so please don’t hesitate to check with us.
We produce most simple orders within 2 working days. We may need more time if your order is more complicated in detail or a special size. We’ll let you know about timescales when you ask for a quote or place your order.
You’re welcome to collect your order in person from our studio in Shoreditch, East London (we’re a few minutes’ walk from Old Street Tube Station and Liverpool Street mainline station) or we can post your sign to you - we’ll agree the best delivery method and the cost with you when you place your order. We generally use Royal Mail for reliability for our standard deliveries, and if you need your order urgently, we can arrange a courier.
Most vinyls and the glue on their backing have a life of at least 3-5 years when used outdoors. Indoors they can last much longer than that. They’re tested by their manufacturers to extremes of temperature and weather conditions - everything from Sahara heat to Arctic cold.
Your vinyl will last even longer if you treat it nicely and keep it clean. If it’s inside, dust it off now and again with a dusting stick, if it’s outside, wipe it gently with a damp cloth to keep it spruced up. It’s best to use pure water, rather than any cleaning products.
Generally we’ll apply your vinyl for you, with our squeegee wizened hands but for tips and tricks check out our how to apply vinyl video.
If you do get an air bubble under the film, it may be because you’ve lowered your vinyl onto the surface of your wall or window too quickly, before you’ve ‘pushed’ the air out evenly in front of it. You can deal with a bubble by gently pricking it at an edge using a pin and squeezing the air out with your finger. Sooner or later these bubbles settle down and disappear, depending on the vinyl used..
