A&A Legacy Wall

"Legacy" is a powerful word. To create a legacy is to build something worth remembering. Our Texas friends at A&A Machine & Fabrication have made a legacy in the way they do business for over 50 years. 

Recently they came on to our interactive designer website with the intent of building a mural that would celebrate the legacy of their business.

The finished product turned out beyond anyone's expectations. We design so much of our clients work ourselves it's almost surprising when a whole mural from start to finish is in the clients hands. 

We were able to guide our friends through the design and installation process so this mural still felt close to home for us!

A&A put up the mural on their own and sent us photos of the process raving about how excited they were to have their legacy displayed! See what you think for yourself!

Stacey Zills and Patrick Hutchins Installing their Legacy wall

The legacy continues..

To design something of your own check out yourlifewall.com and create something unique! Give us a call if you have any questions, we're happy to lend a helping hand!

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Authored by Maxx Raths. Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall? Follow us on Facebook, Google+, and at yourlifewall.com.

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What's Your "Honest Slogan"?

If you had to be real honest with yourself about your business, you'd probably admit that there are areas in your business that you see differently than they see. They don't have the same complete image in mind that you have of yourself.

This gap between intended image and actual image is what makes sites like honestslogans.com
succeed.

Giant national businesses have just as much trouble managing the divide between intended image and actual image as much as small business.

Understanding that there is a divide is the first step to recovery. You can admit you have a problem, this is a safe place!

Lifewall has had a few image adjustments since opening our doors in May 2012 and the result, sometimes, has been confusion. If we were on the honest slogans website we might have things like "Aren't you guys only an online business?" or "They print big stuff." Even worse, some people might has such a mixed up image of us they might use the slogan "Not really sure what they do." But understanding where our image weak spots were enabled us to make corrections and fix our image problems.

As a small business it's extremely important to control your image. If you're a part of a small community, this is more difficult because your business is most likely attached to who you are personally. So if you feel a certain way about politics or religion, people might attach that to your business.

There is good news! You have an upper hand on big business! Everyone knows it takes a lot longer to turn a large boat than a small one, You may not be able to change your image over night, but you won't need to spend millions of dollars on a 30 sec super bowl ad hoping it will turn everything around either! ("turn everything around"; it's a boat joke..)

So be honest with yourself! What is your honest slogan?

Once you figure it out, work to repair the places you're weak.

Lifewall for Business is all about finding that intended image and communicating it to your customers.

Let us know if you need help closing the divide in your image, we'll be with you every step of the way!

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Authored by Maxx Raths. Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall? Follow us on Facebook. , Google+, and at yourlifewall.com.

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Confirmed: We Need a Company Dog.

If there's one thing we love almost as much as creating amazing visual displays, it's stray dogs that decide to pay us unexpected visits.

And today, that's exactly what happened.

Meet this guy:

We saw this stud roaming around by himself earlier today, and decided to invite him in for a while. We noticed he had a tag around his collar, so we called the animal clinic here in town, and they were able to identify the owners. But in the meantime, we got to see what it'd be like to have a real Lifewall dog!

This guy's great. He's very cute, likes to chill, kinda playful, and super friendly. We were honored to have him stop by & say hello! 

This experience has confirmed the obvious for me: We need a company dog. What do you think? Would you like us more if we had a cute little canine trotting around the office? I mean, I know the likelihood of this happening is somewhere around 0%, but it's always okay to dream, so let us know what you think! 

Hope you think this dude is as great as we do! 

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Authored by Alex MacArthur. Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall? Follow us on Facebook. , Google+, and at yourlifewall.com.

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City of Marshall, we hope you like your new windows!

As I'm typing this from within the core of the frozen tundra, it's a whopping 1 degree out, a temperature I'm just grateful has no negative sign attached to it.

In local talk, it's actually quite balmy. 

But let me take you back last week. Remember those couple days of paradise? When the temperature was up near 50 degrees? It was a pretty big thrill, and not just because you could bare you skin without feeling pain. 

For us, it was a thrill because we got a chance to do this: 

This is the newest project from Lifewall for Business, and one of my personal favorites to date. Where is it? Let me back up.

That's city hall here in Marshall, MN, and it's located right on Main Street. The project consists of windows that are 8.5 feet tall, which officially makes this the largest window project we've ever done, using a total of 155 square feet of material. To put it in perspective a little bit, remember this window project at the Marshall Aquatic Center we did last May?

The square foot count for those windows rang in at about 93 square feet, which makes the City of Marshall project some huge percentage amount larger -- something we are definitely excited about.

The origins for this one actually stretch back quite a bit, when I had the chance to talk to Cathy from the City of Marshall several months ago at one of our speaking events. She had in mind -- you guessed it -- a vision that we would have the opportunity to develop. All we started out with were some simple ideas... windows... something cool... unique...

After communicating with Cathy back & forth the next several weeks, brainstorming, and sharing some possible concepts, we ended up with something that's custom-tuned to the City of Marshall.

We think this display showcases some pretty meaningful things to the Marshall community. In particular, two big things:

First, a shot of the Mrs. Whitney statue that was erected last summer. The statues honors Mary Whitney, wife of Charles Whitney, who ran the post office in the area many, many, many years ago. She's widely credited for naming the community after the name of her husband's post office, which was named after Gov. William Marshall.

Second, a picture from Memorial Park just down the road, which features the 9/11 Memorial, a beam taken from the World Trade Center wreckage in NYC, which notably tilts in the direction of Ground Zero.

Just as with all of our other window projects, this display is visible from the outside, but see-through from the inside. This means employees & visitors can still see out the windows, and they're not cloaked in darkness.

Interestingly, as we were installing these prints, people from the inside were convinced we were putting up some sort of film over the windows -- UV protectant, something -- because they couldn't see the design printed on the outside.

But once they walked out the doors, these people were hit with a severe case of WOW fever.

If you're in Marshall and want check out the windows for yourself, we encourage you to do so! A huge thanks goes out to the city for working on this project with us. We had a blast of a time, and we hope you enjoy everything! 

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Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall for Business? Like us on Facebook. 

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Authored by Alex MacArthur. Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall? Follow us on Facebook. , Google+, and at yourlifewall.com.

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Our New Work at Geske Home Improvement

If you haven't heard it yet, the mission of Lifewall for Business is this: transform business leaders' visions into reality on their walls. 

Pursuing that central goal answers a whole set of questions along the way, including: 

What does my business do? 

What does my business' values? 

What does my business promise to deliver? 

... and a whole lot more! 

Just as we began launching Lifewall for Business, Matt from Geske Home Improvement stopped by with a project in mind -- refacing a series of six 24"x24" display boards that hang on the wall in their store. I'm talking about these. (This is the before picture.)

We were super excited to get started on this, and right from the beginning, we started to ask ourselves modified versions of those same questions. And at the end of the project, we wanted to be able to answer things like:

Is it clear what Geske Home Improvement can do?
Is it clear what they can promise and deliver on?
Is it clear who they are?

That's the thought process that drove us to create this:

Yes, that is the same wall. Just a different angle and souped-up wall prints. Let's dig into some details.

Like I said, the six panels themselves were provided by Matt -- we simply designed, printed, and applied new peel & stick prints on top. Matt provided some great picture resources, and so the process went pretty smoothly. We wanted to show customers the wowing capabilities of Geske's siding & window services, as well as more clearly state the benefits in text.

As you can see, the color of the panels largely complements the color of Geske's logo, which is what we put above them all. It's made with our peel & stick StickIt material, and was installed with little hassle.

We wanted this logo to be one of the first, eye-catching things people see when they enter the doors, and I think we accomplished just that.

A huge thanks goes out to Matt from Geske Home Improvement for trusting us with his vision. We really enjoyed the opportunity to turn it into reality on Geske's walls, and we're confident the feedback from customers will be positive!

Stay tuned for more projects along the way -- you never know what we're gonna create!

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Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall for Business? Like us on Facebook. 

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Authored by Alex MacArthur. Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall? Follow us on Facebook. , Google+, and at yourlifewall.com.

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We've picked a winner! Here's our quirkiest couple!

Wow, this was not easy! 

For the past couple of weeks, we've been drowning in some incredible quirky cuteness. Our Facebook page was sprinkled with so many different forms of quirk, all amazing in their own ways. As Jacob was deciding which one would walk away with the FREE 16"x12" canvas print, we were all struggling/chuckling/giggling with him. 

That said, THANK YOU for making this contest so much fun! Before we get to the winner, we have something special to give EVERYONE who entered the contest: 50% off one 16"x12" canvas print. 

We don't give out half off deals too often, so take it as a huge 'thanks' for making this contest so great! For the math nerds: regular price is $59.99, so you'll be saving about $30 on this print. Just stop in, email us, call us, and we'll start helping out with that. 

Ok, we can't delay it any longer. Here's the winner of the free 16"x12" canvas print, and the champ of our Quirky Couple Photo Contest: 

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Macey Lendt!

For some reason, this photo especially tickled the quirky sensor in Jacob's left cerebral hemisphere, and he just had to go with it. We loved the outfits, the setting, the attitude -- everything. Congrats, Macey -- stay quirky!

Thanks again to everyone for participating! You made this more awesome than we could've expected!

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Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall? Like us on Facebook, head to yourlifewall.com, or subscribe to our blog.

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Authored by Alex MacArthur. Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall? Follow us on Facebook. , Google+, and at yourlifewall.com.

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Brick Wall Cutouts at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

A few months ago, we did something we've never done before -- a big mural on a brick wall at Marshall High School, made with a thin vinyl intended for rough surfaces. It applies with heat guns, and has a painted texture/feel when it's finished. If you missed that project, check it out here. 

Anyway, we've done a couple of other brick wall/rough surface projects since then, but nothing like THIS. 

These are cutout brick wall figures, all heat-gunned to a series of brick walls in the part of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church where Sunday School classes are held. 

Credit for the idea, yet again, can't be claimed by us. That goes to Sheila, who came to us with a simple vision a while ago. After speaking with her for a while about how she envisions things turning out, we ran with it, and began putting together some ideas for the space. 

What makes this project so cool is the central message behind it. It's not meant to be just a series of kids in a hallway. The centerpiece is exactly Who it should be: Jesus. The rest of the kids are all faced toward Him, with many running toward Him. And above Jesus is the classic verse, Matthew 19:14: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

In putting this together, we did have to overcome one challenge: the grooves of the wall were rather deep and sharp, meaning we couldn't just heat gun the material into them because it would break. 

So, we had to get creative.

The solution: clear caulk stuff. 

As we installed the prints, we used caulk to fill in the grooves, and then applied the prints right over them. It took a bit more time, but the result turned out amazingly. Couldn't have been more pleased!

This project so perfectly complements our recent launch of Lifewall for Business. Sure, Good Shepherd Lutheran isn't "business" in the common sense of the word, but it does have a mission, values, and a purpose behind how it operates as an organization. With our L4B goal being to bring vision to life on walls, the whole process fit perfectly into what L4B does best. 

Sheila came to us with a vision, and we made it into reality. 

Thanks to Sheila & Good Shepherd Lutheran Church for allowing us to work with you on this! It was a blast!

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Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall for Business? Like us on Facebook. 

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Authored by Alex MacArthur. Interested in more of what's happening at Lifewall? Follow us on Facebook. , Google+, and at yourlifewall.com.

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