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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New Life to Old Memories: Some of our Favorite Photo Restoration Projects

Maybe it's the nerd in me, but I'm so excited about this post. Over the past few months, we've had the privilege of putting lives on the wall in a really cool way: by bringing new life to photos that tell some valuable stories.

I'm not talking about 'old' vacation pics on your computer from 5 years ago, and I'm not talking about printing on the same material at the same size. I'm talking about scanning, fixing up, enhancing, and reproducing aged, damaged photos in a BIG way.

How old and how big? Glad you asked, because I'd love to show you just a little bit of what we've done.

Lyon County Historical Society

If you haven't been to the new Lyon County Museum, do yourself a favor and check it out. Not just because our work is there, but because there's some incredible history ready to be rediscovered. Right now, the early healthcare in the county is being highlighted, with the help of several 6-foot-tall panels designed, printed, and installed by us. (Content of the panels was provided by Jennifer Andries.)

The first panel you'll see when entering the exhibit. 

For just about all of the panels, we scanned, enhanced, and enlarged a series of photographs several decades old. They included doctor notes, staff portraits, building pictures, and much more. By scanning them at a high DPI, we were able to preserve the detail of the images incredibly well, allowing us to blow up even an 8"x10" (approx.) photo to 12 FEET wide.

An 8"x10" photo before we edited & enhanced it. Note the scratches & creasing. 

The print-ready digital file, removed of major flaws. 

The 12-foot-wide finished product, on display! 

WWII Submarine Print 

This one was brought to us by Tom Geske of Marshall, and initially, we didn't have much hope for it. It's an old print of a submarine he purchased a while back. It had been folded up and stored for quite some time, so it had significant creases in it. To make it harder, we didn't have a flatbed scanner capable of scanning it. 

But, with a digital camera and some quality time with Photoshop, we managed to not only enhance the image, but remove nearly all the creases and fix it up quite a bit. In the end, it was reproduced into a 48"x36" stretched canvas print, ready to be displayed & enjoyed. 

The print in its original state, creased and faded. 

 The print-ready image, edited & enhanced.

The finished canvas print.

Family Memory Lifewall Canvas

C.J. Molitor has a great family with some great memories, and we had a great time putting together a canvas collage (Lifewall Canvas) featuring just a handful of those memories. This finished print wasn't that large itself, but it did entail enhancing quite a few photos. Here are just a couple of them. 

KirPatrick's Pub & Grill

Aside from all of these, we've had a few other projects involving reproducing old photos. KirtPatrick's Pub & Grill in Balaton, MN ordered this series of canvas prints, plus a few more not pictured. All offer a taste of Balaton history.

Here are just a few of the prints we reproduced for KirPatrick's.

....More to Come!

We're already in talks with multiple business interested in bringing their stories to life. Stay tuned for more to come! 

If you're interested in getting a print restored & reproduced, stop by, give us a call, email us, or submit a form online. We absolutely love helping people and places tell the stories of how they came to be, and reminding them of the history they have yet to make.

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Ka-Ching! Price Drop.

It's nearly the new year, and we're starting off 'new' a bit earlier! Over the past several weeks, we've been discussing our price structure, and have decided to keep it a bit more basic, without much reliance on promotions or regular 'special' offers. The result - a much friendlier price structure!

Wall Material

Material	Old	New
StickIt™	$10 per square foot	$6.80 per square foot
Canvas	$10 per square foot	$7.00 per square foot
Fabric-Backed Vinyl	$8 per square foot	$6.80 per square foot

These price changes take will take place immediately (which is now), so we're all ready to go. Oh, we have canvas print updates as well! 

Canvas Prices

Size	Price
16x12"	$52.67
20x12"	$57.33
20x16"	$65.11
20x20"	$72.89
24x12"	$62.00
24x16"	$65.11
24x18"	$76.00
24x20"	$80.67
24x24"	$90.00
30x12"	$69.00
30x20"	$92.33
30x24"	$104.00
30x30"	$121.50
36x12"	$76.00
36x18"	$97.00
36x24"	$118.00
36x30"	$139.00
36x36"	$160.00
40x12"	$80.67
40x16"	$96.22
40x20"	$111.78
40x30"	$150.67
48x12"	$76.50
48x24"	$124.10
48x36"	$171.70
48x48"	$219.30
60x16"	$127.33
60x30"	$177.65
60x40"	$227.23
60x48"	$266.90

That's it! Like I said, it's all effective immediately (we just couldn't wait), so feel free to check it all out for yourself. Stay tuned for more updates later on! We have lots coming up in the next few weeks & months! 

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Wall Murals: Why Cover Your Entire Wall?

Sometimes when we say the words "wall mural," people envision a print that covers every inch of their walls, which can go beyond what a person budgets for the project. Today, I'm here to bust that myth apart. To be clear: full-wall murals & Lifewalls are stunning, visually appealing, and add an incredibly unique flare to any room. But.... so do partial-wall Lifewalls & murals! In fact, a very good portion of our wall prints have been smaller, partial-wall ones, such as prints that extend across a wall in a single strip, or ones that just serve as a wall-spicer-upper.

Partial-Wall Mural in Kids Room

3 Main Benefits of a Partial-Wall Mural or Lifewall:

1. Affordability - This makes sense. You're not covering your entire wall, and so you won't be spending as much on the print itself. Depending on how small you go, you could easily save a few hundred dollars vs. covering an entire wall.

Use a bunch of your own pictures for a long, partial-wall LifeWall. 

 2. Ease of Installation - For the partial wall prints, they usually come in smaller, fewer panels that need to be applied. This means it should be very easy to install. I personally helped install the prints at Caldo Italian Kitchen. We did have multiple panels, but due to their size, it was so unbelievably easy & quick to put them up. In fact, I thought it was rather therapeutic. This opens up entirely an entirely new door: mural installation as stress relief. Might take a while to catch on, but I believe in it. To make it easier, our StickIt material applies by peeling & sticking. No mess, no hassle, and you can redo it a bunch of times if you want.

This is just my dog Blue. 

3. Unique - You won't see a lot of wall art like this. Most people stick with traditional prints they just 'hang' on the wall. But sticking it on? Come on - that's different!

From Caldo Italian Kitchen (see previous post). 

Hope you're interested in this idea! We're pretty excited about it. Like I said, it can all be designed on our website. And if you have trouble with that, just give us a call or an email and we'll help you out. Bye!

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What's a Lifewall?

One of the most frequent questions we've received is just that: "What's a Lifewall?" In short, we view a Lifewall as any sort of wall print that involves several of a person's favorite photos. The "multi-photo" concept is what distinguishes a Lifewall from any sort of mural or canvas print. It can be on any sort of our material - StickIt™, fabric-backed vinyl, or satin canvas. However, it's got to say something about your life, and be intended for a wall (duh)! That said... let's see some examples! Here are a couple that are currently displayed as examples on our website:

BUT... I know. These aren't real life Lifewalls. So, here you are! Real ones designed by a real human being on our website!

We were told the process was easy, and yes, fun! He didn't do them all in one sitting, of course. Thankfully, after you create an account with us, you're able to design and save items in your cart if you want to change or finish them later. By the way, all of these Lifewalls were printed on StickIt, our repositionable material. So... installation was super easy & mess-free!

 I hope this helps to illustrate what a "Lifewall" really is. The options are unlimited. You could create your own with fewer pictures, borders, more or less text, etc. But the concept is there. Your life on your wall! 

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A Few of Our Projects...

We love to do the murals, Lifewalls, and canvas prints for homes & individuals. But that's not all we've been up to! Over the past few months, we've been busy with projects for businesses around the area. I don't have pictures for all of them yet, but I couldn't resist to show off a couple of what we do have.

 1. Caldo Italian Kitchen - We were initially supposed to just do a couple of thinner murals for Caldo, located in Marshall, MN, but the project evolved into doing some peel & stick signs, a canvas print, and even a couple ADDITIONAL murals. Here's what I have for Caldo:

 I promise - as soon as I get pictures of the remaning murals (one is over the bar and another is vertical near a window), I'll update this post. Until then - take what you can get! Note: the murals here were all printed on our repositionable StickIt fabric. It applied very easy and we have had great success with it.

 2. Acapulco Mexican Restaurant - I had never actually heard of this place before they came to us with a project in mind. Since then, I've heard some great things! While I don't have a picture of the actual installation or finished project, I do have a cropped concept of the mural. It was about 9 feet tall and 40 feet wide - one of the largest prints we've done thus far. The owner was great to work with, and even kindly invited us up to see it sometime. Personally, I can't wait for it.

3. The Daily Grind - This is a coffee shop (but they also have food!) here in Marshall just a couple of blocks from us. A while back, we did a canvas display featuring the artwork of Bill Van der Hagen. It went extremely well!

We got some incredible feedback from this show, and so we might do it again sometime! We've paired with another photographer (Mr. John Krohn) since then, so we'll also have a new variety of images to display. We'll keep you posted. That's all I have for now. We might have a couple more larger business/organizations coming up soon, so stay tuned! Have a good one.

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