PC: Can you tell us brief history of the Bolan family in the Sign Industry?
SK: Signwriting for the Bolan family is a tradition; it all began just after WW2, when Frank Bolan, a returned serviceman, started his trade with Gene Wilson. Through the years he partnered up with legendary Signmaster and famous Australian artist Darcy Doyle, goldleaf masters Ronny Suiter, Norm King and the Sign Man himself in all aspects Greg Bolan.
Frank had four sons, they all took up the brush, all still in the sign trade in one way or another. The eldest son Moyle Bolan Senior had 3 sons Greg, Brett and Shane and started Ace High Signs in the early 1970's. Greg and Brett joined their father and did their time and still work together today.
The third brother Shane did a neon glass bending apprenticeship with Barton Neon and worked along side with Jimmy Arnold, Norm Barton and Choi. All great and well respected Neon Men.
Greg and Brett started Bolan signs in the 80's. Brett had two sons Moyle and Michael; they did their apprenticeships with their father and uncle and have also experienced working in other sign shops.
The new fourth generation signwriters/makers are carrying on the sign tradition and now have started Signkiosk.com. With Uncle and father the two boys have a strong future in Sign Industry and the Bolan legacy lives on.
PC: When was Signkiosk established?
SK: Signkiosk.com Pty Ltd was established nearly 3 years ago and consist of 4 staff members: Greg Bolan (Designer), Brett Bolan (General Manager), Moyle Bolan (Sign Fabricator) and Michael Bolan (Director). The close knit family team have all been involved with Signkiosk.com Pty Ltd since it’s inception.
PC: What type of signage do you offer?
SK: Our vast knowledge and experience allows us to cover all aspects of sign making & installations in all locations. From general signs, digital printing, vinyl cutting, metal, wood & acrylic signs to light boxes, fabricated illuminated signs, vehicles, neon, engraving and CNC routing. We are also one of the few companies to be official Liquid Metal applicators.
PC: Why did you decide to purchase the EPSON GS6000?
SK: Greg Bolan has been involved in large format printing for years and he has been following the development of this printer since it was first rumored a couple of years ago. We already knew the benefits of using multi-colour inksets based on our experiences with our other solvent and aqueous printers, some of which we converted ourselves and made our own profiles. When the Epson was released, we knew we had to have it.
PC: What other technologies did you look at? i.e. solvent, UV, LED etc?
SK: We looked all other printing technologies to date, but the Epson GS6000 best fitted our criteria for the highest resolution and 8 colour printing offering the extended colour gamut that our customers demand.
PC: What were your expectations of the GS6000 prior to purchase?
SK: Being an Epson, we expected it to perform, but it has exceeded our expectations with ease of use, resolution and zero banding issues (the Epson Microweave technology is amazing)! Pantone colour matching from the Ergosoft PosterPrint RIP is very accurate and we have produced exceptional backlit images with two or even three ink layers without any bleeding or banding. We must admit, we were at first skeptical, but the Epson has really performed.
PC: Have your impressions changed since the arrival of printer?
SK: Typically, you either get speed or quality from a digital printer; the Epson GS6000 gives us both. It’s actually performing even better than expected, so good in fact that it will replace our two other solvent printers and most likely the 12 colour printer we reserved for producing our highest quality backlit (we’ve printed lots of backlit lately and haven’t used that printer since the day the Epson arrived!!).
We are very impressed with the maintenance issue - there is no issue. We’ve printed rolls and rolls of banner and vinyl since it was installed - no banding, no fade outs, no colour shifts through the print, no ‘zebra striping’, no dropouts, no drips, no blocked jets, not one. Greg loves the design of the material feed, vacuum and take-up reel - it tracks and feeds perfectly.
PC: Why did you choose to work with Positive Camtec?
SK: Positive Camtec have a reputation in the industry as a solid, honest, no-nonsense company with exceptional customer and back up services. We have been associated with Positive Camtec for over 20 years back when we bought our first signmaking software from them, so naturally we knew they would look after us.
PC: How do you feel currently about the pre sale, sale, delivery and the machine?
SK: Adriano from Positive Camtec was very knowledgeable and very helpful on the presale and sale of the printer. He answered all the hard questions we put to him, no jargon or company rhetoric - just straight honest answers.
The delivery and installation went flawlessly (even though we had to use a crane to put it through our second story window where our printing department is.) Greg Bolan, our designer who runs our printers, was very impressed with Scott Donkin, the colour guru at Positive Camtec. Scott’s knowledge of colour and his ability to explain even the most technical issues in an easy to grasp fashion had Michael Bolan (who hasn’t used a large format printer - as he left all that, and the hassle that goes with it, to the more experienced Greg Bolan) outputting fantastic prints from the Ergosoft PosterPrint RIP to the Epson GS6000 on his first day.
PC: What difference has it made / do you project it will make to your production?
It has streamlined production in that we’re using the one rip with the one printer to produce our work, instead of the multiple rips, profiles, printers and file format nuances. We are finally able to really replace cut vinyl work with prints from the Epson. We simply couldn’t match corporate colours and achieve that “solid vinyl look” without “dither” on our other solvent printers (even with the addition of Orange and Green ink and our custom profiles). The Epson achieves it with ease! This in itself is a great boon to production. Yesterday we printed fourteen 2.2m x 1.5m banners, then switched material and printed the finest of fashion photography advertising on backlit, it’s amazing.
PC: Do you feel that having the Epson GS6000 will help to open new markets? If so, which ones?
SK: It will bring in more work due to the fact that you can achieve quality suitable for fine art and photo studio’s that once before was only in the realm of aqueous based printers. The Epson GS6000 though will do it much more economically. We used to print high-end images on our 12 colour machine, which costs a fortune in ink, media and maintenance time...all that’s changed!
Face it, no solvent printer could ever produce an image like a dye based aqueous printer, but the Epson GS6000 can and does.
PC: How you found the support and service at Positive Camtec so far?
SK: They have been exceptionally helpful, every inch of the way, in every aspect. Positive Camtec are a top team with an abundance of knowledge – the kind of knowledge that you can only gain from experience. All questions are answered, never shrugged off and they’re nice guys too!
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