Since our company’s founding in February 2000, we’ve watched Portland grow from a smaller city to the 26^th largest in the United States. As is the case with many highly populated cities, Portland has become home to an increasing number of graffiti artists. While we’re obviously big fans of original artwork at Infinity Images, we’re less enthusiastic about unsolicited spray paint additions to our clients’ outdoor graphics. Our solution? Applying an anti-graffiti film to exterior printed graphics!

HOW IT WORKS 

We stock two different anti-graffiti films: a premium option and a budget option. Both products are permanent, clear, feature a non-reflective matte coating, and can be applied to any printed material. If a street artist tries to tag your protected graphic, the anti-graffiti film will prevent the spray paint (or permanent marker) from seeping into the material. If someone tries to spray the premium film, the paint will quite literally bead and then begin to drip down (depicted in the video below), leaving a temporary faded color distortion. Please be sure to let the paint fully dry, and only then wipe it off with a microfiber towel. No cleaning solvents are required but isopropyl alcohol will help. Once wiped, there will no longer be a faded color distortion. Both products are also UV-resistant and will last a minimum of three years.

The difference between the premium and budget options is conformability. The budget film is a great solution for flat surfaces including windows, sheetrock walls, metal signs, trash cans, and more. The premium product, on the other hand, is conformable to additional surfaces like brick, concrete, and wood.

APPLICATIONS

As indicated above, an anti-graffiti film can be applied to any printed material that will live outdoors. While the most common applications for our clients are to protect retail window graphics and outdoor signage, they’re also a great fit for printed advertisements in transit hubs (bus stops, train stations, airports, car parks, parking deck elevators, and other mass transit), school grounds, waiting rooms, restrooms, and shopping malls.

The film can also be applied directly to a non-printed substrate – like a plain brick wall – if you’d like to protect a surface that doesn’t have a printed graphic. However, we would like to reiterate that this film is permanent. If there is any chance you’ll want to remove it in the future, we highly recommend that you not add it directly to a bare substrate. We’d also like to clarify that it is not necessary to apply an anti-graffiti film on top of plain glass (like a storefront or apartment building window without a graphic). If a graffiti artist vandalizes your window, a utility blade and isopropyl alcohol will be enough to scrape the paint off. Finally, these anti-graffiti films are not UL-listed, so this is not a safe product to apply to floor graphics.

BIG IDEAS. NO LIMITS.™ (EXCEPT FOR VANDALISM)

To illustrate the effectiveness of utilizing an anti-graffiti film, our installation team applied a vinyl brick-patterned graphic to the side of our concrete facility and covered the bottom third with the premium product. Then, one of our crew members did their worst. As you’ll see, while our artist had big ideas, the anti-graffiti film left our aspiring Michelangelo less than satisfied. If we’re speaking your language, reach out to get your next (protected) outdoor graphics project started! Let’s leave the creative expression to the graphic designers. 😉

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